Making a mitered plywood box with paracord handles.

To store wooden building blocks I made a box from plywood with mitre
joints and handles made of paracord. My son gave it a special paint job.

This project is an entry for the STRING contest 2016. Please make sure you vote for it in the upper right corner of this site or at the contest itself. I would really appreciate it!

Thank you!

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Step 1: The Sides

I cut a sheet of 6mm or 1/4in plywood to four rectangle pieces with the same size. And I cut a square piece for the bottom, which had about 1/4inch or 6mm smaller sides.

I cut a dado into every side piece and bevelled the long edges with a 45° miter.

Step 2:

Then I marked the a point where I drilled a finger hole on each side with a forstner bit. I chose the size of the bit so that no building block could fall through the hole later.

Step 3: Glue Up

Before glueing the miters, I sanded the inner surface smooth. Then I put the side pieces down to the workbench and attached them with pieces of painters tape on the outside.

I inserted the bottom into the dados and folded everything up. Some bar clamps hold everything tight.

Step 4: The Lid

I cut a piece corresponding to the inner rim of the opening and one piece in the size of the outer rim. I glued both together to get the lid.

Step 5: Sanding

The next step was to sand the lid and the outer surfaces.

Step 6: Painting

My son gave it a special paint job. We used finger paint for children.

Step 7: Finishing

After the finger paint was dry I protected everything with a few codes of spray laquer and gave it a last sanding with 600 grid wet sandpaper.

Step 8: Preparation for the Handles

I marked the places where I wanted to put the handles and drilled holes.

Step 9: The Monkey's Fist

Then I tied the knot for the lid handle with black para cord and put a small steel ball in the middle for stability reasons. This type of knots is called “The Monkey’s Fist”.

After tighten the knot, I added a strand of white para cord by melting the ends and press them together.

Step 10: The Handles

I threaded the white and black end through one hole in the lid and back through the other. I kept about the width of my hand on the knots side. Then I started to tie “Snake Knots” around the remaining cord. I cut the ends flush and sealed them with a lighter.

For the two handles on the sides I threaded a white and a black card through one hole each and tied a “Reef Knot” inside the box. On the outside I tied several “Snake Knots” like before on the lid. At the end I threaded the black and white cord through the other holes and attached them again with a “Reef Knot”.