A few days before Christmas 2013 I came across the Video “How to Cut Dovetails on the Tablesaw’ in Fine Woodworking. I have wanted to make a toy box for my grandson for a little while now and this inspired me. I made some test pieces and it was almost perfect the first time. The video described how to make 2 simple jigs to cut the dovetails. I was able to have only the box with his name on it for Christmas when he came to our house. He is four years old. Now I had to finish it with a lid and apply a clear finish.

The box is made of barn pine that I had saved in my garage for a year and it was dry. I machined it with my thickness planer and jointer to make the front, back and sides. The overall sizes are 30″ wide, 14-3/4″ deep and 15″ high. The thickness of the material ended up at almost 7/8″. The hinges are simple strap hinges from the lumber yard. I spray painted them a gold colour as they were a galvanized finish that did not look finished. The lid stay also was from the local Home Hardware store and works very good as I wanted to make sure no little fingers would be hurt. It acts as a soft close. For the letters I printed from “Word” on my computer and traced them with a sharp carving knife through the paper into the wood. I chiseled and used my dremel router to remove the wood. For the inlay I made 2 sets of printed letters, 1 for the cutout on the lid and the other to make the letters to inlay into the lid. These were alder and I cut them on my scroll saw. With a little fitting and then glued in place I planed them down with a low angle plane. All sanding was done with an orbital disc sander

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