Building the Moment Box

This is the step by step process that I used to build The Moment Box.  You know, the Moment from Doctor Who.  I am building the box and my friend James is going to do all the decorating.  We are both part of DFW Cosplay Gallifrey and he cosplays the War Doctor.  We also have Ashley who cosplays the Interface so this will make a nice addition.  

I've got video of the first several steps as far as the sawing and measuring goes.  It's 19 minutes long or there about but it's kind of funny.  I also have the final lacquering process at the tail end of the video.  I don't have any video of the staining but here are the pictures as promised.  

I said in the video that I needed four 16 inch pieces and eight 12 inch pieces.  That was incorrect.  I actually needed four 15 inch pieces.  That was an easy fix, though.  

I almost ended up getting more stain on my hands than on the frame pieces.  It was an interesting process.  I had to use a paper towel to rub the stain on in order to get the right shade of the stain, but I did it.  

With the side panels, I actually went ahead and used the brush to apply the stain so that I could get the right shade.  Rubbing it on with a rag made it too light.  But the brush applied it at just the right shade so that was easy.  

I made the top and bottom panels first because that was the easiest to do.  I just had to place the panel down and then attach the frame pieces to it with wood glue.  The whole box is being put together with wood glue.  It's very strong wood glue that I use for all of my projects.  

I did two of the side panels like this.  Attached the frame pieces to the side.  That left me with the other two frame pieces to put in place.  

Here you can see the three support pieces that I put inside the box for weight support.  I have them attached to the bottom panel.  Then I attached one of the side panels with the two frame pieces.  

The next step was to attach one of the side panels that didn't have any frame pieces attached to it.  

And then there was the second side panel with no frame pieces attached.  And as I said, all of this was being attached with wood glue.  

And then there was the final side panel piece with the frame pieces attached.  It was very interesting getting everything lined up.  I will admit that I got wood glue all over my hands but it comes off skin very easily even though it attaches to wood like white on rice.  

And there you have the completed box.  The final step was spraying the clear lacquer onto the box.  I managed to do it on all of the sides except for the bottom.  That will have to wait until the lacquer dries.  

That is the moment box before all of the various gears and other decorations are added to it.  Just waiting for everything to dry so I can finish it up and then hand it off to James for the finale touches.  Woot.