For my Handmade box, I decided to use 3/8″ plywood for the sides, 1/2″ plywood for the base, and wood glue to hold it together.

Due to the initial sizes of my wood, I decided to make the box 7″ by 6  7/8″ on the base, the dimensions of the base wood. I made the sides 5  1/4″ tall, roughly half the height of the sheet of plywood.

Once I had cut out the wood, I mitered the edges connecting the side panels with a 45 degree cut, then glued them together, using this interesting clamp mechanism to make the corners meet nicely. (It used 7 different clamps)

To attach to the bottom, I routed a groove along the outside edge of the base so that there was a raised step in the middle that was the inner dimensions of the box, and the lower outside dimensions were the outside dimensions of the box. This allowed the 4 sides to sit cleanly on top of the lower segment with fairly flush meetings on the inside and outside.

The final product came out pretty well, although there are a few significant flaws.

The biggest flaw is that I didn’t apply downward pressure when attaching the base to the sides, and a gap formed between the two along one corner.

There were also some big flaws in the wood that I didn’t hide very well, as you can see along the top of the overall picture on the inside left panel.

This box probably cost around $50. I estimated that I used approximately $7 in materials, almost entirely wood. Most of my woodworking was using hand tools, so I would allocate about another $5 to machine costs. Overall, I spent 4 hours preparing my first attempt and making this box, so assuming a $13/hr wage, labor would cost $52. I also gave a $14 discount for poor craftsmanship.

Overall, I think it came out well, although improvements could still be made.

–John Nickels