my first ring box - lots of photos

[elizabeth]

Thank you Mike. I really appreciate it.

And, Joel: A lady wears rings according to the occasion and outfit.

[Gecko]

That is one beautiful piece of work! Having played with small pieces like that and pretty much failed, my hat is off to you for pulling it off. The patience to cut and glue up those pieces so accurately....wow. Very well done.

[Doug B]

That is fantastic Elizabeth! I love it.

[elizabeth]

Thank you. I really appreciate it. I'm working on my next but haven't solidified the process. In spite of all the help, dead-on squareness of the pieces, with the design centered, alludes me. I'm very close but not exact. Will stay at it until I do.

Lament not being able to use the TBS for this. It tears the pieces apart.

[deepsplinter]

May 4, 2010 21:45:59 GMT -6 art3427 said:

My hat's off to you, 'Liz. Personally I'd rather take on a life sized model of the Titanic than do something small like that. My short fat fingers are getting stiff with arthiritis and just don't have that delicate touch that scale of work often needs.

art

My thoughts exactly.

BUT...not only do I lack the desire, I don't think I have the ability, and I'm sure I don't have the patience.

IMO, something like that is tougher than a hickory cabinets.

All of the good adjectives have already been used. I'll just second what everybody else has said.

[elizabeth]

Thank you, Dave. I'm still honing the skill.

[jb34]

I am making 3 of these elizabeth. I am about halfway through. when i saw this and asked if I could do my own take on it I was thinking what a great idea for mothers day. My beautiful misses and mom's favorite colors are both purple. My mom also is a big vikings fan. so I elected to go with just purpleheart and hard maple for my wood choices. I have some purpleheart I have been wanting to do something with and knowing how much both of these ladies likes the color of the wood I have and that it was their favorite color I have been waiting for the right idea to do for them. Which you provided. With keeping this a secret from the beautiful misses I have been working on them over my lunch break and after everyone goes to bed. Been in the garage late the last couple nights. People told me I looked like crap at work today. I don't feel like crap since its friday and they are worth it of course. My design is not going to be as detailed and complex as yours. It was important to me that these were purple though because I think that will be important to the people I give them to. I have also found one of the hard parts so far being getting the inside perfectly square. So far I am about 50 50 on getting them perfect. So my plans are for the 2 sides that didn't come out perfect to be the bottoms so they are not seen. Working with small pieces its always harder to hide or fix any imperfections. I have to do the bottom and tops still. The rest is pretty much done. I will post pics when I finished. Probably after the weekend. I am enjoying this project. Wish I had more time before mothers day though.

[jb34]

You mentioned the table saw for these pieces. Yeah I would hate to have my fingers that close. I used my planer to get the pieces down to the right size. For the pieces that are too small to plane alone I carpet taped them to the top of a piece of flat pine. I also carpet taped some leading and trailing sacrificial wood behind and infront of my workpiece so I didn't get snipe that would be hard to remove on my small workpiece. This worked but I was very careful and had to be at this a while to get all pieces the same uniform width. But much safer doing it that way then with a tablesaw or miter saw or any other saw. Maybe that might help you if I didn't misunderstand you. I did use the miter to get my stock right after all the glue up. On my last piece I was cutting 1/8 off a piece that was 1 1/4 inches. Too small to have my fingers in there holding things around the blade. So I put in a secondary fence to close up the gap in my miter fence. Clamped that secondary fence to the miter fence. Then clamped my small piece to the secondary fence. Made sure everything was aligned the way I wanted. Made sure the blade would not hit my clamps. Stood back with my hands out of the way and cut 1/8th off that 1.25 piece. I am speaking in inches of course. Anyway some stuff I ran across that you might have too.

[elizabeth]

Joel: This is great! Can't wait to see them. You're sure able to work faster than I can!

Check out the thread on squaring the laminate pieces. The guys went all out and their suggestions and set-ups have really helped.

One of the best additions to the suggestions is dicklaxt"s: Before you cut off the triangles in the chevron, align the workpiece with the centerline on your template and attach mitered supports so the piece doesn't move, and you can then cut all pieces identical. He's explained further, and I will forward his emails.

Best wishes. I'm so exited about seeing your creations! Hurry up!

[fredbelknap]

Elizabeth you did a great job. thanks for sharing it with us.

[yknot]

Dittos like everybody else WOW

What detail!!!! Awesome!

Elizabeth, I recognized the pizza box stand right away! I started saving them in the past yr or so!! Don't know why, just do!
Not a hoarder though!!!! ;D

ed

[elizabeth]

Thanks, Fred and Ed:

I'm not a hoarder either but they sure have come in handy! I can't wait to see Joel's boxes!

[jb34]

I think I am going to do something a little different on the top. You gave me inspiration but I went my own way on the design. Didn't want to copy yours exactly even though you seemed ok with it. But you know everyone has their own take on stuff.

[elizabeth]

Absolutely! That's the fun of it.