Heavily inspired by the drive behind 52 Boxes - MEK Woodworks, I decided last Sunday to attempt to design and make a box every day for a month (obviously the laser cutter and my lack of perfectionism allow me to accelerate 1 box / week a little bit…)
Currently I’m on Day 8 and it’s worked pretty well so far 
The biggest struggle is actually finding the time to put them together and wait until the finish dries…
Box 1
Made from 3mm plywood with scored and stenciled Voronoi. Inset with more 3mm plywood to allow the box lid to sit snugly on top. Finished with paste wax.
Box 2
Redwood that I resawed down a while ago and haven’t really figured out a use for yet. Lid lies on the top plywood inset. Bottom of the box is mortise + tenon instead of finger joints. Very, very soft wood… Finished with danish oil.
Box 3
3mm plywood, construction is half-slots that fit together. Same bottom as Box 2. Finish is red food coloring and rubbing alcohol with a polyurethane coat. I had a lot of problems with sanding due to the non-flat nature of the box, and the food coloring + alcohol finish raised the grain pretty aggressively.
Box 4
Another boring 3mm plywood box with the same finish as Box 4, but the food coloring worked really well on this one. Lid I’m almost entirely happy with except for a total failure to get the poly covered evenly, which is why it’s bashfully hiding behind the box.
Box 5
Not plywood! This is resawn from some pine firewood which had some fungal discoloration (beetle kill pine). Apple-crate style construction looked fairly well but the construction is definitely not square… next time I would add some registration shoulders so the slats fit perfectly square. Finished with danish oil
Box 6
More 3mm plywood 
But it’s got a fun shape! Bottom is just straight glued on. Finished with polyurethane.
Box 7
3mm plywood. I wanted to do a box like #1 but with different shapes… this one turned out really well. Finished with poly.
Box 8
3mm plywood. First attempt at hinges with wood. Like how this one came together but the actual box portion feels a bit undone… I think I’ll try to add more fun elements (and maybe some help making it actually square) next time.
Random thoughts
It’s more like a box-ish a day - I can batch multiple on the weekends and then use them for days when I’m totally booked.
I don’t really care about making boxes that are similar so long as they’re not totally identical.
I wish I had more pulls / lid design inspiration.
Box 4 looks way better in real life than the picture.
Box 4 and 6 are probably my favorite in execution, if not design.
Plywood is too easy (and cheap) to use vs finding / making thin hardwood sheets…
I’ll probably dive into the joint madness in Variations of finger joints soon…
