Man In A Box

I’m a creator; by now, I think that’s been defined, although the title reads Luthier, I find myself with my hands in many more projects than just guitars. And this post is all about one of those projects.

Around November/December 2021, I was offered a project which involved making boxes. I love making boxes, so I thought, "Hell yes, I'll do it." Oh boy! I was in for a challenge.
I should’ve called this project "300," like the movie 300, where Spartans battled Persians with an army of only 300 warriors. Now, the analogy is because, in this case, I was the only Spartan going to battle against 300 wooden boxes. Death awaits, yes, but it's more about the sacrifice in this tale and the inspiration to carry on.

We are talking about 300 wooden boxes that have the purpose of carrying 13 Vinyl LPs and a book. After taking a look at the prototype brought by the client, I started to imagine how I can push this project forward. The prototype was made with solid birch wood with finger joints - nothing complicated. But making 300 of them is tricky.

The budget was limited, therefore processing solid wood was going to get too expensive for this project. The solution for me was to use plywood and substitute the finger joints with mitered glued corners, the top and bottom of the box create enough support/rigidity, and the process is straightforward.

As the main material, I decided to go for high-quality plywood. In theory, this material should be free of knots, patches, imperfections, and defects. To be honest, I don't find that this was the case because there were plenty of patches and knots. So, high-quality plywood doesn’t mean flawless material.

The material was bought in January 2022, winter, oh Finnish winter indeed, this is important to remember, it’s a piece of very important information used later on.
My workshop is set up for musical instruments fabrication mainly, which means that I don't have a big table saw, a sliding table saw that is, so to process all the sheets of plywood, I had to do it somewhere else. The processing means cutting the 4mm sheets for tops and bottoms, and 9mm sheets for sides with 45° edges.

I’m used to working with a custom guitar at the time, so material counting should be just easy no biggie, not really. I was short not once, not twice but thrice. What a rookie mistake indeed, especially because it involves waiting, going back to the place I was cutting the material, and then transporting everything back to my shop. Three times, I had to do that because of my terrific material counting skills. This process took around 10 hours.

Once the material was processed, the following process was laser engraving the logo and all the necessary texts. It took many tries to cut down the engraving time to 20 minutes per top, multiplied by 300 tops, which equals around 100 hours. Additionally, it took 6 minutes for the underpart of each top, multiplied by 300, resulting in 30 hours.

So, if we add it all together, including the time it takes to change the material, clean, etc., I estimate that it roughly came to around 150 hours for the laser engraving alone, not counting the numerous attempts to perfect the process. At this point, the total count would be 160 hours.

The following step was to make the channel where the top and bottom slide on the sides. This was done on a router table with a 4mm bit, so routing 300 boxes equals routing 1200 sides. The process is not that difficult; it is just tedious.

After the 1200 sides were done, only then did I realize that some of the sheets for the top and bottom weren't 4mm as expected, but they were 4.5mm. What a surprise!
Therefore, all the sides had to be re-routed with a 5mm bit. Unfortunately, this created some tearouts on some sides. At this point, I had to redo one of the tasks, and the results were not as flawless as I had planned. So, this operation took a total of about 20 hours, adding to the 180 hours we already had in the project.

The following task in line was gluing. With the help of three miter box clamps, the process was pretty straightforward. Lots of glue, lots of patience, which took around 60 hours. After that, each box was sanded and imperfection holes were filled, which took another 60 hours. Altogether by now, it has taken around 300 hours.

As a protection for the wood, I used Hardwax Oil. This was another case where I underestimated the amount of material needed, so it took me four trips to the hardware store to buy more oil each time. It was quite expensive, and this raw, dry material absorbed a lot of oil.

The next step involved cutting open all the boxes to make the lid. All in all, I would say it took me around 30 hours to complete these steps. So, if you are counting, it would be a total of 330 hours.

By now, I was happy. The only major problem I had was some tear-out on a few sides during the routing process. But overall, I was satisfied. However, everything was about to change soon.

As mentioned before, the plywood was bought in winter. After a few months in a controlled warm environment, I didn't expect to find out that some sides had warped slightly. This caused them to be a few millimeters smaller on the inside. As a result, while testing the fit for the Vinyl cover, I discovered that some just didn't want to go in. Shiiiiieeet!

That day, I went home early and tried not to think about it.

The following day, I decided to check how many were affected by that problem. It turned out that just a few shy of 50 had encountered the issue. With this number in mind, I began considering my options. Should I redo all of them? Not really, as the client has a due date of May 28th, and my delivery date is set for May 15th. There's simply no way I can order more materials and process 50 boxes again within that timeframe.

So, I started brainstorming alternative solutions. What if I tried sanding them? Unfortunately, that didn't yield any positive results. I then considered humidifying the boxes and forcibly straightening them out. However, this approach also proved unsuccessful.

It was then that I recalled applying glue on the channels where the top and bottom parts are fitted. With the use of a clamp and a straight piece of wood, I managed to unglue the sides from the center, thereby releasing the bend. This granted me the precious millimeters needed for the vinyl cover to fit properly.

Started this project in the second week of January, and finished on the 15th of May, which was my deadline, as promised. Looking back, I'm sure I could have done things better, differently, and more professionally. It's easy to say that now because it's easy to see when looking back. Therefore, I believe that every decision, wrong or not, was the right one at that precise moment, on the specific second when decisions were needed.

I don't aim for perfection, but I do aim for the best that I can do. And this battle against these 300 boxes brought out the best in me during those 400 hours. Perhaps, if this experience repeats itself, there will be setbacks, issues, and victories of their own. I don't strive for perfection in what I make, create, or produce because I don't know what it is and I've never seen it. Art is more like me. Art is what I make, what I can create. Each one of these 300 boxes tells a story of what I have learned, what I did right, and what I did wrong. Each one will have its own personality, just like you and me.

So, in case you are the owner of one of these 300 boxes, I just hope that the one you have is the right one for you. If that's the case, then it means I delivered. I hope that you have the one you weren't expecting but ended up being the perfect fit for you, then we all get to understand each other. I hope the box you have is not just a box, but the carrier of the music inside. It is the connection to the individuals and characters involved in the process of making Sentenced, the band that it was. I hope the box and the music inside speak to you. If they do, then it means we all delivered.

Thanks to Sentenced for this project. 400 hours later, I’m out!