< 
The 20-minute model
I'm about to make a small box for a project. It will be for a friend, though I'll also likely run it as a project article in our Fall 2025 issue.
Most boxes are somewhat straightforward – rectangular in shape, a hinged or fitted top, a bottom to keep the contents in place and one cavity to hold its contents. Maybe there is some figured or exotic wood used in the build, though straight-grained wood is also common. Both solid wood and veneer are commonly used to make boxes. There are also generally no moving parts to a box, other than the lid. In addition to all of this, a box typically sits on a surface, doesn’t get handled too often and doesn’t move much at all.
The box I’m making, while not overly complex, will ignore about half of these norms. Sure, it will have a bottom and include both straight-grained solid wood, as well as some figured veneer. It will also have a top that can be lifted off to use. Some of the differences include when viewed from above, it will be circular in shape. Also, the lid will be rotated by the user as time goes on, in order to keep track of the contents. It will also have seven small storage cavities inside the box, as opposed to the usual one. On top of all this, the box will be handled daily, so it will have to be easy grasp, but also to manipulate in the hand.
What's the purpose?
This box is going to be a daily pill box. My friend now has to take one pill per day, and is worried they’re going to regularly miss days. They’re also afraid they might take their pill early in the morning, while half asleep, only to wonder later in the day whether they took their pill or not. I’m hoping this little box I’m making will solve all of these problems for them. Well, let’s be honest, this box isn’t going to force them to remember to take their daily pill, but it will help them make a weekly habit of filling the box, then let them know if they took their pill earlier in the day, as the cavity for the day of the week will either be empty (because they took their pill) or full (if they forgot).
To entice my friend into taking their pill every day, I’m going to make this pill box as attractive as possible, so they may actually want to reach for this box daily. It will also have some figured exotic wood that will be easier to see up close, while the box is being used. Adding texture to the outer surface is also something I’m considering, as a piece of nicely textured wood is not only tempting to touch, but also provides substantial grip, so it hopefully won’t get dropped during use.
Design takes time
I bounced around the design in my head for a few days. I opted to not look online at other designs, as I find that once I do, I can only picture those designs in my head while I’m trying to come up with a design that will work for the specific situation and specifications I’m dealing with.
I first imagined seven routed cavities in a piece of wood, so the pill could be grasped with a single finger and slid out of the cavity with ease. Having a bored hole, with a square cross section at the bottom of the hole, would make it almost impossible for the user to get each pill out. Adding frustration to someone’s life each morning wasn’t something I was too keen on. The downside to this approach is that wood often burns when routing cavities like this, and sanding that burnt area out isn’t easy. It then occurred to me that if the box was easy to grasp, the user could pick the box up, flip it over, having one single pill drop into their hand. That would also mean the cavity wouldn’t have to be too large, making the entire box smaller. That’s a win-win situation, as far as I was concerned.
A longer, rectangular shape would hold pills and be easy to craft, but it might be a bit harder to manipulate in the hand. I also didn’t like how the rectangular lid would need to be pulled out to a specific length each morning, in order to get one, and only one, pill. A round box could have a series of small cavities around the perimeter and the lid (which has just one notch in it) could be rotated to allow only one cavity to be open, and therefore only one pill would be dispensed. Perfect.
Challenges remain
There were still a few challenges to this design. I thought of having a centre pivot point to help keep the lid in place during use, while also allowing the user to remove the lid for one day each week to refill the box, would work well. Making the lid and box base the same radius meant the pivot point needed to be centred very precisely, as once the lid is rotated the lid will overhang one edge of the box slightly, while underhanging the opposite edge of the box slightly. This wouldn’t cause huge problems, but if things are supposed to be flush, I hate seeing them not flush.
This led me to design the lid so it overhung the base by about 3/16″. This way, even if the pivot pin wasn’t perfectly centred, any offset wouldn’t be noticed.
It’s easy to make the sides of this round box base perpendicular to the bottom, but with the top overhanging the base, that might make the box slightly hard to cleanly pick up every morning. That’s where adding the texture to the sides comes in. I might also play around with adding a routed profile to the lower section of the side, making it even more positive to grasp.
