My youngest kid has a complete lack of trust in the Sandman. I can’t say I blame him. I mean, the guy glues your eyes shut while you sleep. Overall, he’s cool with the Tooth Fairy though.
So after a trip to the dentist resulted in the pulling of a loose tooth, he needed a way to deliver the goods. Off to the shop I went…
I found a small scrap from a pecan slab and drilled a couple of shallow holes so I could mount the blanks on my lathe chuck and cut the blanks free on the bandsaw.
The first operation on the lathe was to round out the blanks and true up the face. Then, I drilled another shallow 2″ hole in the end. I parted-off enough to make the lid, and set it aside. The 2″ hole allowed me to mount the lid on the chuck, and would fit over a lip turned in the base of the box to close it.
I tried turning the base out of the rest of the material, but I broke it at the chuck when the lid got stuck as I was fitting it to the base and I tried “tapping” it off with a hammer. I mounted the second blank, trued it up, hollowed it out, and went back to fitting the lid to the base. Once the lid blank fit tight, I pressed it on the base and a light pass with a scraper made sure the sides of the lid and base lined up just right.
I scored three small grooves in the base and held a wire in them as it turned to burn in some decorative lines. Then, I parted the base off of the stock, leaving the bottom of the box a little over 1/8 of an inch thick.
I mounted the lid blank back on the chuck and finished the simple profile I wanted. The pencil line marked the depth of the recess in the lid so I wouldn’t go too far.
Most of the sanding and finishing is done on the lathe. Lid and base were sanded to 320 grit.
For this little box, I used some butcher block finish I had handy. While the parts were still turning, I applied two coats of the oil and buffed them with a dry paper towel. An easy, good -looking finish for small things that won’t see a lot of wear and tear. I just had to finish the inside of the lid and bottom of the box off the lathe.
Reliable as ever, the Tooth Fairy visited that night, but we’re always looking out for the Sandman.
