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This wood is for the first batch of beading toolboxes. I& #39;m thinking of keeping a thread going to show the building process. Is anyone interested in following that?
Here& #39;s a look at my humble shop. It& #39;s small, unheated, and poorly lit. I& #39;m happy to have it. Today I& #39;m just cleaning and organizing.
Another thing I& #39;m doing today is shopping. I& #39;ve mentioned recent hand/wrist problems before. So I& #39;m doing some tool upgrades, like blade and bit replacements, to get cleaner cuts so I won& #39;t have to do as much hand tool work or sanding to fix up machine marks.
I actually have a whole extra large size walnut box already built, but the router bit I used to cut the round grooves is not the best quality and it left a lot of burn marks. So I& #39;m getting a better bit. It& #39;s worth spending more on a good router bit if you& #39;ll use it a lot.
So that box will sit unfinished until I get the motivation to sand out the burn marks. 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Unerfreutes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Unerfreutes Gesicht"> Or I& #39;ll just leave them and keep that one for myself.
Ugly ass burn marks in question https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Grinsendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grinsendes Gesicht">
" title="Ugly ass burn marks in question https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="Grinsendes Gesicht" aria-label="Emoji: Grinsendes Gesicht">" class="img-responsive" style="max-width:100%;"/>
New saw! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen" aria-label="Emoji: LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen"> I& #39;ve had my eye on this for a while. Big fan of Japanese hand saws. Also, Silky Woodboy is the best possible name for a saw.
I& #39;ve had my eye on this for a while. Big fan of Japanese hand saws. Also, Silky Woodboy is the best possible name for a saw." title="New saw! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen" aria-label="Emoji: LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen"> I& #39;ve had my eye on this for a while. Big fan of Japanese hand saws. Also, Silky Woodboy is the best possible name for a saw.">
I& #39;ve had my eye on this for a while. Big fan of Japanese hand saws. Also, Silky Woodboy is the best possible name for a saw." title="New saw! https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="đ" title="LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen" aria-label="Emoji: LĂ€chelndes Gesicht mit herzförmigen Augen"> I& #39;ve had my eye on this for a while. Big fan of Japanese hand saws. Also, Silky Woodboy is the best possible name for a saw.">
Damn, she is a silky woodboy
Resawing some walnut, which means I& #39;m cutting it through the thickness. Cutting can release internal tensions in the wood, making it warp, so I& #39;ll let it sit for a couple days before I mill it to final thicknesses.
I have most of the pieces cut. I& #39;m making 1 extra in each type of wood in case I ruin one.
A lil knot in someone& #39;s lid. The wood can shimmer like that in areas where the grain changes direction. Pretty, but also a pain in the ass because it means you can& #39;t avoid cutting against the grain. This one turned out not to be a problem though.
The rest of it involves a lot of router work, which is noisy
The tool compartments are all cut out with a router. These jigs hold the workpiece and a template. Each box size uses 4 different templates and 3 router bits.
I change a router bit, do all the cuts in all the pieces, then change to the next bit. But sometimes there are different depths with the same bit, and I don& #39;t want to change out the workpiece (i.e. each box) with every depth change. 1/2
So my solution to that is I have little blocks of mdf that are the depth of each cut. I set the bit so it& #39;s touching the surface of the wood, put the block in the depth stop, and that& #39;s my depth setting. It& #39;s quick and accurate.
I don& #39;t think anyone is following me for woodworking tips, but if anyone is, https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="âïž" title="Zeigefinger nach oben" aria-label="Emoji: Zeigefinger nach oben">there& #39;s a good one
The hole as it& #39;s being cut is a closed space, so it gets full of shavings/dust as I& #39;m cutting. So I cut a bit, vacuum it out, cut more, vacuum again, cut again, etc.
Dust getting trapped in there isn& #39;t as much of a problem for broader cuts, like the scissor compartment. The dust has room to fly out. I still increase the depth gradually, but I can do that without stopping to vacuum. I& #39;ll finish the narrower part of this with a smaller bit.
When I was deciding how to price these, I was trying to figure out how much time I spend on each box and it& #39;s impossible.
Making the jigs and templates took a long time. But I& #39;m using them for a bunch of boxes, so dividing that time per box depends on how many boxes I ultimately make with those jigs.
The design time too - it& #39;s a lot for one box, less if I use it for a bunch of boxes
Then when I& #39;m making a batch of boxes, there are a lot of tool adjustments. For every cut I set up a machine, test it, adjust it, test again, until it& #39;s right. But I do that once for the whole batch, so time per box depends how many boxes I& #39;m doing at a time.
So I didn& #39;t try too hard to figure out the exact time involved, I just picked a price that felt like enough compensation for my work, and made it flexible for people who can& #39;t pay that much.
Melting down some wax for thread conditioner. Pure beeswax made in Alberta.
I& #39;ve mentioned before, the wax has a smell. I& #39;ll make sure everyone& #39;s ok with that before I send their boxes out. https://twitter.com/BeadSpiller/status/1311405124401549312?s=19">https://twitter.com/BeadSpill...
