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I seem to go through phases where I have this need to re-organize my stuff and it's often triggered by an event. Recently I lost the little mounting foot that goes in the head of my small Gorilla Tripod. Oh sure you can buy new ones, and have them shipped to you but most of the ones I saw, with shipping, are about the same price a buying a whole new tripod! Eventually (2 months later) I have found the missing foot and all is well again, but it made me realize I have camera and video gear in at least 3 different places and it's time to get it all in one place ... the workshop where it is being used.
The real problem with all these bits and pieces is that they are currently being stored in little plastic rectangular trays, which work ok, but they take up a lot of shelf space because you can't store something above them like you can with a little cabinet with drawers. And that was my motivation.
I had some other ideas along the way, like having something with a Dutch Door or half door so that if you had something lying in front of the little cabinet, you could still open the door without knocking something on to the floor. I also liked ....
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Some things in woodworking are just not that exciting and cutting backs and bottoms probably falls quite nicely in that category. So why am I even covering it, because I have had a number of emails and comments from subscribers on the topic and I know if a few people comment on something, there are probably hundreds who also have questions but just don't ask the questions.
So, cutting backs on cabinets or bottoms for boxes is really exactly the same thing. All you are doing is cutting rabbet around insides of the cabinet carcass to allow for the inserting of a back. The back could be plywood, or it could be a series of boards. Either way, the best way of putting these backs on is in such a way that the back of the back - is flush with the back of the carcass or it can even be inset a bit more, but definitely not sticking out from the back of the cabinet of box.
Back in the day when I first learned serious woodworking, we always cut the backs using a dado blade on the table saw. That's just the way things were done then. There wood routers, but they were uncommon, had very few bits and were really still in their infancy, so weren't even considered for this function back then ....
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Now everyone has the pleasure of having "family heirloms" that can be passed down in families ... sometimes you have to start somewhere with something that can be passed down, which is precisely what this Arrowhead Picture Frame project was to accomplish. Many of the arrowheads in this collection were broken, probably during their making. I'm sure with the rudimentary tools that were used in the making of flint arrowheads, a good portion were damaged or broken during their making.
The few, more-less complete arrowheads that survived have been granted a special picture frame that can be handed down family to family over the course of time and will become a coveted collection over time.
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It's always fun making new things and seeing how they turn out, and if you get the chance to make something a second or third time, or even more, each version gets better and better because you learn quicker ways or building and you learn how to master the finer details too. I saw this little jewelry box somewhere and the design stuck in my brain as something I would like to build some day ... and someday has come.
I liked that it had substance, but also that it hand some curves to the design. It's not just a square, flat sided box, and it's nice to vary things once in a while. I started off with some rough sawn Alder and planed it down to 1-1/8". Since I had no plans, I just guessed at a size that I felt would look good.
The sides would be joined edge grain to edge grain, which is not the best way to hold wood together but by adding splines to the corners, the box would be very strong. The one thing I knew from making picture frames with 45 degree corners is that each of the opposite sides needs to be identical in length ... so the left and right sides need to be exactly the same length AFTER the 45 degree cut is made and the front and back sides also need to be identical in length. If they are not ....