This Waney-Edged Box combines some classic box building techniques with an interesting, rustic looking waney wood top.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure — or so the old saying goes. In the case of the small piece of wood that was used on the top of this little box, that saying was spot-on. I found a couple of pieces of waney-edged bubinga in the burn pile at work, and I saved them from a sad and fiery fate.
Waney wood boards have rough, uneven edges that still have bark and natural fibers, they are often scrapped or cut down, but can add a unique look to a project.
In most cases, a woodworker selects specific wood to suit what he or she is building. In this case, I decided to build myself a small box to show off the piece of wood. Its uneven natural edge appealed to me — as did the coloration of its heart and sapwood. While a waney edge might not be everyone’s cup of tea, to me, the contrast between the clean lines of the box and legs and the uneven edge of the bubinga was very nice to look at.
Building the Box
To create the sides and ends of the box, simply rip the pieces to width on your miter or table saw.
The sides and ends of the box (pieces 1 and 2) were simply ripped to their proper width and then miter cut to length on my miter saw. My saw has the depth of cut necessary to make these cuts; you may need to set this up on your table saw. Speaking of the table saw, I moved over to mine to plow the grooves that would capture the bottom (piece 3). Go ahead and cut the bottom from 1/4″ plywood and you are ready to glue up the box pieces.
Once you have the ends and sides fitted and glued up, use band clamps to hold them together without danger of a piece slipping out of position.
Test-fit the pieces to be sure that your miters are tight and the bottom is properly sized. When you have done that, apply a thin coat of glue to the corner joints (no glue for the bottom!) and clamp it up until the glue cures. I prefer band clamps for this task.
While the rest of the box is curing, use your bandsaw to cut a gentle curve into one side of the legs.
While the glue is curing, set up a 1/2″ dado head in your table saw and make a shallow test cut in some scrap lumber. Surface some maple down so that its thickness fits perfectly into your test dado cut. Now you are ready to mill the legs (pieces 4). Strike a curved line on one of the pieces. Cut the curve on your band saw and sand it smooth to the line. Now use that completed leg to trace the curve onto the remaining leg blanks and repeat the process for each of them.
Finish rounding off the legs using a roundover bit on the router table, holding the piece in a clamp like this will prevent it from getting cut too far and protect your fingers.
I rounded over the curved edges of the legs using a roundover bit in my router table. Note that I used a screw clamp to hold the leg durning this operation. It would be too dangerous to try to hold the pieces with your hands.
For the Diagram and Materials List, click here to download the PDF
Once the legs were completely machined, I was ready to move on to forming the corner dadoes. The legs are housed in dadoes on the four corners of the box. I cut them using a sled that held the box at 45° to the dado head. I secured the sled to my table saw’s miter gauge with a couple of screws, and it worked like a charm.
Creating this table saw sled will help you get the best, most even cuts for the dadoes on the edges of your box.
I built the sled by gluing together four layers of 1/2″ plywood and trimming it into a 5″ x 16″ rectangle. Then I set my table saw blade to exactly 45° and bisected it across the 5″ dimension. I flipped one piece over, and the exposed bevels created two 45° faces. I clamped the bases between two long “fences,” gluing them in place. After adding a tall fence in back to clamp to the box, my sled was done.
Go ahead and cut the dadoes for the legs and glue them in place. Once again, the band clamp is a good choice here. When the glue cured, I cut out an opening for the drawer. With a hand saw, I carefully cut down 1″ (The cuts align with the inside face of the box ends.) Then I set up my router table with a straight bit and a couple of stops on the fence, and routed the drawer opening. It took a few passes, raising the router bit about 1/4″ for each pass.
