Two things: I love wood with a story, and if you give me wood, you can almost always expect to get some of it back in a different form. One of Jeff’s customers requested Vertical Grain Douglas Fir (VGDF) for window parts, a species he hadn’t processed in the past. He gave me a few boards to play with and I decided to make him a piece that could sit on his desk as a representative sample of this new product.
A box is a common woodworking project to use a small amount of an interesting species, and to try out different joinery techniques. Box or finger joints have been around for a long time and make a really strong joint because of the large amount of gluing surface the fingers provide. I decided on a sliding lid to keep this box design simple, incorporating the 1/4″ spacing of the fingers. A tiny piece of walnut made a contrasting pull on the lid. A few coats of tung oil really brought out the beauty of the Doug Fir, and highlighted the end grain of the alternating finger joints, as well.
Note: Machining VGDF proved a little tricky, as the grain structure and orientation makes cross cuts quite spintery. Some painters tape for the cross cuts and a backer board for the finger cuts kept splintering to a minimum.
Resawing a Vertical Grain Douglas Fir board
Planing the resawn pieces to a smooth, uniform thickness
Painter’s tape helped reduce splintering on cross cuts
This quick box joint jig was set up for 1/4″ fingers and clamped to my Incra miter gage
My dial indicator and mag base allowed me to make adjustments to my jig a few thousandths at a time
The third try on my setup pieces yielded a fit that was close enough for who it was for …
Four sides with fingers cut, and showing the spintery nature of VGDF
With grooves ploughed for the sliding lid and box bottom, a tuned in the finger fit with a little hand sanding
First dry fit of the whole box and lid looked good
Marietta Wood Works brand on the bottom of the bottom
Lots of surfaces to get glue spread on in a timely manner
A “gravity clamp” on the walnut lid pull, attached with a few drops of CA glue
Y’all know what Norm always said …
Box joint fingers should be left proud to allow for sanding them flush … just not this proud
Six tiny plugs were glued in to close the holes left by ploughing the lid and bottom grooves
Tung oil brought out the beautify of the grain and highlighted the box joint finger end grain
Finished product with the MWW logo branded on the bottom … with a slightly too hot branding iron
