Epic!!
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This is absolutely amazing work. I only hope to achieve the same level of refinement.
But the piece of this that really makes me go “wow” is the box. Any chance you could give us more detail on how you made it/put it together? I’m really interested to hear how to assembled the lid and got all of your different woods to connect.
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haha, yep, the box certainly has some “explaining” for it. I’ll explain the top and bottom as the whole explanation would probably be too long
Dimensions are 12.5" Wide x 12.5" I really wanted to make the box out of Walnut, but I only had pieces that are 6" wide. I settled on the design that you see and created it all in Inkscape. I cut the Walnut, Hickory, and Mahogany to thickness (1/4") and then cut out the shapes out on the Laser.
Here’s the secret part. I cut out a 12" x 12" piece of hardboard and glued the pieces to each other and the board with PLENTY of glue (glued on the non-slick side, so needed a lot more glue).
I used the Inkscape Box builder to make the box joint for the edges. I was able to cut the side pieces out on the laser, but I had to use them as a template to cut the tabs on the top and bottom and cut those tabs out on the bandsaw. (Yes I did consider turning it 45 degrees and do two sides at a time, I was concerned about perfect alignment and I was more confident of my ability to align everything than to trust the lasers alignment right now, 1/4" off was not an option.)
I chose where I was going to separate the top and bottom after I built the box and picked the height based on the pieces I wanted to store in it (specifically the height of the stacked Border pieces) and then I ran the box over the table saw to create the top and bottom parts.
I built the interior dividers out of Soft Maple and glued it to the interior. Then I cut Felt pieces to fit the spaces and covered both the top and bottom (I considered Flocking the entire thing, but I ran out of time to buy and have flocking shipped to me). Finally I added the shelf in the lid to hold the bags, cards and all the extra stuff.
Last part was all the hardware. But that is the easy part.
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This is phenomenal. Catan has been on my list of projects to try and you’ve really set the bar high.
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Wow. My latest project pales next to this one. Truly beautiful!
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Lots of amazing stuff in this post! Thanks for sharing.
Any chance you sourced the wood online and could share the source? Or did you find it locally? I’d like to try a similar project but I haven’t had much luck finding anything nice/exotic in the 1/4" thickness around here. Just ridiculously more expensive thicker planks that still would have to be cut down to thinner planks for this kind of purpose. Best I can find is 1/4" oak hobby boards from Home Depot.
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Wow! Awesome!
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Where are you located? I got my wood from two different sources. In Maryland there are several sawmills, I happen to prefer to use Hicksville Planing Mill, in Hicksville MD (Yes, there really is a Hicksville, and yes, it’s out in the middle of nowhere).
The other woods that I used were purchased from Amazon.com. At the time they had a wood package deal of Walnut, Yellowheart, Purpleheart and Bubinga 1/4" thick x 3" wide x 24" long. I thinned them down to 1/8" thick so I could add the felt on the bottom and not have the pieces be too chunky (I had 72 pieces, and all stacked up would have been 27" tall in a single stack once I added the felt).
The cheapest way to go about this is to go to a lumber mill. They charge by the Board foot, NOT Linear foot that you get at the Big Box Stores (If you need help determining what makes up a board foot, let me know, I’ll be happy to explain). For comparison I once purchased a piece of Oak from Home Depot that was 1" thick x 12" wide x 7’ long, and it cost me $70. I went to the Sawmill and bought a 1"thick x 12" wide x 10’ long Curly Maple (~$18), Cherry (~$12), and Purpleheart ($45). I walked away from that trip with about 15 different boards and spent about $300 (averaging about $20 per board). In short, if you have the ability to cut your own wood down and shape it the way you want it, it is significantly cheaper to buy from a sawmill. Although, you can argue that the cost to get to that point negates any savings (similar to “why use these dollar store scissors when I have a multi-thousand dollar laser to cut this paper?”)
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That looks beautiful! Great work.
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HOLY SMOKES WOW!!!
very very impressive.
so I’ll just go sit in the corner having made 3 things with Beamer since I got it. 
Most of what I do is certainly not really share worthy, this just happens to be really close to my woodworking hobby that I’ve been pursuing for years. I’m usually the one who is embarrassed to share my jobs. As others keep telling me, share what you do! It might not seem like much but knowledge shared often results in someone learning something new.
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Well I also am a wood turner, so I even knew all of the wood you used. 
I must say that is an extraordinary project. I am sending the link to my dad, who will appreciate it immensely.
Just WOW. If I wasn’t getting ready to move I’d be doing a lot more.
I did however get my LED multicolor bases the other day so my nieces and nephews are going to get a really cool edge lit name sign.
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you have me inspired. went and looked for a good lumber mill and found a small shop nearby that carries a lot of pieces for wordworkers in Vienna, VA. just 10 mins. Will check them out tomorrow for some supplies.
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whoa…
That is so beautiful! 
Those look amazing, curious what did you use to color these and what was the backing material used?
The only piece colored were the sea pieces. They were dyed. All the rest are showing the natural color of the wood!
All of the pieces have a stiff adhesive felt attached to the back.
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I found a some options of 5x24x1/8" at Rockler (Wenge, Mahogony, Padauk, etc.) but no yellowheart.
yellowheart has always been a bit tricky to find. The places that have had it in the past have typically sold out by the time I contact them. The most reliable place to get it is Amazon, but you can’t see the wood first, and you pay a bit more for it
Holy freaking awesome. I want this so bad. Can’t wait for my GF.