How many of you knew that Sunday was National Wife Appreciation Day? I didn't until my wife so delicately brought it to my attention. I'm recovering nicely from my wounds thank you. :)
As a late gift I made this box for my wife. Obviously the lid design was not done on my scroll saw. I used my new laser engraver/cutter to do the engraving. (More on that later). I did do all the cuts on the scroll saw.
To make the project into a pattern for the blog I designed an alternate lid decoration and included it in the pattern. You can see that in the picture below.
I wanted to make this into a pattern because I used a different technique to keep the lid on. I used four small corner dowels. The dowel go through the lid and into layer 1 of the box. The box is made up of the lid and four layers.
This actually turned into a challenging project because of the dowels. They are 1/4" diameter dowels but you can't just drill 1/4" holes in the box. The dowels will fit too loose and they won't easily line up with the box when you install the lid. The details of how I did this are in the pattern.
Note that the dowels are rounded over to make the lid easier to install. The holes in layer 1 are larger than the dowels by a couple of drill bits larger, also for an easier fit. It's a multi step process. It's not the easiest technique but I like the way it looks so it was worth the extra effort. You have to be accurate on this project.
The humming bird decoration was added so I could make this a blog pattern.
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Laser Talk: Close you ears if you think laser are cheating.
My K40 style laser. In a messy room.
There are a significant number of readers of my blog who use lasers with my patterns. The laser community continues to grow and the machine are getting a little cheaper. The maker movement has exploded in the last few years and I think that is fantastic. CNC, Laser and 3D printing are all fun technologies and will continue to improve.
I recently added a laser engraver to my workshop. Actually it's in my computer room with my 3D printer. The shop is too dusty for a Laser. I have wanted a laser engraver for a long time but the expense was just too high.
I went out on a limb and ordered what is known in the community as a K40. These are very inexpensive laser engraver/cutters manufactured and imported from China. They don't have great reputations but I researched enough to know that many hobbyist were getting decent results with them. A respected brand hobby laser is around $3.000 and up. The K40 style laser is $450.
I have now had the machine for a week and I am pretty impressed with what it can do. I spent the week adding mods and testing all kinds of materials. Wood, glass, plastic and even paper and rock all engrave/cut well.
If the interest is there I will do some videos of my