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Board Game Box

author-gravatar Glon Dec 30, 2015

I kick started a board game called Kingdom Death: Monster years ago, and then totally forgot about it.  A few months ago a 17 pound box showed up at my door, with the game inside. The game is absolutely fantastic, but it comes with miniatures, and once they are assembled the box the game comes in no longer works.


I'm submitting this to the 2015 Year in review challenge. I'm not sure how well it fits, but I haven't had much time in the last couple of years to pursue a whole lot of woodworking or gaming as we had 2 kids. So finally getting some time out in the shop again, and some time to do some gaming again is pretty exciting!

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

Top box open

Photo of Board Game Box

lid flipped with mini tray

Photo of Board Game Box

showing contents of both boxes

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

Building this box from the inside out as I had some very specific measurements for the contents.

Photo of Board Game Box

Bottom internal box. Used my Incra I-box for the box joints, love that thing!

Photo of Board Game Box

top two internal boxes

Photo of Board Game Box

Had some 1/4" QS oak ply laying around I used for the box bottoms

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

Now that I know my inside dimensions I start working on the outer box.

Photo of Board Game Box

Gave the box some feet by cutting some 45's on the table saw, and then cleaning out the rest on the bandsaw.

Photo of Board Game Box

Used the tape trick and it worked great.

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

Everything fits

Photo of Board Game Box

slapped together a really crappy jig for cutting the splines

Photo of Board Game Box

Some ebony for the splines, getting these little pieces to the precise width was harder than expected    

Photo of Board Game Box

Setting the dado stack height on my ghetto jig

Photo of Board Game Box

Fitting all the splines.

Photo of Board Game Box

put some Waterlox on the internal boxes while waiting for the splines to dry

Photo of Board Game Box

flush cut the splines

Photo of Board Game Box

I used General Finish's Rosewood gel stain. The game has a very dark theme, so I wanted to make something that might fit in that world. I'm not sure I succeeded, but once you start putting gel stain on something, you just have to keep going.

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

Size comparison for the original box it shipped in.

Photo of Board Game Box

I intented to make the top box tall enough to fit the largest model

Photo of Board Game Box

You can see a wing tip poking out. When I measured out where to cut the dado for the box bottom, I measured from the wrong side of the 1/4' material I was using.... oops

Photo of Board Game Box

Tip for scraping/sanding/planing mitered pieces. Place a mating piece under a stop block. worked like a champ.

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

assembling the top box

Photo of Board Game Box
Photo of Board Game Box

same process as above for the splines

Photo of Board Game Box

Figuring out the trunk handle and hasp hardware.

Photo of Board Game Box

Added some feet to the top box as the hasp was going to poke down below the bottom of the top box and I didn't want it to mar a table top.

Photo of Board Game Box

It was also at this point that I realized how much I hated how tall the top box was. Makes the box look really ungainly and out of proportion.

Photo of Board Game Box

found it interesting that the two boxes are very close in size, but because of the feet cutouts in the bottom box it looks alot shorter than the top.

Photo of Board Game Box

Cut the top couple of inches off. The big model will just have to ride on top like a hood ornament.

Photo of Board Game Box

Routed out grooves so the lid would fit tightly on the top box. Also routed out a place in the lid to place the mini tray.

Photo of Board Game Box

Made quite a mess.

Photo of Board Game Box

woohoo, it fits time for some more stain and lacquer!

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