Craftsman Mailbox - Step 3

This project is moving a bit slowly as any time the sun is shining I am out painting the house. In any case, I've got the front glued up.

I did a two part glue up, on the first operation I left out the two middle horizontal rails, I did put them in place to help align the pieces.

In regards to joinery, there are many good ways to join the vertical styles to the horizontal rails. Mortise and tenon, dowels or dominos are a few. I had every intention of using dowels. I even drilled a few holes. I used dowel centers to mark the matching holes but try as I might was unable to get the parts to line up. After several tries I gave up. Maybe next time I'll have a dowel jig. For now I just butted them up and glued them. I used good glue (Titebond III) so hopefully it'll stay together.



After the first glue-up had dried, I sanded the piece flush, cut the dado for the bottom then glued in the middle rails.

For the rest of the mailbox I cut the dado in the back and sides, trimmed the sides at a 13 degree angle, then planed down the bottom shelf to fit in the dado. Last I sanded everything to 120 with a random orbit sander.

Craftsman Mailbox - Step 2

After rough cutting all the sides, top bottom and gluing up the blank for the back, it was time to move on to the front of the mailbox. The front is an open web design allowing you to see if there is any mail before you open the box.

First I cut out the top and bottom rails, and the vertical stiles.


The horizontal middle rails were up next. I had some 6/4 stock that to cut the 1 1/8" thick pieces out of. I started with a 2 1/4" x 10 3/4" piece and used a stacked dado head cutter to cut the 1 1/4" dadoes. I then ripped the 2 1/4" into two 1" horizontal rails.



That's all I had time for. Next I'll glue up the front, without the middle rails so I can easily the joints smooth.

Craftsman Mailbox

I still haven't finished the Railroad Clock. It's still waiting for it's finish and assembly. Maybe soon...

In the meantime I've picked up a new project. As I was staining the front of the house on the weekend, I removed the mailbox and decided not to put it back up. Instead I searched around and found a nice mailbox to build to replace it. Above you can see what the final product should look like.

I'm building this out of Red Oak because that's what I've got laying around. It should be built out of Quartersawn White Oak but I don't have any of that laying around. Maybe next mailbox.

To start with I made up a design plan in Google Sketchup 7. I'll use 3/4 material for the box, and 3/8 for a floating bottom. I'll likely get the hinges at Home Depot and we've got a friend that does laser engraving to cut the letters in the top for me.


I found a 9 1/2" x 8' 4/4 board on the shelf and planed it down to 3/4". Next I cut it in half and ran both halves through the jointer to get one square edge. Lastly, over to the tablesaw to square up the opposite side at about 9". A bit of time spent squaring up the lumber results in this :


Now with the tablesaw and mitre saw I cut out the pieces for the top, sides, bottom and back. I'll add the angled cuts to the top and sides later and plane down the bottom to 3/8" after I cut the mortises. Here's what I ended up with after 45 minutes. I found a piece of scrap to add to the back to get it to the 9 1/2" required.


Next up will be the front.

Railroad Clock Kit

I ordered the plan and parts for a Railroad Clock Kit from Lee Valley in December 2007.

The plans and parts sat on my shelf for the next year while I waited for the building mood to strike. When I stocked up on lumber in August 2008, I picked up a few pieces of walnut that I had in mind for this clock.

Finally in November 2008 while I was taking time off for running I had time to do a bit of woodworking. The only change I made to the plans were to remove the bead detail on the door and to use solid wood instead of plywood for the back and behind the clock face. My local suppliers do not have any walnut plywood and since I was able to get the walnut at a very good price I had no problem resawing and using it instead of plywood.

I probably have 4-5 hours into the clock and it is almost complete. The next steps are to do a final hand sanding, then apply the finish and mount the hardware. I'll also have to bring the door down to the local Home Hardware to get them to cut the glass for me.

Probably 20 minutes sanding and 20 minutes x 3 or 4 for the finishing. I should really just finish this thing off and get it on the wall!

Completed Coat Rack

I finished up this coat rack a long time ago, but never did post a photo of it here. We have put it to great use over the past year, it is normally overflowing with coats and 'stuff'.

Two coats of Minwax Provincial, then two more coats of Minwax satin wipe-on poly.

Over the next few days I'll post pictures of my current pile of unfinished projects. I really need to find some time to 'finish' these things!