How to make a wooden box, for wedding wishes

In this kind of boxes, the guests of a wedding, place their wishes for the new married couple.

I made this box out of spruce wood and plywood. It’s dimensions are 40x20x18cm.

First of all I cut the pieces to size with my table saw. For the cross cuts I used my cross cut sled.

I then glued and clamped the sides of the box. 

After the glue dried, I added screws to all the joints. I first predrilled pilot holes and then counter sinked them before adding the screws in place.

I then nailed and glued the top and bottom pieces in place.

With a block plane I trimmed the sides flush.

I then sanded the whole piece flush with my orbital sander and 80 grit sandpaper.

Now I cut the top off using my table saw. Before the final cut, I clamped a shim in place to make sure that my cut would work out nicely.

I then applied wood filler to any imperfections.

I glued a few templates on a 12mm piece of birch plywood using spray adhesive. I then drilled all the entry holes on my drill press. Using a fret saw I cut all the pieces I needed. I then Sanded them using small files and sandpaper. I cut them all apart on the bandsaw. I sanded their outer sides on my disc sander. I used my heat gun to remove the paper templates.

I then glued and nailed in place the design element of the top.

To drill out the holes I needed, I used a small guide block I made. To prevent the drilling from splitting the wood I clamped two pieces of wood in place.

I then cut a few circular pieces on the bandsaw and sanded them on the disc sander.

I also used my table saw to cut four small blocks. I used a stop block on my cross cut sled to ensure I get all the pieces at the same size. 

I finished shaping the block on my disc sander.

I sanded the whole piece with 100grit and then moved to 280grit.

I then applied two coats of white wood stain while light sanding between coats. It is really important to apply the stain with the grain of the wood.

I added three coats of water based, teak color varnish to all the cut out pieces.

I finished everything with a clear protective coat of water based satin varnish.

I then predrilled and screwed the hinges in place.

I then  assembled everything with a string. The box has a string mechanism with which you can adjust all the elements the way you want. To make it easier to work with the string, I added a few drops of super glue in various parts. This helps the fibers of the string, to stay in place.

At this point my box is ready to receive some wishes!

I hope you like it!