I was trying to make a simple bandsaw box, but a blade break mid-project forced me to change the design.  Along with other things in life, woodworking can throw you a curveball or two.  I wanted to make a simple yet elegant bandsaw box with simple lines.  When I was cutting the smaller curves for the drawer the bandsaw blade snapped and it forced me to install a 1/4″ blade as a replacement.  This meant that I could no longer have the tight curves as I wanted.  A quick change in plans and I was back in business.

I had some thin walnut left over from making splines on a picture frame.  That, along with some oak, I had I was going to cut the pieces down to a manageable size to glue up.

 

 

When gluing it together I sandwiched two pieces of the walnut in-between the oak giving it a striped effect.  Plenty of glue and clamps makes for a nice tight seam at the joints.

 

 

I planned on using a 1/8″ bandsaw blade so I could cut small curves on the corners of the drawer.

 

 

When cutting the 3rd corner of the drawer the blade snapped.  I’m not sure if I was stressing the blade too much or it was just the blades time.  But I had to move onto plan “B”.  Please Note – I have never had much luck with any blade smaller than 1/4″

 

 

With a 1/4″ blade now installed, I then began to remove the corners in which I had planned to put the small radii.

 

 

Once you cut the pieces apart you can either plane or sand them smooth.  It is easier for me to sand them and a bit less intimidating with these shorter pieces.

 

 

Once all the parts are cut and sanded, I like to mark them so I don’t get them mixed up.

 

 

Them you can apply glue and clamp the drawer pieces together.

 

 

Back to the sander to smooth out the joints.  Make sure when gluing to line up the walnut as best as possible to make sure everything looks uniform.

 

 

Then you can glue up the outer shell.  I made mine just a hair smaller than the drawer so I could sand down the drawer for a nice tight fit.

 

 

More smoothing and final sanding over at the belt sander.  This is not a project I would want to take on without a power sander.  A belt sander is preferred.

 

 

Two light coats of lacquer, left to dry for 15-20 minutes, then a light sanding with 320 grit or above.  Then you can apply as many more coats to achieve the desired effect you are looking for.  I normally do 4-5 more coats.

 

 

I just picked up a small drawer knob from my local hardware store and drilled a hole in the center for the screw.

 

 

With such a small box, getting a screwdriver in there to tighten it would have been difficult.  These right angle screwdrivers come in real handy.  They come in both ratcheting and non-ratcheting models.

 

 

I had a thin piece of black foam from another project that I glued into the bottom of the drawer to act as a liner.

 

 

And before you know it, a bandsaw box.  Also listed below is a complete build video for this project.