How to Make a Jewelry Box Gift | ToolsToday CNC Video

How do you think this turned out? Making a large jewelry box on the Stepcraft M.1000 CNC machine using the Amana Tool® CNC Router bits and Black Box Storm vacuum, all available on our website toolstoday.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=shop-cart

If you'd like to make it yourself or as a gift, the plans for this project are also available on our site item no. JEWL_LG
toolstoday.com/large-wooden-jewelry-box-cnc-plans-downloadable-and-customizable.html

Feed, Speed & CNC Running Parameters

Amana Tool 46202-K SC Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated Spiral Plunge 1/4 Dia x 3/4 CH x 1/4 SHK 2-1/2 Inch Long Down-Cut Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-13779-46202-k-bit.html
RPM: 18,000
Feed Rate: 100ipm
Plunge Rate: 50ipm
Depth per pass: 0.25”

Amana Tool 45771-K Solid Carbide Spektra Extreme Tool Life Coated 30 Degree Engraving 0.005 Tip Width x 1/4 SHK x 2-1/4 Inch Long Signmaking Router Bit
toolstoday.com/v-14233-45771-k.htmlFeed Rate: 75ipm
Speed (RPM): 18,000
Chip Load (Per Tooth): 0.05“

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

You might think a small project like this would be easy to make, but there is a lot that went into the design of this to make everything possible. Let me walk you through how I did it.

I started out using the Shaper Trace, using this to take some text that my wife hand-lettered and convert that into vectors. I can then save that off to the Shaper Hub and be able to access that on my computer. She did two versions of this, and I wanted to get both of those scanned in. The nice thing about the Shaper Trace is it doesn't matter what angle you're at; you don't have to be directly over to get a perfect trace of that image. I can then bring those into the Vectric software, and I only have to do a little bit of modifying. I can even play around with which one goes with which text. That way, I can kind of create something a little custom and adjust the size as needed or adjust the angle as needed. It's really nice, and it gives a really clean trace.

So, we got that all done and we got that put on the top of the box. You can see the design here with 14 total tool paths that make up just the box portion. The plans for this project are available on our website. Be sure to check them out. There it goes into all detail on how everything is set up and gets you all ready to go.

So, I got the piece put down on the Stepcraft M1000 CNC machine and got it sucked down using the BlackBox Storm vacuum to the wasteboard. We'll pick up a 1/4-inch down-cut bit so that we can begin cutting. First, I'm going to go through here and cut a pocket that's going to be the outside lip of the bottom of the box. Then, we'll go in and cut the inside of the box out, creating a lip for the trays that are going to be sitting on it. We then have some finger holds that are cut in, and then I'll cut the inside pocket of the box.

On this project, I did use Oramask on it. That is simply for filming purposes only. We're not doing anything that would require Oramask, but it allows you to see better what's actually happening while we're cutting. This is going to go down in three separate passes. We're going to use an offset tool path to do the majority of the waste removal, and then on the final one, we will use a raster tool path moving with the grain with a really small step-over to ensure we get a finish that requires absolutely zero sanding. We'll then go through and flatten the top of the top portion of the box, and that's going to ensure that we have a nice fit between the two sides of the box. We'll do the exact same thing, finishing with that finishing tool path to ensure we have no sanding.

Then, we can begin cutting the outside profile of the box. The down-cut action of the bit leaves a perfectly clean top surface, so that way we can ensure there's no chipping there. We switch out for a point roundover bit. This bit's just going to go through and add a small roundover on some of the inside areas. That way, we have a nice roundover that we don't need to add later on. We don't need to do any sort of hand sanding to achieve. We did that on the inside portions but not the outside, as we want to have a nice flat mating surface where the two parts of the box come together.

With that done, we can switch out for a 30° engraving bit to engrave some text on the bottom of the tray, the bottom of the top of the tray. So then, we'll go through and get that done. We're only cutting .02 inches into this material, just less than a 1/32nd of an inch. And you can see, because of the small curve left, there are some chips left in that cut. Those can be cleaned up with a toothbrush or even just some compressed air. But if you actually take it and you run the same exact tool path again, it ends up cleaning up almost all of those chips that are left in that curve. So, that's exactly what we're doing here—just running the exact same tool path again for a nice cut without any sort of chips left inside that cut.

