I’m more excited than I should be about this simple box.

This box is a first for me. I harvested the wood for this from a log, sawed it on my own bandsaw, dried it for about a year, then turned it into something useful. Probably a big waste of time, but man does it fulfill some primal urges for a woodworker!

The wood that was harvested was a dead ash tree, which was killed by the emerald ash borer. Rather than becoming firewood or mulch, it became a finished good. I needed a toolbox for my new camper to house some random tools and stack nicely, so a rectangular wooden box was the perfect fit. The ash was milled to approximately 1/2″ thick and box-jointed, with dadoes for a plywood top and bottom.

I then put some 1/2″ dividers glued to the bottom/sides to stiffen the bottom, because this will be holding about 30 pounds of steel tools. Finally I put in some 2″ deep ash boxes for additional organization on the top layer. The box is 5″ tall on the outside, ~4″ tall on the inside, with 2 layers each 2″ deep.

To speed up the build I just rabbeted the upper boxes, and used a 1/4″ rabbet in the bottom to inset the plywood floor. All joints are glued, no nails. Right now the only finish is boiled linseed oil, though I might put a coat of lacquer on it later.

Both ends feature the same engraving, done on my K40 laser. Artwork was made in Inkscape.