Box by Box

Box by Box
21 Projects for developing your woodworking skills
by Jim Stack

Hardcover, wire bound
235 x 290mm
143pp

Published by Popular Woodworking Books, Ohio USA

R.R.P.$44.90

ISBN 1-55870-774-3

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SKILLS PUBLISHING
HOME PAGE

clips n' things

old-pine box

what's cookin'?

box in a box

flipper

slider

crowning touch

why don't you write?

safely kept

As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 131

For a woodworker, specialising in the making of boxes offers many attractions. Perhaps the most important is that since most boxes are relatively small, you don't need a huge workshop to accommodate their production. Nor does a single box tie up workshop space and resources in the same way as a major cabinetmaking project.

Also, boxes are well favoured as gifts and if well made, usually find a ready market.

There is another aspect of box making, however; this is that many boxes lend themselves to being easily picked up and examined from any angle. You can count on any blemish, whether in the material or the making, being obvious to even the casual observer.

It is precisely this feature of boxes that attracts many woodworkers to making them - not simply because each box is a challenge in itself, but because making boxes is a microcosm of woodworking at large.

It is significant that the publishers have added this line to the front cover of the book: 21 projects for developing your woodworking skills.

The author worked in commercial cabinetmaking workshops for 16 years and ran his own furniture making business for more than five years before becoming Acquisitions Editor for the publisher of this book. Both his knowledge of woodworking and of books are immediately evident here.

The 21 projects are well presented, each with a photo of the finished item and a page of drawings followed by a comprehensively illustrated description.

Interestingly, the variety of boxes is extraordinarily wide. In many books of this kind, the individual projects reflect a sometimes intentional - though more often, unintentional - bias towards a particular type, style or design.

Here, the list includes basic boxes, a box with a lift out tray, a box with a hinged lid which is flush with the sides, one with a sliding lid, another which is bandsawn to a freeform shape, an ornate box with a carved lid, an oval box, a multi-layered round box, a chest of drawers box, a laptop box and even a box in the form of a mock safe.

The author has divided the projects into three groups: five for those with basic skills, 11 for those with intermediate skills and five for those with advanced skills.

He ends his book with a very readable and informative discussion on Finishing.

Box by Box offers an excellent opportunity to upgrade your woodworking skills using small projects that are unlikely to ever become tedious (but which could become addictive!)

Photos: Colour

Units of Measurement: Imperial & Metric

Contents

Basic
- clips n' things
- old-pine box
- what's cookin'?
- box in a box
- flipper

Intermediate
- slider
- crowning touch
- why don't you write?
- safely kept
- treasure this
- big top
- crazy 20
- almost in the round
- roundup
- watch out for the curves
- there's no point

Advanced
- lookin' good
- cutting-edge display
- little black box
- old-school laptop
- let's eat

is it finished yet?

Index

treasure this