I made this shadow box for a friend that wanted something unique and special to give his wife for her birthday. He said that she had mentioned wanting something that she could use to display their wedding collectibles (champagne glasses, etc..) that would also keep them clean and protect them from dust.
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The crown molding is solid cherry made from three separate pieces of 3/4" stock that I edged on my router table and then glued together to achieve the desired shape. The base molding is also made from 3/4" stock with a 45 degree chamfer routed on the top edge and a shallow groove routed just below the chamfer to give it a shadow line.
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The rails and stiles for the sides of the cabinet as well as the door are assembled using mortise and tenon joinery. The back panel of the cabinet and the panels in the sides are 1/4" luaun. The front pieces of the crown and base moldings are glued to the cabinet and at the corner joints but the sides of the moldings are attached with screws from behind through slotted holes using washers to allow for expansion and contraction of the solid woods with grains aligned perpendicular to each other.
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The top and bottom of the cabinet are dadoed into the sides. I drilled holes on the inside of the sides every 2 inches to accept brass shelf pins that allow the two shelves to be adjusted to a variety of levels. The face of the door is flush with the front of the cabinet when closed. Spring loaded push magnets at the top and bottom hold the door closed and a groove routed in the center outer edge of the door with a core box bit allows the door to be easily pulled open once the door has been pushed to move the magnets to their extended positions. This eliminated the need for a handle and kept the lines on the front of the cabinet clean and simple. This along with making the glass pane in the door as large as possible allows attention to be drawn to the contents on display. I thought that this would create a cabinet that would be noticed for its beauty yet would still be suttle enough to not overcome the items to be displayed inside.
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My friend was looking for a darker finish to match the decor in the room where the shadow box was going to be displayed. I used red mahogany seal-a-cell stain from General Finishes to obtain the desired color and then topped it off with 3 coats of General Finishes arm-r-seal gloss tung oil and urethane top coat. This is my friend Dave in the picture standing next to his new shadow box. I think you will agree by the look on his face that he was very satified with the finished product.
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