How To Make a Wooden Watch Box (Walnut and Maple)

hey guys in this video i'm gonna show you how i made this watch box the overall dimensions are seven and a half by fourteen and a half inches with enough room for up to eight watches a while back someone bought a catch-all tray from my etsy and they recently reached out asking if i could make them a matching watch box so of course i said yes luckily i had some walnut with some really nice grain on it so i used that to make this box so hang out for a bit and let's get into this build i started by pulling some four quarter walnut from the rack i took it to the miter station and cut it to roughly 24 inches then resold it at the bandsaw since i'm making the widths 3 8 of an inch thick off camera i ran the pieces through my planer and drum center to get the thickness i needed at the table saw i ripped the pieces to 4 inches which will be my final height i used a digital angle gauge to set my blade to 45 degrees this box will have mitered corners and will be reinforced with splines if you want the grain to continue around the corners make sure to keep track of which side you're cutting the miters i'm using 3 16 of an inch thick maple plywood for my lid and bottom i adjusted my blade to cut the grooves on all the panels i set my fence to a quarter inch for my first pass and cut along all the long edges [Music] [Music] then i adjusted my fence slightly to get the correct thickness for my ply and tested it to make sure it moves freely then i ran the rest of the pieces through to add some profile to the lid i cut a small chamfer to the inside part of the box here you can see that detail now i'll cut the lid and bottom panels make sure to dry fit your pieces before gluing them [Music] i forget who i saw using this tape method but it's a great way to keep your miters nice and tight i like using titebond 3 since it gives you that extra working time to get the corners dialed in the plywood panels won't expand and contract that much but it's good practice to let them float in the grooves and not add any glue the tape does a good job holding the pieces together just make sure your corners are squared [Music] as that dries i move on to the splines i'll be gluing to the box i cut a couple strips just over an eighth of an inch since that's the thickness of the blade i'll be using to cut the slots i run them through my drum sander till i get the right thickness don't make them too tight you want some space for the glue so make them just snug enough then i take them over to the bandsaw to cut the splines once the glue has dried you can cut the slots for the splines i adjust the stop on my spline jig so i can cut all the outer slots first this is definitely one of my favorite steps i'll have a link to my video showing how i made this simple spline jig make sure you go check that out once you've cut all the outer slots you can adjust your stop to cut the center slots you can cut as many slots as you want but i went with three for each corner i just made sure they were evenly spaced and i think three is plenty strong now i begin gluing the splines i like to slide them back and forth a little to really spread the glue but also so it sits flat in the groove do okay i lied this part is really fun too i hold the blade flat so it doesn't cut into the panels i use a block plane to make them as flush as possible i quickly realized it would make my life a lot easier to remove all the dried glue then i went back with the block plane just be careful not to cut into the panels you've come a long way at this point i started sanding with one of those foam sanding blocks but quickly brought out the big gun now we're ready to cut the lid the way i go about this is i cut one long side and both short sides first then i use two strips to wedge in the open slots to keep the lid from pinching the blade and if that happened it would for sure ruin your lid now i don't know about you but i've never gotten a completely flat cut so i sand down the pieces so they sit nicely okay now i'm ready to install the hardware i made sure to use some paste wax on all the screws so i didn't split the wood [Music] i also installed a lid support hinge which i'll link in the description the final piece is the grid or dividers that will go inside the box i ripped two and a half inch strips which will be my total height and then i cut them to size this box will hold eight watches so i'll need one long strip and three dividers this grid will have cross lap joints so i set my blade to just over one and a quarter i make two passes to get the right fit i don't have a jig for this so i just crept up to the line till i got a nice fit this went a little slower than i thought but in the end i got a pretty nice fit for the finish i'm using od's oil i've heard so many great things about it and i wanted to give it a shot applying it was easy although you always want to pay attention to the corners you don't want to miss a spot [Music] off camera i buffed it off after 45 minutes or so i'm gonna continue using and testing out this odes oil but so far i'm a fan this is where it all comes together i reinstall the hardware and pray that none of the screws strip the wood i'll leave a link in the description to all the hardware i use just in case you want to check it out and here it is polished and finished i hope you like this build if you did please consider subscribing if you have any questions drop them in the comments also click the notification bell so you're alerted when i put out new videos i hope you enjoy the rest of your day and i'll catch you on the next one you

Channel: Wood Grain Junkie

Views: 28,659

Rating: 4.9191375 out of 5

Keywords: Watch Box, wood watch box, diy watch box, Spline Jig, Mitered Boxes, Woodworking Jigs, How To, How To Video, Table Saw Jig, Tutorial, DIY, Do It Yourself, Making Boxes, Woodworking, Woodworking Project, Box Spline, Box Spline Jig, Miter Joint, Simple Spline Jig, Woodshop, Woodworker, Miter Spline Jig, Mitered Spline Jig

Id: 1Xe6B9dhzZA

Length: 14min 27sec (867 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 27 2020