This week I will be covering the cutting of the four sides and top for the tissue box cover I am making for my wife. The panels are laid out so that the grain will be continuous around the box and the cuts are made on the crosscut sled with the blade set at 45 degrees.
The top and sides are first cut slightly oversize. They need to be clearly marked. I have labelled the pieces with chalk, 3 will butt to 3, 4 will butt to 4 etc. As a lot of the work in this project is set up, I deceided to make two tissue box covers at the same time, hence the A label indicating it is the first of two boxes.
The first cut made on each of the side is the vertical or upright joint on the left. This establishes a 45 degree miter cut that runs at right angles to the base of the cover.
The same is done on one of the sides of the top piece.
A stop block is clamped to the fence of the cross cut sled and the vertical right hand joint is cut on each of the side pieces. While the stop block is in this position, cut the other three sides of the top piece. The top is square and it is important that the length of each side of the top be exactly the same as the width of each side.
The stop block is now moved and each side piece is rotated 90 degrees and the horizontal joint cut. This also establishes the height of the tissue box cover.
To test the accuracy of the joints it is a good idea to do a dry run prior to glue up. The four sides are laid out in order against the fence with the show side up. Some tape is stretched across the pieces …
… and the box is rolled up and taped closed.
The top piece is then taped in place. All the joints look good, so I can proceed to the next step which will be embellishing the sides and top with some wood turning. I’ll cover that in the next post.
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