Senior picture box

[Young_Scroller]

I want to make a small box to hold my senior pictures and want some ideas. Each picture is only about 2"x 3" so it would be very small but Im not sure how I would go about making it, whether to use a hinged lid or some sort of sliding lid. Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

-Joe

[Blaughn]

Steve Goode has some box patterns you can download for free.  These may help:  http://www.stevedgood.com/catalog/  Go to this link and search for "box".

[spirithorse]

Greetings,

A lot of the answer to your question just depends on your personal taste and your expertise with other tools.
There are some beautiful hinged boxes that are very appealing but, a sliding lid box like you mentioned can be beautiful also.
With that type box you will probably want to use a router to make the groove.

 You can also make some boxes with what I would call
'lipped' edges. Either the edge of the box or the edge of the lid has a lip to slide into one another.

I hope you'll show us a pic or two of your box (boxes).

God Bless! Spirithorse

[CharleyL]

There are quite a few decisions that you need to make before building a box. First decision is "what is the exact size of the largest picture", Second is " how accessible do I want each picture to be"?  Third is  "how many pictures will need to be stored in the box" and "will space need to be added for more pictures, if so, how many" ?  The next decision is " will this box need to be a fine finished box to be put on display in a family area, or just a storage box for safe keeping the photos"? Would you like scroll sawn patterns on the outside of the box?

It would be fairly easy to make a Shaker Style Candle Box with a sliding lid almost any size that you might need from Baltic Birch or thin pine boards, but "will this type of box hold the pictures in the way that you want them held and would a plain Baltic Birch or pine box be suitable" ? A photo album is the way most people keep their photos, so they can be shown frequently to friends and family, yet keep them together well protected yet easily displayed without gaining damage or finger marks.

Put some deep thought into these questions before deciding on the kind of box and it's size. I make a lot of boxes for keeping my tools and their accessories together. Also quite a few for family needs, and  I like to use Baltic Birch because it is so stable. I also like box jointed or dovetail corners, but the box jointed corners work best when making boxes from Baltic Birch. The finished boxes are very strong and can be finished and lined to make them attractive, but the surface wood grain of the Baltic Birch is not very attractive if you are looking to fancy up the appearance. A made from solid wood with interesting grain would be a better choice. A search for photos of wooden boxes on Google will bring up pages of box photos if you need some ideas. Then the size needs to be decided on. 

Attached are photos of a simple box that I made to hold a 9mm pistol. It is padded well, so when the box is closed the pistol is held in place. I was planning to add a recess in the shape of the pistol, but the customer is always right and wanted it this way. The box was made from 1/2" Baltic Birch with a 1/4" Baltic Birch top and bottom. It has a finish comprised of 1 coat of linseed oil, one coat of clear shellac, two thin coats of Zar Cherry stain, and 3 coats of wipe on polyurethane. All of the hardware came from the local Lowes. This box was a "quickie" and not very fancy. The box, before finishing, probably took me less than 1/2 hour to make, but it's difficult to say exactly because I was making 5 other different size boxes at the time, all were built the same way, but in different sizes. 

PM me if you have questions, but I'll probably be asking you a bunch of questions too. Think about exactly what you want and look at the Google Images for help deciding. Save copies of the ones that you like or have questions about so you can ask me questions about them and how they are built. But first, figure out how big the box needs to be.

Charley

[Young_Scroller]

Thanks for all of the helpful ideas! It just needs to be a small box that I can keep my 2"x 3" pictures in while carrying them around in my backpack to hand out to people at school.  After I have thought about it I think I am going to try to use my router and to clear out the inside of my box since it doesnt need to be very big and that is something I have never done before and now I can try something new!

 

[Jim McDonald]

Several years ago, I made a box to hold a gift card and then become a small jewelry box.  I glued up several species of wood in varying thickness until it was about 2" high.  I drew the box on the wood, drilled holes in all four corners and cut out the inside, then cut the outside to dimension--leaving a wall of about 1/8".

