Descending Ashtray

Gabe and Brandy were here in Oregon last night, stopping over on their West coast road trip. Gabe’s sister lives near San Francisco, and they drove up with baby Ethan yesterday. They’ll be back in Portland Thursday through Saturday (stay tuned), but I thought this trip would be a fine time to present them with their belated (they were married in March!) wedding gift — this chest.

The chest uses four different woods: Alder for the sides, Walnut for the feet and lid frame, aromatic Cedar inside the lid, and a piece of figured Red Gum book-matched on the top.

Except for the aromatic Cedar inside the lid, the wood came from a particularly awesome Craigslist find, which also included 25 or more board feet of cherry for the amazing price of $150. It was a trick getting everything into my Jeep, but well worth it; I am still looking at half the pile, having completed this and several other projects with the treasure trove.

There are quite a few things I would do differently, were I to approach the project again. I learned a lot, though, and for me that is a large part of how I define a successful project. If I was already a master, where would the fun be?

In particular, this was the first time I attempted a box joint, using my dovetail router jig (which doubles as a box-joint jig) with pretty good success. Alder, used on the sides of the box, is a somewhat splintery wood, and next time, I think I will use a backer board to lessen the tear-out. Still, it made pretty nice joints very quickly, and I think perfection, or as near to it as I will get, is within reach.

Finally, the top represents my first attempt at veneer work. The Red Gum I used on the exterior seemed too awesome to use as solid lumber, so I took a small section, re-sawed it on the bandsaw, and planed it to 1/4 inch thickness, essentially doubling its utility. I then book-matched and glued this veneer to a plywood substrate, which received another layer of aromatic cedar as the other piece of the sandwich. Then I clamped like the dickens. I really wished I had David Marks’ vaccuum press, but I think it turned out well.

The whole thing matched my original sketch pretty well, as it turns out. Who needs plans when you have colored pencils?