Making a small box

[Tom.]

Whats teh best way of making these corners not rounded, but nice and smooth (billiard ball smooth), so that you can hardly feel any grain?

I plan to fix the sides together with dowels and glue, would this be ok? The wood is solid english oak.

 

[big-all]

lol tom

when i first looked at it i thought gawd bless him he has done his best [thinking you had already joined it together

yes dowels are perfect fir the job do you have a dowel jig!!!!!!!!!

a bit of fine cabinet paper with the grain to finnish

and if you use any water based products its likely to raise the grain again so a fine sand after the first coat

 

[Freddie]

Tom you arent a member of the IRA are you

When you have sanded them down with the finest sand paper, after you have stained it, put a coaot of diluted varnish on the corners and after a couple of days you can rub the corners down with wire wool and then repeat untill the grain rises no more.

 

[masona]

If you don't want to use dowels, you can use 25mm panel and nail it into the side wood (not the end grain) then cut the panel head off with a pincher, glue and bang it together.

 

[nstreet]

Whats teh best way of making these corners not rounded

Use either a router with a cove bit, a band saw if you have one or a belt sander.

 

[Tom.]

Thanks, personally I'd leave them out of the box but there are several 400VDC rails for the valves, and I have 2 cats.......

I plan to make the boxes really nice and smooth, I'll probably oil them once finished. I've not decided yet on a glass top, or a chromed metal top (with the valves poking through).

 

[Tom.]

Well I knocked one together today with dowels. The edges are, as you'd imagine, a bit rough, so they need a good old-fashioned sanding.

If I clamped each corner in my bench, and got a large sheet of coarse sandpaper, would that be the quickest way to soften those corners up? I don't really want to hire a belt sander, I'm doing this on a budget (the amps cost me enough!)

 

[big-all]

ok get a length of sand paper attach to a block of wood [sanding block] sand with the grain
rock the block in an arc on an opposite curve to the work the heel of the block on the verticle[assuming its verticle]tipping the block forward and pulling back so the motion of the sanding block is in an arc that would look like a roller on top of another roller gives a more even curve
stop short of face edges unless you have to in other words when your just curving the corners dont touch any flat edges untill the final fine sanding to save extra work

clear as mud eeehhh

 

[breezer]

, and I have 2 cats.......

(with the valves poking through).

may i suggest you make a deeper box with vents in it.

obviously it will get warm, and as you have 2 cats they will at some time want to sit on it, valves poking through may get damaged, and as you have said it is an expensive piece of kit you have there.

nice shallow box, with valves sticking out
or nice deep box no valves sticking out

i know what i would do

 

[Tom.]

Nah, the cats would have to be daft to sit on those boxes, the valves get too hot to touch. They'll sniff around them for a minute or two, and then decide that the roaring log fire is nicer

Besides, whats the point of having those lovely glowing valves locked up out of sight

 

[Tom.]

clear as mud eeehhh

Thats almost exactly what I had in mind, I think I'll begin though with a sheet of sandpaper, and do a 'towel drying your back' motion over the corner - will be faster for the first few minutes, until I get a slight curve there.

 

[big-all]

ok tom avoid touching the flat areas if yo dont have to as any scratches will require finer and finer paper to remove scratches

oooohh another point [not a critisism]you could have got a mitre saw for less than 20 sqid that would have aleviated this problem

also take the dust and mix with wood glue to make a filler for the rebates that will leave a gap at your end grain [make more than you think you need as the wood will shrink and store in a small air tight container

 

[nstreet]

ok tom avoid touching the flat areas if yo dont have to as any scratches will require finer and finer paper to remove scratches

oooohh another point [not a critisism]you could have got a mitre saw for less than 20 sqid that would have aleviated this problem

You could always make one from scraps of wood for future use. Just make a U shape from the scraps, make a cut at 90 degrees, and two at 45. These are from looking above \|/. Bobs your uncle a basic mitre gauge.

 

[Tom.]

Right, I've done a bit of sanding and drilling now, here:

Don't all laugh - I'm actually a TV cameraman, I'm entirely self-taught when it comes to DIY (apart from this place that is).

When its clamped and glued, the gaps will vanish, and the dowels won't be visible. Obviously the top of the front bit of wood needs levellling slightly, but I'll do that once its glued together.

Question is, what paper do I use now to finish that grain off? When I stain it, I don't really want the grain to be darker than the rest of the wood - how do I do that?

I have an orbital sander which I'll use to smooth everything off, it has 240g/k discs - will this be good enough for a final finish? I also have some wire wool.

 

[2scoops0406]

I'm not sure what Norm would say . Probably too late now, but I reckon you'd have been better off using a mitre saw, then rounding the edges off. Best of luck.