Building an Asian Inspired Keepsake Box

Design and Fabrication

In this episode, I build a custom asian inspired keepsake box. The Keepsake box sides are made from bamboo, and the top and legs are cherry.

If you are into woodworking and want to make this box, I do have “How To Plans” available for this project.

Summary

Building Japanese-Inspired Keepsake Boxes

Brian discussed the process of building 30 boxes using various tools and materials. He started by cutting and shaping the legs from 8/4 Cherry, using a joiner to square up two edges. He then used a domino to cut mortises in the legs and a spindle sander to refine the shape. He used bamboo flooring for the sides of the boxes, carefully cutting and assembling each box from one board to minimize color variation. He used a miter key box, making jig to cut small dados on all the legs. The glue-up used epoxy instead of regular wood glue due to the difficulty of bonding with the resin in the bamboo flooring. Rubber bands were used as clamps, and blue tape was used to prevent epoxy from getting on the prefinished parts of the flooring.

Woodworking Project: Bevel, Panel, and Finishing Techniques

Brian discussed his woodworking project, focusing on the decorative bevel on the lid and using a shop made raised panel. He emphasized the importance of cutting with the grain to avoid tear out of wood and shared his method of using a dado stack to cut the rabbit on the bottom of the lid. Brian also detailed the finishing process, using satin lacquer and walnut for the handle. He demonstrated how he used a bandsaw and router table to shape the handle and how he set up an L. Stop for drilling holes in the lids. Finally, he shared his method of creating a zero clearance throat plate to prevent small pieces from falling through and how he glued everything together to complete the project.