My cousin, Michael, asked me to make a wooden box to store his torque wrench.  When he gave me the wrench so I could make the box to fit, he told me, “It doesn’t need to be anything fancy – just something to protect it.”  My job was just to make the box and he intended to line it with foam.

I didn’t have much in the way of non-fancy materials in my shop.  I was tempted to use some red oak but ultimately decided to use up some narrow strips of 1/2″ poplar plywood.  (Unlike most hardwood plywoods which have stupidly-thin veneers that splinter when you sneeze at them, this plywood is made of nice thick veneers.  This plywood is 1/2″ thick and has three layers.  You do the math.  This is my favourite plywood.)

At the tablesaw, I cut the six parts to size and milled grooves in the long sides for the bottom and sliding top.

I could have simply glued and nailed the corners, but I felt inspired.  So I dovetailed the corners.  No, they weren’t the best joints I’ve cut, but this application did not demand fine joinery.  These dovetails provided some visual interest and mechanical strength.  And that’s what mattered.  Yes, I used wood putty.  And yes, I missed a spot.  And no, I wasn’t concerned.

I decided to try the time-lapse function on my new video camera so I set it up when I cut the dovetails.  When I shot the video it was dark outside so I was in full control of the lighting.  A single fluorescent magnifying lamp directly over the bench illuminated the workspace.  I set the camera to take a picture every 10 seconds while I cut dovetails for a box.

This is definitely an experimental video.  Please let me know what you think of it.  (I’ll cover my strange dovetailing techniques in a future post.)

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