Small box hardware and Holly inlay material

[Don Sforza]

Hello all:

I'm in the process of building the Jefferson lap desk that was featured in FWW several years ago An MBA graduation gift for my daughter). The parts I thought would be hard... really tiny dovetails, working with thin material, keeping everything square, plumb and straight... we pretty much cruised through. It's really a lovely little box. I used traditional drawer-making skills taught to me by on old crusty Brit, and I've got a really nice box with a tight drawer.

Dilemma #1: The gentlemen who wrote the article referenced Crown City Hardware in Pasadena for all the hardware... OK, but the numbers don't match Crown City's numbers, they don't have a catalog on-line, and my first attempt at ordering over the phone resulted in the wrong item showing up at my doorstep earlier today. So, where do all you fancy-pants boxmakers order your plain brass (Quality!!!) hardware. I need 3/4 x 1" butt hinges (already checked my usual supplier - Brusso... nothing). Woodcraft has the size I need, but the quality is suspect. I also need a relatively small drawer lock (the front of the drawer is only 1/2" , so do the math).

Dilemma #2: I decided to outline the drawer with a very small inlay (more of a banding) with Holly. I'm coming up short here too (no jokes, I am vertically challenged). What I need is a strip of Holly, 1/16" thick and about 1/4" wide. I would love to go out and buy that Performax I've always wanted, but SWMBO would find no humor in an $800+ purchase for about $20 worth of materials.

I've done the DAGS thing till my eyes crossed and I'm hoping the literati out there can help.

And I thought restoring a 50 year old Italian car was tough (4 hours and lots of blood to remove two Weber carbs... UGhhhhh!!!).

Ciao, Don

[Teamcasa]

I live not too far from Crown City Hardware. Been there once, never again.

have what you want and if you can't find it on their website, call them - very helpful.

Dave

[Woodhead]

Try

too. Oh, and order their hardware catalog while you are at. I believe it has more selections than their web site.

[Leuf]

A spindle sander with a fence gives you a sideways 4/8" drum sander that also sands curves. It's a little bit finnicky using it as a thickness sander, you've got to keep your feed rate constant to keep the drum from digging in. I had gotten the Wilton version of Grizzly's G0538 for a little over $100 a while back, though Amazon has raised the price since then. Very happy with it, we'll see how long it holds up to the abuse I've been handing it.

1/4" material is not a problem on a table saw, especially with a zero clearance insert. To get a 1/16th slice off it I'd have the board between the blade and fence, overhanging the blade by 1/16th.

Or if you'd be willing to subsitute basswood for the holly you'd have no trouble finding that in scale lumber.

-Leuf

[henry]

Did you try Constantines in Florida for the Holly or Goggle it.

[Don Sforza]

Thanks to all who responded. I was looking at the Lee Valley web site and was not finding anything. Then I dug out the hardware catalog and viola, everything was there. I had to do some searching, but none-the-less there. Thank you. As to the holly, I'm still looking. A fallback will be some maple... the pieces are so small that it might not look too bad. I'm going to give my block plane a tune-up and will make a jig to shave to strips... or maybe scam some time on a performax to get them down. SWMBO has already nixed the new-tool idea. Back to the garage to work on male-femina.

[jev]

SNIP

SNIP

Check guitar making/luthier supply houses. They have all kinds of banding/inlay strips. They may have what you need.

[Ev Dugan]

Try Constantine's for your holly:

http://216.105.59.114/index.asp