I built this toy box for the son of a friend of mine. The box
itself is made of poplar and measures 18" x 18" x 36". The floor of the box is
1/2" thick plywood which is held in place in dadoes in each of the four sides.
The lid overhangs the front and both sides by 3/4", and also has strips
along each end that are 2" wide and are made of walnut. The checkerboard,
which measures 12" x 12", is inlaid into the lid and is made of walnut (the
dark squares) and maple (the light squares). The lid is attached with a
long section of piano hinge that is recessed into rabbets in both the back
wall and the underside of the lid.
The four sides are held together by box joints at the corners.
These were made using a 1/2" box joint jig on a table saw with a 1/2" dado blade.
The pins and tails of these joints fit together really well but did protrude
a little bit (perhaps 1/8") beyond the corner. I used a
flush-cutting router jig
to even off the corners with the surface level of each side. The front two corners
were rounded over using a 1/2" roundover bit in a handheld router.
The toy box was finished, inside and out, with two coats of
polyurethane in the shade of Honey Pine. The checkerboard and the
walnut strips on the ends of the lid were not stained, but were treated with
two coats of a clear polyurethane.
