First Box...and engrave...and inlay

I wanted to make some boxes to organize our family’s overflowing medicine cupboard-- i.e., an individualized box for each of us. While the boxes turned out well, the organization part stills needs some work. Now I have a cupboard full of all of our meds AND 4 individualized boxes.

The organization failure aside, making the box allowed me to tinker with a few things I wanted to learn:

Finger-joint box: I used the TabbedBoxMaker plug-in for Inkscape (found here). It took a few (6) attempts to get the kerf right, but I learned a lot in the process. The box is made from 1/8" birch ply.

Photo engrave: Way in the back, you can see an early attempt at a photo engrave. It turned out ok, but I have a lot to learn on the pre-processing of the photo to maximize my success rate.

Inlay: I am really proud of my first attempt at an inlay. I used proofgrade hardwood for the text. The tutorials and posts on kerf have made all of the difference. Thank you all for being willing the share your wealth of knowledge. I was absolutely floored by how thin a line I could get in the text. Some of the lines are < 1/16".

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Hey, the individual boxes are a great idea for organizing respective medications! Ours is a mess, thanks for the idea!

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Wow, turned out great with that inlay! :grinning:

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Very nicely done. Love the kittens.

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Looks great!

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Inlay looks great! Nice job for your first attempt, as it turned out perfect!

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Nice, The kittens made me do a double-take.

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Outstanding inlay! And the kitten photobomb is priceless.

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Did you do the horizontal flip/insert face-to-face method with your lettering?

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I think I did. If you’re referring to what you talk about in your planar butt jointing post here. There is another post that I referenced about managing the angled walls of the cut, but after 10 minutes of searching, I can’t find it.

If you’re referring to another inlay method, please share. :smile:

Fantastic way to practice and still end up with something worthwhile. I’ve been practicing the kerf thing, too. It’s quite a challenge, but sure is satisfying when it works the way it should.

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What I mean is did you cut the words “backwards”, and then insert them into the base material “front to front”, as it were. Sounds like you did.

I’ve had this thing coming up on 2 years and still yet to make a box :joy:

Great job!

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What a great time to try out different techniques! Love your inlay!!

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