This was my first box project, built several years before I started the Swenson Woodshop website and YouTube channel. It was also my first project using veneers, shop sawn veneers to be specific. The inspiration for this project came from watching the Fine Woodworking video series “Veneered Boxes with a Twist” by Adrian Ferrazzutti. I think I’ve watched that video series a dozen times by now, and I still enjoy, and recommend it for anyone interested in building high end veneered boxes.
So why use veneers instead of solid wood? I remember in my youth equating veneers with cheap, inferior commercial construction, not the stuff of fine woodworking. Was I wrong?
Veneers certainly offer woodworkers a means to reduce material costs, but more importantly, is the issue of sustainability. Veneers provide an opportunity to use woods that are in short supply, and would be prohibitively expensive to use in a solid wood form. They also provide an opportunity to explore designs and patterns that would be difficult, if not impossible, to build using solid wood. Looking at this box I constructed, just think about the problems you would encounter trying to bind the mitered top with ebony edging, and provide for the inevitable expansion and contraction of solid wood. Those tightly mitered ebony corners would burst open up within the first 6 months!
This box was constructed using 5/64-inch thick shop sawn veneers, compared to the 1/42-inch of most commercial veneers. Generally, the expansion and contraction movement forces in veneers thinner than 1/8-inch are insufficient to break the bond strength of most modern-day adhesives, whereas the movement forces in veneers thicker than 1/8-inch will eventually break loose, behaving just like solid wood.
The project supplies for this build were:
- Zebrawood – exterior veneer / vendor – Bell Forest Products
- Bubinga – interior veneer / vendor – Bell Forest Products
- Inlay Lines – filleti strips / vendor – Woodcraft Supply
- Baltic Birch – substrate
- Gabon Ebony – edge binding / vendor – Woodworkers Source
- Quadrant Hinges / vendor – Brusso Hardware
- Viola Lockset / vendor – Lee Valley
My father was visiting for our annual shop week, so some of the pictures reflect the quantities that were needed to build two boxes.
I resawed the Zebrawood and Bubinga into approx. 1/8-inch thick veneers, and then thickness sanded them to 5/64-inch using my drum sander. I don’t have a picture of the Zebrawood veneers, but I took one of the Bubinga. Beautiful wood, and the red color really pops when a finish is applied! I just love saying Ba-Bing-Ga!
I used a piece of gum tape, acting as a hinge along the long side, to locate and attached each veneer to the Baltic birch substrate. I then applied yellow PVA glue to the substrate and veneer, and placed each assembly in a plastic bag, sandwiched between a pair of MDF platens. These packages then went into the vacuum press for approximately 4 hours.
With the side panels veneered, it was time to work on the top and bottom panels. The Bubinga veneers were not wide enough as cut, to cover the full width of the top or bottom panels, so we edge glued two pieces of veneer together. My dad can be seen in this photo applying glue along the seam of two pieces of Bubinga, held together by a blue tape hinge. When the veneer was laid flat, the tape held the seam tightly together while the glue dried. An MDF platen laid on top of the veneer, was enough pressure to ensure that the seam didn’t open up while drying.
With the Zebrawood and Bubinga seam glued into wider veneers, the zebra veneer was trimmed and squared up for the center veneer of the top panel. This center veneer was then banded with a filleti strip. The 1/32-inch thick filleti strip was not as thick as the 5/64-inch thick zebra veneer, so a poplar backing was glued to each fillet strip to increase the thickness to 5/64-inch.
The filleti strips were then mitered to fit the perimeter of the Zebra center veneer, and another strip of Zebra veneer was mitered to fit the perimeter of the filleti. The veneers were then gum taped tightly together, (Top: zebra/filleti exterior, Bubinga interior. Bottom: Bubinga interior, Bubinga exterior bottom) and bonded to a Baltic birch substrate using yellow PVA glue in the same manner that the sides were vacuum pressed (no photo available).
With all the parts veneered, a rabbet was cut in the side pieces for the top and bottom panels, and again on one end of each side piece to form a rabbet joint. The rabbets were cut deep enough that each panel would sit proud of the adjoining panel(s) by the thickness of the exterior veneer face (see Photo 11).
