In my last post I showed you the first of two boxes that I secretly made for my wife this Christmas. The first was the inlaid rose box with pyrography that I showed you in my last post. I also mentioned that I had a bit of trouble (understatement) with the second box; here are the gory details.
I set out to make a box with a raised hare on the lid, which when opened would play a tune. It seemed to me that the whole project would rely on my ability to mould a hare on the lid of the box so I thought I'd do that first. If I couldn't do it I could just knock the whole idea on the head.
Here is how it went.
I cut a piece of mahogany and then stuck my drawing of a hare onto the wood and cut it out with my scroll saw. So far so good.
At this point things were still going well and using a small knife blade and my fingers I moulded the hare into the shape that I thought a hare should be. This was the bit I was dreading because it was completely out of my comfort zone. However, I needn't have been so unsure of myself because a couple of minutes later the hare was done and I was well pleased.
The next thing I had to do was bake the lid in the oven to cure the clay and this was, I thought at the time, my last obstacle to success. Some of you may remember my previous disaster when baking the clay, here's picture for anybody who didn't see it in a previous post.
After 30 minutes the hare was removed from the oven and all seemed well, so the project could move on. I measured the lid again and made a box that it would fit from quarter inch thick oak.
I had decided to use conventional hinges on this box so I purchased some from Hobbies when I also purchased the musical movement that would go inside. I cut the recesses to accommodate the small hinges and drilled out eight tiny holes that would take the pins to help keep them secure when they were glued in place.
I mixed some araldite quick setting adhesive and after I'd glued the hinges and lid into place, I clamped the whole thing up and left it for 24 hours to set properly.
Disaster 1 The following day I took the clamps off, but when I opened and closed the lid one of the hinges came loose. This was a pain in the butt because Christmas was drawing nearer and there was still a lot of work to be done. I cleaned off all the araldite and decided to try gluing it with another glue that had been recommended by a friend. Once glued, I clamped it up and left it for anther 24 hours.
Disaster 2 The following day I removed the clamps and found that neither hinge had stuck securely. By now I was fed up with conventional hinges and decided to use the post and pin method I'd been using recently. There were problems however, to use the post and pin method the lid would have to sit a little bit further back and I would lose the lip at the front. I would also need to get rid off the recess that I cut for the hinges and fill the drilled holes.
There were no other choice so if I wanted to delight my wife at Christmas I'd just have to get on with it. After sorting out the recesses and holes I made two posts and fitted the lid and kicked myself for not going down that direction it the first place.
Next, because I wanted the white hare to stand out against the wood I decided to ebonize the wood with the solution that I made a few weeks ago.
With the ebozing a success, I decided to try and work out how to fit the musical movement. No instructions came with it so I was on my own. It didn't take much to work out which way it would have to go in the box because it would only fit one way if the mechanism was going to operate when the lid opened. Sorting this bit out was difficult because the haunting sound of Greensleeves would be produced every time I opened and closed the lid. If my wife opened the door to my workshop whilst it was playing the tune my surprise would be ruined.
The orientation of the mechanism meant that the key would protrude through the bottom, so I had to make some legs for the box to sit on so that the key could rotate freely when the tune was playing.
Disaster 3 When I was attempting to clamp the feet on, I dropped the box onto the concrete floor of my workshop and there was a loud crack as one of the hinge posts snapped off and damaged the lid.
To say I was frustrated and angry with my self was an understatement. The only good news was that the hare itself was undamaged.
At this point I showed some of the determination that the British are known for and soldiered on. I redid the hinge post, fixed the lid and successfully fitted the feet and musical movement. Christmas was now but a few days away and I still had a lot to do.
Because the inside of the box was going to be flocked, I had to box in the musical movement and that took another few hours. Trying to flock something in secret is very difficult, with glue and flocking material getting every where. Still all I had to do now was varnish the box and wrap it up for Christmas.
Disaster 4 When I went to give it the first of three coats of varnish I noticed that there was a large crack running through both back legs of the hare and at that point I could have wept. However, I'd come this far so I wasn't going to be beaten now. I squirted a blob of decorator's caulking onto one of my fingers and filled the cracks with it.
At last I could do the varnishing. The first coat was applied and the box was placed under my work bench, out of sight of my wife, while the varnish dried.
Disaster 5 After giving the box its second coat of varnish I again placed it under my workbench, but I pushed it too far and it took a dive off the back. The air was now blue and I could hardly face picking it up in case it was damaged. At the very least I knew it would be covered in sawdust and other bits of rubbish that must reside on the floor where the hoover rarely goes.
Thankfully, it wasn't too bad, nothing was broken so I cleaned the rubbish off the varnish and reapplied some more. A couple of hours later I applied the last coat and the Musical Hare Box was finally finished.
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