Cut a bottom to fit and then made a lid.  My niece now uses it store her grandmothers' pearls that she received when she finished her CPA.

So, you can cut a blank slightly larger than the photos, then a  bottom and get some small hinges from Hobby Lobby to make a top.

[MrsN]

look for some business card holders, they are a similar size and could be modified to work for senior pictures.

[Roberta Moreton]

Steve Good has a business card holder rthat iss quick and easy

[oldhudson]

I think working with small pieces of stock can be dangerous. If possible use larger blanks especially if you try clearing out stock with a router as you indicated you were considering. I have a special cross cut sled for working with small stock. And often turn to hand tools when working small pieces of stock. Also, I think you'd be better off thinking of glued butt joints on this type of project.  Be careful and be sure to post a pic when your done.

[WayneMahler]

I have seen some patterns that worked for business cards. With a little modification on size they should work well for photos also. Just a thought

[hawkeye10]

On 9/11/2017 at 2:22 PM, CharleyL said:

There are quite a few decisions that you need to make before building a box. First decision is "what is the exact size of the largest picture", Second is " how accessible do I want each picture to be"?  Third is  "how many pictures will need to be stored in the box" and "will space need to be added for more pictures, if so, how many" ?  The next decision is " will this box need to be a fine finished box to be put on display in a family area, or just a storage box for safe keeping the photos"? Would you like scroll sawn patterns on the outside of the box?

It would be fairly easy to make a Shaker Style Candle Box with a sliding lid almost any size that you might need from Baltic Birch or thin pine boards, but "will this type of box hold the pictures in the way that you want them held and would a plain Baltic Birch or pine box be suitable" ? A photo album is the way most people keep their photos, so they can be shown frequently to friends and family, yet keep them together well protected yet easily displayed without gaining damage or finger marks.

Put some deep thought into these questions before deciding on the kind of box and it's size. I make a lot of boxes for keeping my tools and their accessories together. Also quite a few for family needs, and  I like to use Baltic Birch because it is so stable. I also like box jointed or dovetail corners, but the box jointed corners work best when making boxes from Baltic Birch. The finished boxes are very strong and can be finished and lined to make them attractive, but the surface wood grain of the Baltic Birch is not very attractive if you are looking to fancy up the appearance. A made from solid wood with interesting grain would be a better choice. A search for photos of wooden boxes on Google will bring up pages of box photos if you need some ideas. Then the size needs to be decided on. 

Attached are photos of a simple box that I made to hold a 9mm pistol. It is padded well, so when the box is closed the pistol is held in place. I was planning to add a recess in the shape of the pistol, but the customer is always right and wanted it this way. The box was made from 1/2" Baltic Birch with a 1/4" Baltic Birch top and bottom. It has a finish comprised of 1 coat of linseed oil, one coat of clear shellac, two thin coats of Zar Cherry stain, and 3 coats of wipe on polyurethane. All of the hardware came from the local Lowes. This box was a "quickie" and not very fancy. The box, before finishing, probably took me less than 1/2 hour to make, but it's difficult to say exactly because I was making 5 other different size boxes at the time, all were built the same way, but in different sizes. 

PM me if you have questions, but I'll probably be asking you a bunch of questions too. Think about exactly what you want and look at the Google Images for help deciding. Save copies of the ones that you like or have questions about so you can ask me questions about them and how they are built. But first, figure out how big the box needs to be.

Charley

Nice box Charley but where is the gun. I love guns as much as I like wood working.

[CharleyL]

I built the box for someone else, who owns the gun. She brought the gun, tried it in the box, and then took the gun and the box with her. I didn't even get the chance to take a photo of the gun in the box. I've been told that the box has received considerable attention when it is taken to the range, though I haven't even seen the box since it left my shop..

Charley

[JOE_M]

If it's not too late, check out this video I just stumbled on while looking for box ideas myself. I think the flat boxes that show up around the 4:30 mark would work great, all you need to do is adjust the size to fit your pictures. 1/8" wood and butt joints and they look great.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5nfZqkcc0