Essentials oils carrying case part 1

Buenas días from Costa Rica my friends,

Well here we are back in the shop, praise the Lord, ready to make some shavings and build something for my loved one. Started the day off with a great cup of coffee and spent some quality time with the Lord. I do morning devotions reading through the Bible in a year, I am currently on my 15th time to read through the Bible and this is also my second time reading it in Spanish. As David said in Psalm 119:97, "Oh how I love your law (the word of God)! It is my meditation all the day." (NASB).

Well, my friends, buenas tardes, I had a problem with my computer this morning while I was writing this post and had to post-pone it until this afternoon. Once again I am enjoying a great cup of coffee, but this time am listening to some really relaxing music by Jay Unger. He writes traditional blue grass waltzes that are purely instrumental. One of my favorites is a tune called "Ashokan Farewell" which if you had ever seen the PBS documentary "The Civil War" by Ken Burns, you would know this tune as he starts every episode with it. Many thought it was original to that time period but was really written in the 80's. I encourage you to check him out, I think you will really like his stuff.

Before we get into the project at hand just wanted to show you some changes to the shop. I move the bench away from the wall to be able to work on all sides. My back faces the windows now but I really like where it is. I also took down my tool cabinet that had been attached to the wall, the termites were eating it up. So you can see my quick version of the Anarchist's tool chest (a Stanley construction box. I really like the cleaner look and feel of the shop now. You can also see the table saw is gone. I sold it to a fellow missionary in San Jose who is just getting started in woodworking. What a joy it was to see his smile as he used the saw and to hear how his building a number of things for his wife.

So all I have left now that is plugged in are my band saw and lathe. I probably won't be unplugging the lathe as that was a gift from my wife and I just can't bring myself to sell it. The band saw on the other hand is up in the air. It is good for quick cutting of small pieces. I will have to tell you the story of that saw in some other post but rest assured it too has a sentimental value to me.

So getting back to woodworking. I started the planning stage of the project and the initial rough cutting of the wood. I was trying to figure out how I can fit all the small bottles of oil my wife had in a small case, along with other items she needs with the oils. I didn't want it to be too big for her to carry as she is a small woman. In the first photo you can see plans to a tool box, which I had bought from Rockler a number of years ago. I actually built the box for a dear friend of mine, who is a Costarican police officer and lives in the northern part our country. The tool box is nice but is really for a machinist due to the small drawers and such. This one was obviously to big for my wife but the concept was what I was shooting for. I didn't want to put a cover panel on the front but just have some exposed drawers she can pull out.

 After playing around measuring the bottles and other items I started to draw out a drawer with dividers in it for the bottles and other items. I didn't have any large paper to draw the full size drawer on so I drew it on my bench, (I tend to do that a lot, Someday I would love to build the Architects table Tom Fidgen built in his last book for my shop), I eventually came to a size of 11" 3/16 long, 7" 7/16 wide, and 3" deep. I will use 1/2 thick wood. I am going to build two of those drawers with a half inch space in between them. The carcass surrounding them will all be 1/2 thick.Then on top there will be a 3"deep space with a 1" thick lid. I hope to be able to get some hardware from Lee Valley similar to the stuff Tom Fidgen used on his "Good Doctor's Medicine Chest." I really like the locks he used. I also will be using ball catches to keep the drawers from sliding out, once again similar to the Pochade box Tom build in his last book. I am sure you are beginning to understand that I really enjoy Tom's projects and his approach. Once again if you haven't visited his web site please do so, you won't be disappointed.

So here I was trying to figure out the joinery for the drawers. The plans for the tool box used a locking joint that I was considering but decided against that due to the wood I am using. Guanacaste is very fibrous wood. Now I know all wood is fibrous in that all wood is made up of fibers, but I hope you understand when I say this is fibrous wood I mean that the fibers tear easy and come apart easily. Hence to have a 1/4"  cross grain groove a 1/4" away from the end of the drawer pieces was really asking for disaster as it would break very easily. It looked like a challenging joint to make by hand but I didn't want to risk it so I went with dovetails, which came about during a "duh" moment when my inner self said "Mark, what are you stupid or something? Use dovetails for crying out loud." So that is what I will be doing for the drawers. I gives me an opportunity to improve on my dovetailing which right now usually results in gaps large enough to drive a truck through. But there is always hope.

So here are the pieces rough cut for the drawers. Right now I haven't come to a decision on the bottem of the drawers as I don't want the case being to large in height. It will eventually be 11"1/2 high right now. So I am having to have a fairly thin bottom which won't be too much of a problem since there really isn't too much weight to the oils. So right now I am thinking of using some 3/16 plywood I have lying around the shop. I know, using plywood on something like this is a sin but I really am not confident in my ability yet to tackle a thin piece of hardwood for the bottom. Also I am thinking of using plywood for the dividers but I will talk about that and the other options in the next few posts. 

So why am I making the drawers first. The entire case revolves around the bottles of oil, so based on their size and how to fit it all in a case that looks nice and my wife can carry causes me to start from the inside out. If you happen to check out Tom Fidgen's web site "anunpluggedlife.com" You will see that he and his members, of which I am proudly one of them, were doing a group build, building a simple cabinet. Sadly I couldn't partake of the project, but am on to my own right now. Anyway, although I am not building the cabinet I am taking away quite a bit from the videos on planning a project and then building it. 

Well, my friends, I must say it was a good day in the shop for me, I worked a little then would read a little for my main job, then work a little more. Keeping everything in balance and enjoying every minute of it. Hope you enjoy the post and look forward to more. 

Take care my friend, and as always God bless

Mark Hynek