In this video, I show you how to build this modern tissue box with bent laminated corners with tongue and groove joinery. This is the full build video of my official entry for the #RocklerBentWoodChallenge hosted by Rockler and The Modern Maker Podcast. I hope you guys enjoy the build!
Check out the full build video below!
Affiliate links are used below. I get a small commission from sales made through them, at no extra cost to you 🙌
TOOLS
MATERIALS
Walnut Hardwood Lumber
White Oak Hardwood Lumber
3/4” MDF
1/4” MDF
STEP 1: Cut veneers to size
I began the project by making the corners of the box first. Since I’ll be bending the wood along the direction of the grain, the veneer should be as thin as possible, that’s why these walnut veneers from Rockler worked perfect for this. After cutting them to their rough sizes, I submerged them in water to soften them up.
STEP 2: template for form
While the veneers soaked, I began to work on the form. First I made a 1/4” template by cutting a 2” diameter hole, which will be the inner radius of the box corners. Then I laid out and cut two perpendicular lines, tangent to the hole.
STEP 3: making the form
After taping the template to a piece of 3/4” MDF, I used a 1/4” bit and bushing in my router to cut the two sides of the form. Since I’m using a 1/4” bit, the curves of the pieces will perfectly sandwich 1/4” of material in between them. I ended up making a total of four sets using this method, one for each corner of the box. These pieces will become, what I call, the “master template”.
Since I want the final height of the box to be no less than 3.5” tall, the final form for each corner will be made by stacking 6 pieces of 3/4” MDF. So I used the “master template” to trace out a total of 20 more sets, which I cut out using my jigsaw, staying just outside of the lines. That way I could flush them up at the router table later as I glued them up one at a time.
STEP 4: Pre-bend and glue-up
After the forms were completed, I put a layer of packing tape over the surfaces before putting the wet veneers in to pre-bend them. This will prevent water from seeping into the MDF, which could cause unwanted bumps in the surface. It’ll also avoid any glue from sticking to the form during the glueup later.
I let the veneers dry in the form for 3 days before removing them. Then I glued them up. The pre-bending process made it easier for the glue-up because the shapes in each veneer prevented them from slipping around too much after the glue was applied.
STEP 5: making the cutting jig
While the glue cured, I worked on making a jig for holding and cutting the corner pieces . My thought was that the radius of the jig should match the radius of the parts to maximize the surface area for holding things together. That’s why I started with some leftover pieces from the form.
So I laid out my cuts to leave about ¼” of straight section on either side of the curve And making sure the edges were at 90 degrees. After cutting these pieces to the desired shape and size, these became the templates which I used to make four cutting jigs by following the same steps I used to earlier to make the forms.
STEP 6: cut corners to size
After transferring the veneers to the cutting jig, I held things together as tightly as I could with some tape before making the cut. This jig will help to make the cuts much safer and also should, in theory, make sure the edges will end up at 90-deg after they’re cut.
Next, I setup my router table to cut the grooves along the straight edges of the pieces using a 1/16” bit. I’ve never used a bit this small for this type of operation before, but it handled the cuts like a champ!
STEP 7: theories don’t always work out
After milling and cutting the straight pieces to size, I did a dry fit and realized the corner pieces weren’t quite 90-deg between the bottom/top edge and the side edges. I think this was mainly caused by the fact that tape wasn’t the most robust way to hold things together, so there was a little bit of play between the workpiece and the jig, which caused the variations from piece to piece. But overall, it wasn’t a show stopper. Using an angle gauge, I was able to transfer this deviation over to my table saw to recut the edge of my straight pieces to match the angle on the corner pieces.
STEP 8: cutting tenons & glue-up
Next, I laid out the tenons by referencing both pieces against a flat surface. This is so that any thickness differences between the them will only be on the outside of the box, where it’s much easier to sand down. I repeated this step for all four sides, and then sanded all the pieces down to 220 grit before gluing them up.
STEP 9: fixing more problems
The next day I removed the clamps from the glue up. And as I suspected the top and bottom edges really weren’t squared up. So I built a router flattening jig to fix this. The jig took only about 15-20 minutes to make with some scrap MDF, and made it really easy to flatten both the top and bottom of the box while controlling the amount of material removed. I also used some sawdust and glue to fill in any gaps.
STEP 10: top panel
Next, it’s time to make the top of the tissue box. I started by tracing out the shape of the interior perimeter on a piece of 1/4” MDF and then cutting it out using a jigsaw, staying slightly outside of the lines. Then finally coming back with an orbital sander to finalize the shape until I got a nice tight fit.
Using the template, I cut the top panel at my router table using a flush trim bit. Then I used a 1-1/8” Forstner bit to cut two large holes, and then connected them with two straight cuts using my jigsaw to create the large opening for accessing the tissue paper.
In order to keep the panel flat, I made a couple of battens that will be attached to the bottom side with screws. Before finally gluing the top panel to the rest of the box
STEP 11: bottom panel
The bottom panel will be slightly undersized compared to the top panel since it will be removable and attached to the box using magnets. At the router table, I cut some mortises for housing the magnetic strips in the bottom panel. After squaring up the mortises with a chisel, I used some 5-min epoxy to glue in the magnetic strips.
STEP 12: magnet shelves
With the bottom lid complete, I cut strips of wood at the table saw to make shelves for holding some magnetic buttons on the inside of the box. Once the pieces were cut to size, I drilled some recesses into them for holding the magnets. Once again, I used 5-min epoxy to attach everything.
Finally, I glued these shelves to the inside of the box, using some spacers to keep things level. Now the bottom panel will be easily removable, but still hold things together!