Photo 6- For a swivel-lidded top, bore a hole from the bottom toward, but not through, the area that will be the top. Then cut the top off at the band saw, exposing the bottom of the hole into which you can glue a pivot dowel.

Next I bored a 1/2" hole for the swivel top to pivot upon as in photo 6. I carefully set up the drill press so that the bit would stop at 1/4" from the drill press table top, and made the cut from the box bottom as shown. This way the hole didn't come through the box top.

Then, back at the band saw, I cut off the lid at about 9/16" thick. This left about 1/4" or so of the 1/2" hole in the underside of the top. Into this I glued a 1/2" dowel about 1-1/2" long for the top to swivel upon. To ensure that the dowel was oriented correctly, I placed it in the box carcass after gluing the other end in the top, and checked to see that the lid was parallel to the carcass.

Photo 7- Now cut out the body of the box. Tilt the band saw table if necessary to accomodate the contours of your wood.

To cut out the front portion of the carcass body I tilted the band saw table to match the angle of the rough surface, as in photo 7. But the back portion of the carcass was at right angles to the top and bottom, so I made a separate cut with the table at 90o for that section. This released the central core. From this core I got two components; the box bottom and shelf. The bottom I cut off with a fence to regulate its thickness as in photo 8.

Photo 8- This shot shows the central chunk cut out from the body of the box. I'm cutting off the bottom of it to use as the box bottom. Next, I'll cut off the top of this chunk to make the shelf.

I made a similar cut to get the blank for the shelf. Then, I cut off a thin section from the shelf bottom to make up that part, and began to cut out the cavities for the shelf. Once again, I had to make one cut with the band saw table angled as in photo 9 for the shelf front. The other cuts I made with the table at 90o to complete the shelf.

Photo 9- To cut out the body of the shelf, I once again needed to tilt the band saw table to match the angle of the front of the drawer piece.

Because of the thickness of the band saw kerf, the bottom fit loosely within its space. But, because the front was angled, I was able to drop the bottom down a bit and wedge it in place during the glue up. When the glue was dry I flattened the bottom by sanding.

Resources For Making Bandsawn Boxes