Project working

Out in the shop, Ive mostly been working on the tambour door cabinet project - figuring out how to make the slats for the tambour. I think Ive got that down and will post on it soon. In the meantime, I thought I would show you the prototype of the project the 7th graders are working on in the school shop.

Its a birch shrink box:


Made from green birch, the box shrinks and clamps the bottom in place. The bottom is made the same way the top, or lid (see above) is made. There is a variation where the bottom is set into a carved groove around the inside of the body - much like a barrel. I havent tried that way yet.


This was the first one Ive made, and I experimented a bit. I beveled the joint between the bottom and the body, but left the top unbeveled. I also tried out some decorative flutes in the bark. The possibilities are endless.

Heres the box with the tool kit used to make it:


As a final note - as this box dried the bark came loose and Ive since removed it. Im not sure why this happened, as I have plenty of birch rounds that have dried without losing their bark. It may be that this particular birch was right on the edge of rotting - I remember thinking that it looked like it had been down for quite a while before I found it.