A Bank For Cruz . . . Part 1

I was asked by a lady many of you know

as Trailbee to make a bank for her Grandson

Cruz. This is the finished bank above.

I don't usually do this, but I'm going to explain

exactly how I made this bank. The bank comes

from Grandma and these "How-To" posts come

from Odie ... Enjoy Cruz, I enjoyed making your

bank.

The first step, that is not pictured here, is to mill the wood to

the proper thickness. In the case of the banks, the sides are

3/8" thick and the top and bottom are 1/4" thick. When I cut

the sides to length, I cut them 4-5/8" long and 4-1/8" wide. One

of the reasons for this is when the top and bottom are attached

it forms a perfect cube. The other reason for this size is the

width of 4-1/8" fits this style of joinery perfectly. Each finger

of this "Box joint" is exactly 3/8" in width. 

 Above is how I make the fingers of the box joint. Looking at

this can be deceiving. There are 8 sides pictured here clamped

to the sled. The taller one pictured is a backer piece to prevent

chip out of the bank sides. These are 8 sides of 4 banks. The

other 8 sides are done later. They will be milled so that their

fingers fit between the fingers of these pieces. 

 There is a 3/8" router bit sticking up a little more than 3/8"

above the table. I like to make the joint ends "Proud" and

sand them smooth later. The sled rides on the fence and passes

the wood squarely through the 3/8" bit.

This jig pictured here is called an "Incra Jig".

 Cruz, here are all the pieces that make up your bank.

Here I'm dry fitting the sides to make sure they fit.

That's it for part one.