Tree Bandsaw Box

by Highlandboxes.

8.0K7215

Intro: Tree Bandsaw Box

In this Instructable i will be showing how i made a bandsaw box. I have been making bandsaw boxes for around 6 years. i have had no training in woodwork i watched a lot of youtube videos and read a lot of books. The reason i share with you all my craft is to give back a little to the community that shared the ideas that enable me to make these boxes today.

This box can be used to store jewellery of other small trinkets.

I hope you enjoy. Pam

STEP 1: Items I Used.

Picture of a tree printed on A4 paper

oak wood A4 size 3 inches thick

1 inch oak board for back of box

3/4 board for base

Melee burr for front decoration

bandsaw

1/8 inch bandsaw blade

glue

bench sander or a mix of sandpaper

sand sealer

spray lacquer

spray adhesive

Dremel

Dremel sanding bits

STEP 2: Lets Get Started

I have added a video this will show you each step in more detail.

1) Using spray adhesive stick template on the wood block.

2) Outline whole box to give a border to the box

3) On the bandsaw cut outer box

NOW YOU HAVE THE MAIN SHAPE OF BOX

STEP 3:

1) Use 1 inch board for the back and draw round the shaped box onto the board.

2) Cut the back of the box ( put this aside for later )

3) Now we need to cut the the outer rim of the box around 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch from outer rim see photo or video for more information.

STEP 4:

Now its time to cut individual boxes out

1) Take your time and start to cut the little boxes out

2) Now you will have a skeleton shell, the main body, lots of what will be the boxes, the outer rim and the back.

Dont remove the paper from skeleton just yet we will need that later.

STEP 5: Cut Boxes

Now its time to make the little boxes

1) Cut the front and back from each box

2) Sand the cut surfaces to remove blade marks and help with the glueing

DONT GET TO CLOSE TO THE BANDSAW BLADE USE BLOCKS OF WOOD TO HELP PUSH THE WOOD THROUGH WHEN CUTTING.

STEP 6: Cut Inner Boxes

Now lets cut the inner boxes remember safety when doing this.

1) Mark the area in pencil on the box where you want to cut the inner draw

2) Some of these boxes are very small i get around this by placing wood around the draw and hot glueing the wood to the drawer to hold the draw that way i dont get my finger to close to the blade.

STEP 7: Glueing the Drawers

1) Glue the front and back onto the inner draw with wood glue i used titebond.

2) Once dry sand the boxes this can be done using different sanding tools or by hand up to 400 grit.

STEP 8:

Now to finishing the drawers

1) Use sand sealer on all the drawer one or two coats and sand with 400 or 600 grit between coats.

2) After dry spray with gloss lacquer one or two coats

Drawers all done. (handles will be added later)

STEP 9: Main Box

1) lightly sand main box edges to remove any fluff left from cutting with bandsaw

2) Carefully remove the paper from the skeleton centre piece.

3) Glue the outer box the inner skeleton to the back of the box.

4) Sand the outer box and round the edges on the back

STEP 10: Decoration for Front of Box

1) Get melee burr cut into 1/2 slices

2) Take the paper from the centre skeleton

3) Where each branch starts from main trunk of the tree cut and stick the paper onto the slices of burr using spray adhesive.

4) Cut these out on the bandsaw

5) Place all the bits onto the tree dont glue yet

6) Take the main tree trunk and sand the edges making them curved (round just the top the bottom will nee to be glues to skeleton later)

7) Do the same with all the bits checking as you go that all bit fit nicely together on the box. i used a dremel for this with small sanding bit

8) Once all the pieces are shaped glue then in place

9) Check that all the drawers slide in and out with ease if the burr is stopping the drawers in any way sand them by hand or using dremel.

STEP 11:

1) Sandseal the whole box and sand to 400 or 600 grit

Thats the outer box finished

2) Now to do the handles

3) I decided to make the handle look like branches

4) I used the scarp melee burr wood from the front for the handles cut these on the bandsaw and with the boxes in place in the box i glued them on.

5) Now to make the base take the 3/4 inch board place the box upright on the board and hand draw around the main box i did a wiggly shape.

6) Glue the box onto the board

7) Spray lacquer the whole box and leave to dry.

STEP 12: All Done

As ive said please watch the video that may well explain things better.

I really hope this helps with box making and i hope you enjoyed following this project.

Thank you Pam

15 Comments

glen r 6 years ago

A very beautiful box. Cutting and finishing all the small pieces show that you have the patience to work with small pieces. I may decide to try something similar but not quite as intricate for a first project.

RalphSchauber 6 years ago

Very Interesting ; I've done similar Free-form Jewelry boxes for my granddaughters. Just not as many parts as this one. Ralph

Irishintx 6 years ago

Holy cow! Beautiful piece! Intricate work like that I can only dream of doing...sure hope you win

seamster 6 years ago

This is one of the most beautiful bandsaw boxes I've seen. Excellent work! I've never made a bandsaw box, but this nudges me to take a crack at one. Love it!! :)