So, we went through and did that again on the entire text, and we're left with a really, really nice clean engraving on there. So, after that's done, we can get it switched out for a quarter-inch upcut bit, and we can do this without worrying about any sort of chip out on that top surface because we already went through and used the downcut bit to do the first pass. So, this upcut bit's only going to be cutting through the material. We need to use an upcut bit here for better chip evacuation. An upcut bit going through a 1-inch thick material is definitely a lot better, as you're not going to end up with basically cement in the form of wood chips at the bottom of the cut like you would with a downcut bit. So, the upcut does a better job at evacuating all the chips and ensuring that we have a nice profile cut.

We didn't cut all the way through the material, just left an onion skin. We got that all popped out, and right off the machine, you can see that we have a perfect fit. In the plans, I go over and explain exactly how it is that we achieve this and how you can achieve this for your machine.

For the trays that are going to fit on the inside of the box, I need to first rip down a piece of pecan. This is spalted pecan, and we're using the table saw to do that. I made a high fence for it, and it did a really nice job. Take it over to the drum sander, run it through, and just with a couple passes on the drum sander, we're left with a nice clean material. And we saved that offcut that I'll use for a future project. Put some Oramask on it as well, and then got the BlackBox Storm vacuum turned on again, and it is sucked down to the machine and going absolutely nowhere. I'll start off with a point roundover bit here to go around the outside edges of these trays. It's important to do this here on the CNC machine, as I would not be able to fit a roundover bit on the router table without hitting the bottom of the trays with the bearing on the bit. So, we're just going through and rounding all of that over.

Getting switched out for a 1/4-inch downcut bit again, we're actually going to use the downcut bit to do all of the cutting on this. Since it's a lot thinner of a material, we don't need to worry so much about chip evacuation on this piece, and we can just use the downcut bit to do everything. We're doing the same exact thing as we did before, where we're doing a roughing tool path in an offset direction, and then we'll go back with a raster tool path to clean everything up with a really small step over to ensure that we have very little sanding, if any, to do on these trays.

So, you can see that cleaning that up there, it's really satisfying to see all of those marks go away, and it looks really nice. We got everything all done, and then we can turn our attention to the outside profile of everything. This, I kind of struggled with getting everything to fit correctly on this piece, so I had everything right up against its tolerances, but everything held really nicely, and it did a great job holding everything in place. So, we got all of the pieces cut out, and we left that little bit of onion skin there again to hold everything in place while cutting. We moved the bit away, and we can get those all popped out through the onion skin. And I absolutely love the look of this spalted wood. It turned out really, really nice. I couldn't be happier with the overall look of everything.

With that done, we can move over to the router table, where we can get all of the pieces rounded over, just using an E8 roundover bit here to round over the bottom sides of the box and the bottom sides of the tray as well. It did a really nice job cleaning everything up, leaving no chip marks, and really no sanding required at all. For the smaller tray parts, I used a MicroJig GRR-RIPPER block to keep my hands away from everything and keep things nice and safe. I cannot get enough of the spalting on this wood. The grain is beautiful.

So, I was going to start sanding on these just like I normally would on any project. The finish on the inside here is absolutely perfect, requires no sanding at all, and it's ready for finish. So, really all we need to do is put these back together, do a little sanding on the outside, and these will be ready for finish. By putting these together, we ensure that everything fits absolutely perfectly. Again, no sanding required on the inside at all. And I use some Walrus Oil cutting board oil as a finish for this piece. I've used it on other projects like this, and it holds up really nicely and makes the wood look absolutely amazing. So, we got that applied to everything. I let that sit overnight and then came back the next day and buffed everything off for a nice finish. All of the carved areas, you can use an air compressor to kind of blow out that finish, so that way you end up with a really nice looking inside there and no sort of finish buildup.

With all of the finish buffed off, I can see how everything fits together. We have an absolutely beautiful fit, and I love the overall look of this box and seeing how everything comes together. After that, I can get the trays buffed off as well. We can put those inside the box to see how everything fits together, and it slides really nicely along the lip there. We can move that aside. We have storage on the bottom. We can also use the longer tray, which you can optionally include if you want to have two of those instead of two of the smaller size. All of those tool paths that we started with ended up creating this box that I cannot get enough of. I absolutely love the way that this project turned out and could not be happier with it.

If you want to make this for yourself, be sure to check out the plans or the tools on our website. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed this one. We'll catch you guys back out here in the next one. Have a great day!

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