[Orson Carter]

These are some of my projects from the past two years.
1. Tasmanian Blackwood Table with Red Gum Chairs.
2. Birdseye Huon Pine and Red Gum box with finger joints
I have more photos if you want me to post them, or I'm happy to discuss the merits/failures of each.

Regards,

Orson

 

[TexasTimbers]

Orson you are quite accomplished for two years. I applaude your quest for excellence!

 

[Nathan]

Great stuff in all your posts. I like those chairs... you do great work.

 

[Travis]

Very nice work.

 

[formula462]

that's awesome,i wish i could make myself tackle such a big project

 

[Nancy Laird]

I LOVE the box!! Wow!

Nancy

 

[Orson Carter]

Hi everyone,

I've been out of circulation for a few weeks.
Thanks for the great comments regarding the box and table/chairs.
Nancy, I thought you might like to know about the box. I think its nice to know the history of pieces that people make.

I made that box because I had the timber and wanted to try some new tools and joining techniques. I had no real plans for it and it wasn't designed for any particular purpose other than to look good.

Shortly after I finished it, my wife told me that an Irish girl she worked with was leaving to return to Ireland to care for her father who has terminal cancer. She said that it would be to nice to give her a gift that reminded her of Australia. So I said, give her the box, its all Australian timbers and is it's a one off.

So I typed up a rundown on the timbers, where they are from and also how to care for it when she got home. Turns out she loves Red Gum and was ecstatic.

A few weeks later, my wife received an email saying that the box was such a hit with the girl's mother, that the girl gave it to her.
So, this humble little box that I made to play with some new techniques, has now ended up in Ireland and will become an heirloom. I have to say, that sort of blows my mind!

A very humbled Orson

 

[Uncle Ben]

Nice story to go with the box. I'm really hoping to build a humidor eventually when other projects are out of the way, and seeing such a nice-looking box with finger joints makes me think of using that joinery for it (before I was just going to miter all the edges). Since I already have a (bought) humidor, I might as well make mine look unique, just as yours does.

By the way, how did you attach your box bottom to the side casing?

 

[Orson Carter]

Hi Uncle Ben,

I have to say that I like finger joints in the right setting, they give a totally different feel to DT's.
I have two methods for attaching the base to the sides, depeding on size of box, thickness of timber and how lazy I feel.
The first isto use a 4 or 5mm slot cutter, such as you would use in a Biscuit joiner and just feed all the way through the sides. I then insert a piece of MDF ortimber, or pine to suit the slot. The problem with this method is that you can be left with small square holes at the joints of the box. Thes are usually small and can be filled with a mixture of fine sawdust obtained from sanding the box, mixed with glue such as Selleys Aquadhere.
The second method involves cutting the slots with a router (or Domino if you have one), stopping at the appropriate place on each side. If you use a place where you exit the cut in a trough you can go right through on these sides, the set a stop to match on the pins n the other sides. This way you end up with no holes.
Hope that makes sense.

Regards,

Orson