The gap
For a while, I was going to go with a hole on the lid, so the daily pill could be extracted from the box. Then it hit me, a lily pad is both round and has a natural gap. And who doesn’t love the look of a lily pad? Things were starting to come together nicely.
To the shop
Part way through this process, I headed to the shop to knock out a quick mock-up of this little project. I find it much easier to have something to look at and manipulate in my hands, especially when there are a lot of aspects and details to consider. I knew it wasn’t an overly well-thought-out design, but it would at least be a starting point. Remember, this was only part way through the design process, so I hadn’t considered things like how hard / easy the box would be to grasp and pick up daily.
Within about 20 minutes I had pumped out a pretty bare-bones box. I mistakenly bored eight holes, instead of seven, but that’s no big deal for now. That’s a mistake that’s going to happen when you’re moving quickly. The eighth spot is going to be left without a hole, so that can be the starting point – basically on Sunday night.
I’ll have a chance to sit with this in my head for a day or two before I start the real thing. In the meantime, check out this article on models from one of our back issues.
Quick Mock-up
The lily pad lid can be rotated to the correct day of the week, then the entire box can be turned upside down so the pill drops out. The main worry I have is that the box might not be as easy to pick up, manipulate and put back down, while ensuring the rest of the pills don’t fall out somehow.
Eight…Oops
I drilled one more hole than needed, but I'll pay a bit more attention next time. The lid will rotate on a pivot point, but in the real box the pivot point won't be visible from the outside.
Rob Brown - rbrown@canadianwoodworking.com
Rob is the editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement and a studio furniture maker.
Hi Frank,
Making the lid transparent was an option, but (naturally!) I opted for a wood top. It’s easy enough to take the lid off and check on how the week is going, but the user won’t be able to see into each daily compartment without taking the lid off. The weekly pill boxes you can purchase have a clear lid, so you can see each section, but I opted against that.
Not a bad idea about the need to travel with this box. The pivot pin will do a half decent job at keeping the lid on, but obviously won’t be perfect. An elastic band or a ZipLoc bag could help – likely both, working in tandem would be best. I guess some sort of a latch could also work to keep the lid on, but my friend doesn’t travel much, so I didn’t need to consider that, thankfully.
Hi Tim,
Yes, I mentioned that in the column. I laid the box out with 8 spots, but the plan was to only drill 7, one for each day of the week. Hurrying, I bored all eight spots. I won’t make that mistake next time! And I agree with your thoughts about making it as small as possible. Even just to comfortably grasp / manipulate it daily (without dropping it) would be easier if it’s not too big.
Thanks for your thoughts.
I think there should be a blank spot, like eight places but one not drilled, so the lid can be closed to this spot to avoid any dust and such getting in to the pill cavities. I also think that consideration for portability might show a need to make it as small as possible. Just me thinkin’ here!
As someone who takes 6 pills every day I read this with interest, but there are some practical issues to face. I just finished loading my weekly supplies of pills and realized that it was extremely convenient to be able to see that each day had all the required pills hence the pill holder needs to be somewhat transparent. Secondly, periodically I travel so my pill holder needs to be able to travel and since my travel usually spans a weekend the usual 7 day schedule needs to be modified by preloading the beginning of the second week. But the idea of a more attractive holder is interesting.
Hi Charles. Yes, multiple pills aren’t an issue with my friend, though it would be for many. Larger holes in a larger base would be the answer. I’ll mention that in the article.
Hi Walter. I may not have mentioned it in the blog, but I’ll definitely be adding some sort of very simple “day of the week” markings. Not sure what yet. I don’t think a clear top is necessary in this case, but I could see it in many cases. I’m hoping the single opening, and the day of the week labels, will be enough for this person to keep track of. They are still young and not very forgetful.
I’ll be following this closely as I too know someone with a similar problem and I’ve been ruminating how to make a fix from wood. In this case though ,it would require space for multiple pills. I like your idea of going with a round box though.
This is an interesting project from a woodworking point-of-view. However, I see some concerns from a pill management point-of-view. As a minimum, the bins should have day labels. And maybe the top should be transparent? Those pill management boxes that you find at pharmacies, with the transparent flip-up lids, are a good design. Users can immediately see which pills have been taken, and which ones may have been “missed”.