The original version of this box belonged to my late father-in-law, Wilbur Rader. I suspect it came from a department store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, circa 1950. While my wife loves it for its sentimental value, it is not particularly well made. So when I set out to make copies for his three grandsons, I took a few liberties with the construction to make the new boxes more durable than the original, which was essentially just nailed together.
The star feature of this box is its curved lid. On the original it’s a bent piece of plywood, but I made mine from solid 8/4 stock that I coved on the tablesaw. Cove-cutting on the tablesaw involves running your workpiece at an angle across the blade to create a curved cut. As explained in the article on page 28 , varying the angle of approach allows you to control the amount and shape of the curve. However, the setup for coving this box is dead simple. You need only to set up a pair of auxiliary parallel fences that are perpendicular to the blade–no other calculations are needed.
Woodcraft Magazine's Classic™ Project Plans
These plans are the "best of" the projects from Editors of Woodcraft Magazine. Each plan features step by step instructions with detail photographs, exploded illustrations for various project steps, a cut list and cutting diagram, and a Convenience Plus Buying Guide so you know exactly what supplies are required to complete the project. Whether you are a beginner or an accomplished woodworker, the Woodcraft Classic Plan series will have a plan for you!

Once your order is placed, you will have immediate access to the download in your account under 'recent orders'. If you do not have an account, you will need to create one in order to download your article or plan.