Bob’s Jewelry Box

When I introduced myself on the site, I said I was working on a jewelry box for my daughter. Well, after about 20 hours and a lot of mistakes because I made it up as I went, here it is. I looked at a lot of pictures on the web and formulated my own plan with ideas from a lot of them and of course my daughter’s input. Thanks again for the great site!

The piece is made of solid red oak except for the drawer bottoms and lid inlay which are 1/4″ oak ply. The construction is actually very simple. The main case is made with a dado on the sides so that the end grain is only showing from the back. The front false drawer sits in a stopped dado and has a 1/2″ roundover to match the drawer fronts. The drawers are constructed using a homemade drawer lock joint for a lack of better terminology, and have 1/4″ dadoes cut in the sides to ride on oak runners glued to the inside of the case. The dividers are just cut-offs that I planed down to 1/8″ to match the kerf of one of my blades which was used to cut interlocking slots. The top was made about 2″ deep so that I had plenty of room for padding and velvet fabric plus a mirror that was epoxied on. I would like to give credit for that idea, but I can’t remember where I saw it. I then made a base from some scrap pieces of oak flooring, mitered the corners, cut rabbet for the case to sit in and rounded the corners. Stained and poly all parts and glued it up. Added some knobs and handles and put a done stamp on it. The finished piece measures around 20″w x 12″d x 10″h. I didn’t have any plans to go by, I just made it up as I went. Again, I want to express my sincere appreciation for the great things you do for tthe woodworking community. I have learned so much from your site and it is inspiring.