It started out with a simple frustration: when building LEGO sets, it's often hard to read the instructions with glare from the overhead lights without getting a crick in your neck. I began with the realization that it would be nice to have a book holder.

I also like to use trays with lots of little sections for presorting parts as I work. I often use cheap plastic trays—one of my favorite is an ice cube tray. They work well enough in a pinch, but are often easy to bump when you aren't looking and make a mess of everything as pieces go flying.

On top of that, we'd prefer to keep the cats out of the sets when we're not working. So it needs to have a lid.

Prototyping

The first prototype came together quickly, since I had a general idea of what I wanted. After working on some physical sketches, I screwed together some plywood (screws make it much faster to iterate on changes!), and used ribbon to see how the box might work.

Firs things I realized were: I needed a shallower angle, ribbon won't work, and I needed a much bigger box.

Hinges and Lid Support

I had decided early on I wanted to use invisible barrel hinges. Not only do these look nice when opened, but they are strong, invisible when closed (so the box outside details are undisturbed), and allow the box to sit flat on the hinge side, which is important for being usable as an art piece.

Piece Sorting

My initial design simply called for a sorting tray at the bottom. I cut the first one out of acrylic, adding slots to the inner lining material. I figured out after several test runs that not only were the sections too small to be useful, they were also far too deep. It was hard to reach down to grab pieces.

My solution was to not only make the lower section much simpler and shorter, but to bring back sorting options with the removable small parts tray.

I don't have a photo of the prototype tray, but the initial design required a few adjustments before it was both easy to remove and practical for sorting parts. A key feature of the tray is the rounded inside corners, making it simple to slide a piece up and into your hand.

Making a Build Box

I needed to have one final build to ensure everything was working as expected, so I found a beautiful piece of cherry to complete testing and validation.

The first step in any project is milling all the wood to rough or final dimensions, which can be pretty time-consuming when you have a product with over a dozen separate pieces that all need to fit together precisely. (Depending on the design, there are many more pieces that fit into the inlays!)

The Outer Shell

I start by cutting & mitering the outer sides to their final dimensions, plus an extra 1/8" for the table saw kerf. Once the sides and top are fit together, I use the CNC to mill out the shallow hinge support mortise.

The top and bottom are made from edge-glued book matched pieces, and have a rabbet along the sides to fit into a groove running around the edges of the sides.

This is the point where inlay art is added to the lid and sides. I mill my own veneers out of solid wood for the inlay, which is a slow process of shaving thin slices of wood and smoothing them down to about 1/32" thick. I use the CNC to carve out the outline in the body piece, and the laser to cut my veneers so they fit precisely—taking into account the width of the laser beam itself! The veneer pieces are then glued in and sanded smooth. (Note: I didn't have a strong design idea when I started the cherry box, and so the brick mandala was added after the box was assembled!)

The sides, top, and bottom are all glued together into a solid box with no opening. Once dried, I use my spline cutting jig to add reinforcing splines into the corners so the box will be extremely strong for everyday use. These also add visual interest to the box.

Moving Inside

After the splines have set and been cleaned up, I cut the box open at the lid line, which must be precise for the hinge supports to work.

At this point I can install the hinges and hinge supports and verify the "feel" of everything, for lack of a better term. I also take a moment here to smooth out the sides and corners, and round over or chamfer the corners.

I then proceed to cut and hand-fit the inner lining. These pieces serve several purposes:

• They provide a lip to keep the box closed.
• They hide the hinge supports, which is important so they don't interfere with piece sorting.
• They allow for cutting the slots for the lower compartment sorting after gluing up the box.
• They also add some contrast by being made of a different piece of wood.

The lining pieces then have slots cut into them for the acrylic dividers. The dividers themselves I cut out of 1/4" clear acrylic. I attach the lining pieces using small brass screws, rather than gluing them in. This ensures the box hinge supports can be accessed in the future, making potential repairs easy so this box can last for generations.

After this the small parts tray is machined out of solid 3/4" wood, which had been glued up early on so it was ready for this step. The tray has two processing steps on the CNC to get the rounded bottoms, and the bottom is chamfered on the router. And all of it gets a lot of hand-sanding to ensure it's a nice surface to touch.

The other piece of the puzzle is the book shelf, which looks simple, but requires machining precise slots for the 90º hinges, and a careful design to ensure there's a place for the book holder arms to fold against.

Finishing Touches

Just before finishing, there's a few final touches on the laser. The bottom gets information about the box etched in, the small parts tray gets the rulers added, and any design elements that require the laser are added.

Each box gets 3 coats of wipe-on polyurethane for a long-lasting finish. Between each coat everything gets a light sanding. I finish by adding small rubber feet, which help the box stay in place on your table.

The Final Product

All told, each Build Box has well over 30 distinct steps in production, some of which are very time-consuming as they require careful precision, and many of which cannot be automated at all.

I'm extremely proud of this product, and I love that it's able to bring some joy into the world, being both functional and art. I've tried to be careful in thinking through how this is going to be used and enjoyed, and ensure that I've made something that lasts for many years. Hopefully this is the sort of product that you cherish using as much as I've valued the time and care I put into each one.

In today's world, I know not everyone can justify expensive products, so I realize that the functional side of this is easily replaced by simple, inexpensive plastic boxes. If that's what meets your needs, that's perfectly fine! This is an art piece as much as a tool, and I hope it's viewed that way.

I'll end with some photos of completed boxes, though all the ones I currently have for sale are right here. You can commission a custom Build Box that is designed just for you as well!