I use a table saw and thickness planer to get my stock to (almost) final dimension, but do not put the finish surface on anything. Use a smoothing plane to remove the mill marks from the material. It is important to be really careful; using a smoothing plane is very addicting and you can easily get carried away, and in no time at all, your stock is not the proper dimension anymore. Stop when you get a full shaving.

Cutting the joinery

The second step is to make rabbets in the front and back for the sides. Part of the fun with this project is you will not need a tape measure. Everything is referenced off something else. Use the sides to set the marking gauge and mark the width of the rabbet. I generally suggest leaving no less than 1/8″ of material when marking the depth of the rabbet, or it will become too fragile. In this step it is crucial that all the marking be done from the inside of the front/back. If your material is not all exactly the same thickness (due to aggressive smoothing, perhaps), and you mark from the outside, your box will not be square on the inside.

Use a cross-cut saw and a bench hook to cut the rabbet. Leave about 1/16″ to the line, so there is lots of wiggle room in case of a jumped saw. After the rabbets are cut to depth, use a chisel to chop away the majority of the waste using the rule of halves. This is a really fast way to remove material, but works the best with straight-grained material.

If the gain is too unpredictable, then saw down as well. Once the majority of the waste has been removed, chop to the line on the shoulder of the rabbet with a chisel.

To clean up the rabbets, use a shoulder plane or a router plane. I suggest trying both if possible. The shoulder plane is faster, but it takes more practice to control. With the router plane, you need to take multiple light passes, so it is more time consuming. But because of the depth stop, you can get very consistent results time and time again.

Once the sides have been test-fitted into the front and back, and all the rabbets are square as can be, use a plow plane with a 1/8″ cutter to make the groove for the bottom. Using a plow plane can be tricky, and its technique is not obvious at first. Start the cut about an inch from the end. Take a cut and move about an inch or two back every pass until you are taking full passes. Make sure that the depth stop is set to about 3/16″ and keep taking passes until it bottoms out.

Cut a piece of 1/8″ birch plywood to size for the bottom. Test fit to make sure all the rabbets are clean and the bottom fits. Apply glue and clamps and set the box aside until the glue is set. Once the glue has cured, use a plane to flush everything up. Use a smoothing plane to put the final surface on the all the surfaces of the box.

Making the fans

Use a piece of scrap MDF for the pattern. Using a straight edge and a protractor, draw two lines that intersect at 90°, exaggerating the lines past the point of intersection. Using the protractor, mark off and draw lines every 18°, this will make a five-segment fan.

I have found it easiest to cut the chosen veneer into rectangles, about 1″ x 1/2″. This will allow two segments from each with very little waste. Take a smoothing plane and set it up to take a very, very fine shaving. This plane will be used to joint the fan segments.

With your first rectangle, joint one edge on the plane. Take the rectangle and place it on the pattern, the jointed edge goes against the 90° line, and the bottom corner right on the point of intersection. Using a sharp pencil, mark the edge of rectangle on the place where the first 18° line is seen. Using a sharp plane blade (with the bevel pointed out), put the edge of the blade on the mark and corner of the rectangle that was at the point of intersection and push as straight down as possible. Take the segment and place it on the pattern and use some masking tape (blue, green or yellow work best, as they are easily removed) to tape it to the pattern.

If you do not have an extra plane blade, you can use a hobby knife and a straight edge, but because the knife blades have a double bevel, you will have to use the smoothing plane to joint that edge as well. When pushed straight down, a plane blade should create a perfectly straight and perpendicular cut, so jointing that edge is not necessary. When using a knife, take multiple light passes.

Taking the second colour rectangle, joint one edge. Place the jointed edge against the cut edge of the first segment. Mark and cut that segment, and tape it to the first. Continue alternating colours until you have five segments totalling 90°. Gently remove the fan from the pattern.

At this point, there are two routes that can be taken. And they will depend on your confidence and abilities. The side of the fan with the masking tape was the side of the fan that you were working with, so you know what your joints look like. If the joints were done properly, the back side should look exactly the same. If the jointing was done on a bevel, the top might be tight, but the backside will have small gaps.

If there are small gaps and you want to use the face that you were working with, use a single piece of tape and place it on the back. Then carefully remove the small pieces of tape that were used to assemble the fan. If there are no gaps and the backside is usable, then no extra steps are needed.

Use some veneer tape and tape the side of the fan that does not have the masking tape. Veneer tape can be used to tape the fan together during assembly, but if something needs to be corrected after the fact, the masking tape is easier to remove.

While holding the fan down with one hand, position a compass point as close to the apex as you can, gently strike the arch on the veneer tape side. Using a chisel (I prefer a 3/8″ wide chisel for this, but any will do) I use scrap material as a cutting surface, and anchor one corner of the chisel. Using a rocking chopping motion, feed the fan into the chisel and make really small cuts. Once all four fans are cut I label them 1 to 4.

Layout on the lid

Set a wheel marking gauge to about 1/2″. Mark the top of the lid with the marking gauge. Take care to meet up in the corners without going past. (I like to use a heavy cut, and I don’t plane off the lines, as I feel that the line the gauge leaves helps to draw the eye to the fans.) Mark each corner 1 to 4 and mark the top of each fan 1 to 4 as well.

Place a fan into place and hold it there with finger pressure. Use a hobby knife with a sharp new blade and trace the edge of the fan onto the lid. Only make one or two really light passes, just enough to score the wood so you can see the score lines.

At this point, I use the only power tool in the project, and that is only because of the amount of time it saves during the classes I teach. I use a small router with a 1/8″ bit set to the depth of the veneer, and rout out most of the waste. Make sure to stay at least 1/16″ away from your score marks. Once all four are done, use a router plane and a hobby knife to remove the rest of the material. Test fit the fans. If it does not fit, check to make sure the void is clean and all the edges are sharp with nothing obstructing the fan.

To glue the fan in place, put glue into the void and not on the fan, fit the fan and use tape or wax paper on top. Use a caul to help clamp it down. Once the glue has set, remove the clamps and tape. Use a card scraper to remove the veneer tape. Take care to scrape just the tape until all the tape is gone. When all the tape is gone, you can scrape the rest of the fan flush with the lid. Scrape away from the corner of the fans and try to scrape with the grain as much as possible.

Installing the hinges

Set the depth of the router plane to the thickness of the hinge. Use a knife to strike the lines of the hinges. Use a razorsaw to define the edges. Saw a bunch of relief cuts in between. These will help the router plane remove the material faster. Use the router plane and remove the material, going with the grain as much as possible. Mark the locations for the screws and use a jeweller’s drill to make the pilot holes. Install the screws.

Finish

To finish off the box, apply a coat of boiled linseed oil and give it some quality time soaking in the UV rays. For a final top coat, apply some paste wax.