**The Making of a Custom Comic Box**

I started this project with a few little bits and bobs that I had lying around, including some sponsorship materials from sponsors who wanted to see me make something. Let's get back to the project after everything was dry, I removed the clamps and then measured the opening for my bottom panel. For this panel, I used Quin MDF, now you could use anything but I decided to use that because out of the same sheet I could also get my dividers. I cleaned up the opening with a chisel added some glue in the bottom and this time spread it around with a brush that I stole from my kids. Set the panel in place and clamped it just tight enough for the surfaces to touch but not enough to warp the wood, and put some weight on the top to hold it down.

I cut my MDF down into strips and then set a stop block on my fence so that I could cut several pieces exactly the same size. These pieces will act as dividers in between the comics. I lined these pieces up and clamped them together and then on the sander, rounded off two corners. This will just help them drop into the slots that I created a little bit easier. Finally, I sanded the fingers down so that they were smooth with the outside surface making sure not to sand away the top layer of veneer.

I finished the whole thing off with a couple of coats of tongue oil finish and this is actually a varnish but it gives a really nice finish to the wood without changing the color of it. Then I just loaded up all my comics, putting in separators where I needed to so it looks like I have to make another one of these because I ended up having more comics than I thought I did and that's perfectly fine. Plus some of these big ones won't even fit in there.

Check out how awesome those are because I had so many I also made way too many separators and I didn't really need to do this many but that's okay, I can use them for something else. You probably could have used an E8 in material here and it would have worked just fine and taken up a little bit less room, I went ahead and used this because I was already getting it for the bottom.

The Box Joint Jig: Using It for the First Time

I thought that using the box joint jig for the first time would be a really good experiment. The gaps are not perfect you have to dial that jig in a little bit to get the spacing exactly like you want to get them really tight, they should have been a little bit tighter here but it did go together and it did hold together even without glue.

Usually when people do box joints they don't use Plywood, And that's because that top layer of veneer gets torn out a lot when you're cutting them. That happened quite a bit around on some of these, but it's really not that bad, from like a foot away you can't even see it. I knew that was going to happen and mainly I didn't really care because I had the material this is going to be for me, and really it's going to go into a closet so I didn't want to spend a lot of time worrying about getting big sheets of wood to use for this.

The Plywood Experiment

I thought that using plywood would show off the fact that they're finger joints you can see that contrast a lot on the corners which I think is really cool and really this was just an experiment to try out the box joint jig. To try making a big box to have the slots cut in it with the DAT blade, and overall for that I think it turned out really nicely like I said this is going to go in a closet so I didn't worry about dressing up the outside of it but one thing that would have been really cool if there was any reason to would be to put some graphics on it. You could do an ink transfer to actually put some comics on the side of it which would be super cool you could use CNC to cut some logos in there's all sorts of stuff that you could do to really dress this up to really show off that it's a comic box.

The Result: A Custom Comic Box

But for me, it's going into a closet doesn't really matter I hope you like this project and if you did please let me know in the comments below or I like toak stuff.com if you've got some comic related projects that you want to share I would love to see those and you can send those to me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram lots of different ways, I love to see the stuff that you guys are working on. I've got lots of other projects and things for you to check out and I've got links for those all over the place so you can find those pretty easily.