The parts were dry fitted, and adjustments made to fit the top and bottom panels, and I prefinished all the interior surfaces with a coat of shellac, followed by several coats of lacquer. Then it was time for the glue up.
For this build, the top, bottom, and side panels were all glued together at the same time, to form a sealed box, that I subsequently sawed open to separate the lid from the body. But before I glued the bottom panel in place, I branded it with my makers mark. Whenever possible I brand my work before I glue the branded part in place, just in case I screw it up. Yes, I have screwed up the branding and gotten a double image that makes me think I’m wearing the wrong pair of glasses.
The next step was to cut a ¼-inch square rabbet in the vertical edges at each corner for the Ebony banding. The vertical banding was glued, and trimmed flush with the exterior surfaces, prior to cutting the horizontal edge rabbets. You want to cut the horizontal rabbets after the vertical banding is installed, so the horizontal rabbet cut trims the vertical banding to the precise length needed to butt flush with the horizontal bandings. Confusing? Look at Photo 15 and you can figure out what I’m trying to say in way too many words. The photo at the left shows a vertical edge with the ¼-inch square rabbet cut. The horizontal rabbets have not been cut yet.
Photo 12 – ¼-inch square rabbet cut
The next step, was to cut the Ebony strips for the banding. Gabon Ebony comes coated with wax to control the drying process, so I had to scrap, and run the board through my jointer, to remove the wax and get a straight edge prior to ripping on the bandsaw. These strips need to be slightly oversized from the ¼-inch square rabbet, so there is some material available to trim them flush to the exterior surfaces. I think I cut these about 1/32-inch oversize, and flush trimmed them to the sides of the box after gluing, using a block plane and cabinet scraper (sorry no photos).
Photo 13 – ¼-inch Ebony strips
The Ebony strips were carefully fitted using a rabbet plane to adjust the rabbets as needed. The name of the game here was NO hairline gaps; nothing short of perfection would be acceptable. The miters on the ends of the Ebony strips were rough cut on the miter saw with a backing block to prevent chipping, and then fine-tuned to fit using a shooting plane. Once the Ebony strip was fitted, it was glued and held in place using blue tape under tight tension.
I’m obviously missing some key photos, because the next photo jumps to the box just before fitting the hardware, and applying the finish. Somewhere there are photos of cutting the box lid free of the body using the table saw, and placing spacers in the saw kerf to prevent the two halves (it’s really more like 1/3 & 2/3) from pinching the blade as I sawed around the box to separate the lid. There was also the process of leveling both halves using a block plane, and carefully fitting Ebony strips on the exposed substrate edges. But I’m certain you can visualize those steps, heck I wonder if anyone will actually read all this verbose yammering, or just flipped through looking at the pretty pictures.
Anyhow, this is the last photo I can find of the build. Looking back at Photo 2 you can see I installed a full mortise lock, and quadrant hinges. The process for both of those involved carefully routing a recess in the Ebony edging for the lock set and hinges to sit flush in, and then drilling/chiseling mortises for the lock set, and the hinge support arms. The interior surfaces were prefinished prior to the glue up as I mentioned earlier, with a coat of shellac, followed by several coats of lacquer. The exterior got several coats of CrystaLac grain filler, before shellac and lacquer. I wanted a glass smooth surface, and Zebrawood has a rather coarse texture, so it took a few coats of the grain filler to get the surface I wanted. The finishing process took a while. Although the grain filler, shellac, and lacquer, are all quick drying products, each had to dry about 6 hours before sanding and recoating, and then about 72 hours between each new finishing product. I’ve heard it said that the finishing work can take just as long as the construction work, if you want it done right.
I’m happy with the way the box turned out. My dad made a slightly different version of the top design for himself; he really liked that Bubinga. Unfortunately, he never got around to finishing that box before he went home; I think we spent too much time at Starbucks, and not enough in the shop.
Photo 17 – Dad and me with his unfinished box before he headed home from our shop week.
Damn, I wish I still looked that young!
I really appreciated how thorough you are in your description of your process. It really does make me think that it WOULD be possible for me to do this. I also enjoy your writing style and “YES” I did read all the article. Keep doing this! you’re inspiring me.