I decided to try my hand at an @evansd2-style stacked hardwood box. The copper rods I bought for the purpose are still in a box somewhere waiting for us to have our own house again someday, so I just lined the layers up manually.
The main wood is walnut, with yellowheart for the inlay. The rest are various sample veneers from Woodcraft that I’ve already forgotten the names of, except for Padauk.
It’s held together by embedded magnets at each end – they were scavenged from old Phillips ultrasonic toothbrush heads, and worked out so well that now I’m mad about all the ones I’ve thrown away in the past!
Sanded to 600 grit and finished with boiled linseed oil – still needs a few more coats.
I might still round off the corners…trying to overcome my fear of messing it up!
EDIT: I forgot to mention what I did with the magnets. I made sure to use opposite polarities at the two ends, so the box will only snap together in the direction I had it while sanding. That way any not-quite-perfect alignment between the opposite sides won’t be displayed as they would if it were put together in the other direction.
I like making my wife curious about my sanity, it makes it so when I do confusing stuff, it’s all within expectations. I do have some tiny magnets, like 2mmx2mm laying around, but upcycling is always a plus.
I have cut my own alignment pegs from wood and I have used brass rods. The brass rods provide better results in my projects, but your manual alignment appears to work even better.
There is always a pile of sawdust since the laser doesn’t make a perpendicular cut. But your corners don’t appear to have the asymmetrical rounding mine often wind up with.
looks great, and what a great idea for all the random colored veneer. i have a stack of random dyed veneer that the only real productive things i’ve done with are two of my pentagonal hexecontahedron tiles (and yeah, i had to search the forums to spell that right).