And don't forget, I've got a podcast that I do with Jimmy Desta and David Pudo it's called making it, you can find that at making ITP podcast.com.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob at Al like to make stuff today we're going to make a box to store your comic books my box was made from 1/2 in Plywood And I cut down a piece 24 in long and then a piece that was 8 and 1 half in long for the ends I swapped up my blade for a DAT set so I could cut some slots that were a/4 of an inch I set the height of the blade to an eighth of an inch and then I made a dado every inch across the board with the Doos cut I ripped the piece in half perpendicular to the cut so I had two panels with matching Doos on them then I cut the other piece down to size for my end plates finally have a chance to try out this new box joint jig it takes a little time to get this one set up correctly but after that it's pretty easy to use I clamped together the two end pieces so I could cut matching finger joints at the same time keeping them lined up I flipped them over and reamped them and then cut the matching joints on the opposite side of the piece of wood I did essentially the same thing with my outside panels I realized later that I should have flipped these around and put the outside facing veneer on the inside to prevent chip out then I cleaned out the openings with some rolled up sandpaper I clamped a straight edge onto each piece about 3 in up so that I could cut a small rabbit in the bottom of each panel this rabbit will be where I slide in my bottom panel for the whole box I added some glue to each one of the finger joints using a pencil to push it around down in the opening the joints were tight enough that I did have to bang them together and that's a good thing I glued up all the other panels in the same way using a rubber mallet to knock the joints together I tried to do this as quickly as possible so that I could get the box square before the glue really started setting up with all the panels in place I used some long long clamps to really squeeze the joints now you wouldn't want to keep the clamps on in this configuration because the box would end up probably being warped so I use some Corner clamps to hold them in place once I got all the joints tight while that's drawing I want to thank little bits for sponsoring this video if you don't know about little bits there are these really awesome snap together circuits they're great for kids and adults both for figuring out how circuits work and for actually prototyping something there's all sorts of different bits from motor and lights and servos and triggers and buttons and all sorts of stuff one of the newest ones that I got that I'm really excited about is actually an Arduino you can program this with USB you can put code and functionality in here and then you snap on other bits to have the Arduino control those bits there's a lot of possibilities with little bits and you should definitely check them out if you go to little bits.com makestuff you use the code Mak stuff you'll get $20 off your first kit be sure to check them out they're a lot of fun both for kids and adults so thanks to little bits for sponsoring this let's get back to the project after everything was dry I removed the clamps and then measured the opening for my bottom panel for this panel I used Quin MDF now you could use anything but I decided to use that because out of the same sheet I could also get my dividers I cleaned up the opening with a chisel added some glue in the bottom and this time spread it around with a brush that I stole from my kids I set the panel in place and clamped it just tight enough for the surfaces to touch but not enough to warp the wood and put some weight on the top to hold it down I cut my MDF down into strips and then set a stop block on my fence so that I could cut several pieces exactly the same size these pieces will act as dividers in between the comics I line these pieces up and clamp them together and then on the sander I rounded off two corners this will just help them drop into the slots that I created a little bit easier and finally I sanded the fingers down so that they were smooth with the outside surface making sure not to sand away the top layer of veneer I finished the whole thing off with a couple of coats of tongue oil finish and this is actually a varnish but it gives a really nice finish to the wood without changing the color of it then I just loaded up all my Comics putting in separators where I needed to so it looks like I have to make another one of these because I ended up having more comics than I thought I did and that's perfectly fine plus some of these big ones won't even fit in there and check out how awesome those are because I had so many I also made way too many separators and I didn't really need to do this many but that's okay I can use them for something else you probably could have used an E8 in material here and it would have worked just fine and taken up a little bit less room I went ahead and used this because I was already getting it for the bottom so as far as the Box joint jig using it for the first time I thought it worked really well the gaps are not perfect you have to dial that jig in a little bit to get the spacing exactly like you want to get them really tight they should have been a little bit tighter here but it did go together and it did hold together even without glue now usually when people do box joints they don't use Plywood And that's because that top layer of veneer gets torn out a lot when you're cutting them that happened quite a bit around on some of these but it's really not that bad and from like a foot away you can't even see it I knew that was going to happen and mainly I didn't really care because I had the material this is going to be for me and really it's going to go into a closet so I didn't want to spend a lot of time worrying about getting big sheets of wood to use for this that weren't plywood I thought this was just a really good experiment having the plywood really shows off the fact that they're finger joints you can see that contrast a lot on the corners which I think is really cool and really this was just an experiment to try out the box joint jig to try making a big box to have the slots cut in it with the DAT blade and overall for that I think it turned out really nicely like I said this is going to go in a closet so I didn't worry about dressing up the outside of it but one thing that would have been really cool if there was any reason to would be to put some graphics on it you could do an ink transfer to actually put some comics on the side of it which would be super cool you could use CNC to cut some logos in there's all sorts of stuff that you could do to really dress this up to really show off that it's a comic box but for me it's going into a closet doesn't really matter I hope you like this project and if you did please let me know in the comments below or I like toak stuff.com if you've got some comic related projects that you want to share I would love to see those and you can send those to me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram lots of different ways and i' love to see the stuff that you guys are working on I've got lots of other projects and things for you to check out and I've got links for those all over the place so you can find those pretty easily and don't forget I've got a podcast that I do with Jimmy Desta and David Pudo it's called making it you can find that at making ITP podcast.com we do it every week and it just