4/16/2024 0 Comments Wooden engagement ring box![]() Man, the magnets give it such a satisfying “KLLLLP!!!” sound when it closes. This section didn’t need to be pretty, it was going to be covered up with the origami mechanism anyway. Now I had to re-reveal the routed out sections simply cutting into the section with an Xacto allowed me to fold the fabric in and glue it down. I glued the hinge to both sides and let it dry overnight. To apply the cloth to the paper backer, I used some good old 3M Super77 (never leave home without it)! I cut in relief angles to avoid overlap (and thus avoid unnecessary thickness to the final hinge piece) and then I folded the cloth over to affix it to the card stock backer. Putting the card sandwiched in place between the wooden halves allowed me to trace out the notch exactly and cut that out from the tracing. Exact measurements follow the same as the wooden housings themselves, but it was just as easy to mark the layout holding the card stock next to the wooden parts. As a core for this fabric hinge, I used some 65lb cardstock that was cut to match the layout of the wooden housing. I chose this approach because affixing a standard type hinge would be bulky and it would have to attach to the end grain (which meant screwing it in would tend to split the wood). The idea was to avoid using standard types of hinges and instead just use a piece of fabric that would act as a hinge. After sanding down to 400 grit and a couple coats of poly, the woodworking portion of this project done! A 1/4″ bit fit the 8mm x 4mm magnets perfectly. I also drilled some holes for magnets that would keep the box closed. I routed out the notch into the tops of each half using a 1/4″ cove bit and some stop blocks on the router table. A plunge router with a guide bushing allowed me to plunge out a 1/8″ deep cavity in the blanks. I loaded the blanks into the jig and clamped them both down to the table, with the window face up. My improvised jig for routing out the insides of the box. ![]() I created a jig that allowed that wooden blank to sit flush on one side (so the jig and the blank could lay flat and securely on a work surface) and expose a portion (2.125″ x 2.625″) of the other face on the other side (so that a plunge router could hog out a recess into the blank). It’s difficult to paint a word picture for the next step, but I’ll do my best. After having these long strips available to cut my blanks from, I ripped and chopped them to their final dimensions of 4″ x 2.75″ After getting the two pieces almost there, I knocked them apart using a hammer and chisel and then cleaned up the center line with a pass through the planer. The latter seemed safer since it was a taller piece of stock and I was not sure what the offcut side would do a kickback injury this early in the project might have made me just go buy a ring box and call it a day. Some techniques just cut clean through, but some people leave the two pieces BARELY connected. Basically you take your thicker stock and keep nibbling away at it with multiple passes, flipping the piece end-for-end until the cuts meet in the middle. ![]() I wanted the wooden halves to be about 1/4″ thick In the past I’ve done some resawing on the bandsaw, but I wanted to try to technique on the table saw to “resaw”. It’s always stunning, so that decision was easy. I think it’s easy to say that my favorite species of wood based just on the look of it is black walnut. This will be a high level guide of how I designed my version of this unique engagement ring box.įirst, the wooden shells. A very cool design that seems incredibly simple! The various makers of this type of box charge an arm and a leg, plus making it myself was the goal here, so I used as many reference photos of boxes like these “pirouette boxes” and figured it out. There is a little piece of origami built into the slim design box that allows the ring to sit flat when the box is closed, but when opened, the ring unfolds and sits upright. ![]() There are plenty of designs out there that range from simple to ornate, I had always wanted to understand the underlying mechanism of this type of engagement ring box. I had the girl and I had the ring, the two most important parts of the process were already done! The hard part was going to be actually getting the courage to drop the question, but before that, there was some light woodworking to be done! Using a standard engagement ring box during a proposal would lack personal touch and character that the big moment deserved, so I decided to make my own ring box.
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