staining and sealing a wood enclosure

[AZhomegrown 10+ year member]

I wanted to build a classic looking trunk showing lots of wood grain so i wanted a box that wouldnt be wrapped, yet stained and sealed. I saw one on here somewhere that was beautiful. My main question is how to hide the screws and such from being visible. The box i saw on here was flawless and there was no screws in sight. THere may ahve been some i guess i think he could have covered it up with corner moldings but im not sure. Any tips on doing a box this way would be great.

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[Stalin-ohaulic]

Screws are not necessary when building a box. They are only there to hold the boards together as the glue dries. All you need are some nice clamps and you're good to go.

If you don't have that, but you have a dovetail jig, router, and a lot of time, you can make some nice dovetail joints that will look a lot nicer than screws and will hold just as tight or tighter.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

x2 just clamp the box or at most brad nailer and sink/cover the nail heads with putty...

 

[AZhomegrown 10+ year member]

thats amazing, i had no idea wood glue was that strong. I always thought screws were needed to hold the thing together so a booming woofer wont tear it apart. It definitly good to know this and will keep this in mind as my projects develope.

 

[ButtaMax 10+ year member]

thats amazing, i had no idea wood glue was that strong. I always thought screws were needed to hold the thing together so a booming woofer wont tear it apart. It definitly good to know this and will keep this in mind as my projects develope.

+1

no screws, I had no idea!

 

[TaylorFade 10+ year member]

Yeah, the wood glue actually makes a bond that is stronger than the actual wood.

 

[wone 10+ year member]

x2

 

[psych0ticnemes1 5,000+ posts]

If you're going to go with glue only I would use some kind of joinery to add to the glue strength.

 

[ktraughb 10+ year member]

yeah if you use a good wood glue, i prefer some titebond ii or iii, it makes an incredibly strong joint once its set. screws are really technically there to hold while the glue dries. a brad nailer is a very quick way to get it together if you dont have clamps, and the nail holes are much easier to cover. i still use screws, but wood glue on its intended use of wood is serious. obviously some people i build boxes for would just feel much more comfortable knowing their box has screws in it, so i usually use them, but there are several other ways to ensure the box is fastened tightly. i even learned a few years back through experience that wood glue works even better than liquid nail or construction adhesive. it doesnt shrink or expand with temperature variances. usually when someone has a panel loose on a box its because they used a sub par glue or simply didnt properly glue a joint.

 

[alibies 10+ year member]

If you're going to go with glue only I would use some kind of joinery to add to the glue strength.

this is a good idea, the joinery will give more surface area for the glue to be effective

 

[mrjoeyjiffy 10+ year member]

yeah i thought screws held the box together til i forgot to glue the back piece of my first box in, within a few weeks over half the screws were snapped in half. It sounded like ****!

 

[azimuth 5,000+ posts]

If you're going to go with glue only I would use some kind of joinery to add to the glue strength.

not neccesary if you clamp things right.