talks about making stuff with your bare hands thanks for watching guys I'll see you next timehey I'm Bob at Al like to make stuff today we're going to make a box to store your comic books my box was made from 1/2 in Plywood And I cut down a piece 24 in long and then a piece that was 8 and 1 half in long for the ends I swapped up my blade for a DAT set so I could cut some slots that were a/4 of an inch I set the height of the blade to an eighth of an inch and then I made a dado every inch across the board with the Doos cut I ripped the piece in half perpendicular to the cut so I had two panels with matching Doos on them then I cut the other piece down to size for my end plates finally have a chance to try out this new box joint jig it takes a little time to get this one set up correctly but after that it's pretty easy to use I clamped together the two end pieces so I could cut matching finger joints at the same time keeping them lined up I flipped them over and reamped them and then cut the matching joints on the opposite side of the piece of wood I did essentially the same thing with my outside panels I realized later that I should have flipped these around and put the outside facing veneer on the inside to prevent chip out then I cleaned out the openings with some rolled up sandpaper I clamped a straight edge onto each piece about 3 in up so that I could cut a small rabbit in the bottom of each panel this rabbit will be where I slide in my bottom panel for the whole box I added some glue to each one of the finger joints using a pencil to push it around down in the opening the joints were tight enough that I did have to bang them together and that's a good thing I glued up all the other panels in the same way using a rubber mallet to knock the joints together I tried to do this as quickly as possible so that I could get the box square before the glue really started setting up with all the panels in place I used some long long clamps to really squeeze the joints now you wouldn't want to keep the clamps on in this configuration because the box would end up probably being warped so I use some Corner clamps to hold them in place once I got all the joints tight while that's drawing I want to thank little bits for sponsoring this video if you don't know about little bits there are these really awesome snap together circuits they're great for kids and adults both for figuring out how circuits work and for actually prototyping something there's all sorts of different bits from motor and lights and servos and triggers and buttons and all sorts of stuff one of the newest ones that I got that I'm really excited about is actually an Arduino you can program this with USB you can put code and functionality in here and then you snap on other bits to have the Arduino control those bits there's a lot of possibilities with little bits and you should definitely check them out if you go to little bits.com makestuff you use the code Mak stuff you'll get $20 off your first kit be sure to check them out they're a lot of fun both for kids and adults so thanks to little bits for sponsoring this let's get back to the project after everything was dry I removed the clamps and then measured the opening for my bottom panel for this panel I used Quin MDF now you could use anything but I decided to use that because out of the same sheet I could also get my dividers I cleaned up the opening with a chisel added some glue in the bottom and this time spread it around with a brush that I stole from my kids I set the panel in place and clamped it just tight enough for the surfaces to touch but not enough to warp the wood and put some weight on the top to hold it down I cut my MDF down into strips and then set a stop block on my fence so that I could cut several pieces exactly the same size these pieces will act as dividers in between the comics I line these pieces up and clamp them together and then on the sander I rounded off two corners this will just help them drop into the slots that I created a little bit easier and finally I sanded the fingers down so that they were smooth with the outside surface making sure not to sand away the top layer of veneer I finished the whole thing off with a couple of coats of tongue oil finish and this is actually a varnish but it gives a really nice finish to the wood without changing the color of it then I just loaded up all my Comics putting in separators where I needed to so it looks like I have to make another one of these because I ended up having more comics than I thought I did and that's perfectly fine plus some of these big ones won't even fit in there and check out how awesome those are because I had so many I also made way too many separators and I didn't really need to do this many but that's okay I can use them for something else you probably could have used an E8 in material here and it would have worked just fine and taken up a little bit less room I went ahead and used this because I was already getting it for the bottom so as far as the Box joint jig using it for the first time I thought it worked really well the gaps are not perfect you have to dial that jig in a little bit to get the spacing exactly like you want to get them really tight they should have been a little bit tighter here but it did go together and it did hold together even without glue now usually when people do box joints they don't use Plywood And that's because that top layer of veneer gets torn out a lot when you're cutting them that happened quite a bit around on some of these but it's really not that bad and from like a foot away you can't even see it I knew that was going to happen and mainly I didn't really care because I had the material this is going to be for me and really it's going to go into a closet so I didn't want to spend a lot of time worrying about getting big sheets of wood to use for this that weren't plywood I thought this was just a really good experiment having the plywood really shows off the fact that they're finger joints you can see that contrast a lot on the corners which I think is really cool and really this was just an experiment to try out the box joint jig to try making a big box to have the slots cut in it with the DAT blade and overall for that I think it turned out really nicely like I said this is going to go in a closet so I didn't worry about dressing up the outside of it but one thing that would have been really cool if there was any reason to would be to put some graphics on it you could do an ink transfer to actually put some comics on the side of it which would be super cool you could use CNC to cut some logos in there's all sorts of stuff that you could do to really dress this up to really show off that it's a comic box but for me it's going into a closet doesn't really matter I hope you like this project and if you did please let me know in the comments below or I like toak stuff.com if you've got some comic related projects that you want to share I would love to see those and you can send those to me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram lots of different ways and i' love to see the stuff that you guys are working on I've got lots of other projects and things for you to check out and I've got links for those all over the place so you can find those pretty easily and don't forget I've got a podcast that I do with Jimmy Desta and David Pudo it's called making it you can find that at making ITP podcast.com we do it every week and it just talks about making stuff with your bare hands thanks for watching guys I'll see you next time\n"