I went back into the garage (aka workshop) to try my hand again at this so-called "charging valet". This time I learned from my previous mistakes and made a few improvements to my box. By the way, my sister calls the box a birdhouse. I'm sure you can see why.

Anyways, I went to Home Depot and bought some better wood. I was previously using construction lumber which was strong but didn't really look too good. I'm using some sort of poplar pine (I think) which looks a little nicer and has some better looking grains. However, aesthetics increases the price by 2-3x so I spent about $15 on the materials. The old wood that I used before can be seen in the picture above.

For anyone who thinks woodworking is easy, it actually isn't too easy if you don't have the best tools. We have a miter saw which makes the job a lot easier, and an electric handheld planer and sander but it would be a lot easier if I had a table saw and a table planer. Anyways, there are a few gaps in the joins since I couldn't get the wood pieces cut exactly.

Box 2.0 features a longer box as well as additional height to fit those pesky tall AC adapters such as from Apple iPods. I also used the sander to round out the edges. It actually makes a big difference when you have pointy edges. I didn't realize how nice rounded edges were on your palms and finger tips.



I spent some time today treating the wood with some stain and got the box to a nice cherry color. I'm not done yet. After it dries completely I'll apply some clearcoat finish to make it a little more glossy and clean looking. The camera actually makes it look a lot better than it does in real life.

The gap that you see in the above picture is intentional. Since the hinges take up space between the lid and the box, the box does not close completely. Therefore I planed down the back edge of the box so that the hinges have enough space to rest in there and the rest of the box will close flush with the lid.

I'm kinda bummed that I didn't have a wood-working class in high school. It would have been fun to make stuff for homework. But anyways, I'm just learning as I go along. The whole "measure twice, cut once" phrase is actually quite true. I had to throw away a lid after I mistakenly drilled the hole in the wrong position.

More pictures after I finish the box and assemble the hinges.