Techniques

Boxes, joints, nesting and cutting bigger than your bed.

• Designing a finger-jointed box that closes

  Sizing tabs, deciding between inside and outside dimensions, handling the lid, and the three mistakes that stop a laser-cut box from closing squarely.

• Engraving photographs on wood

  Why a photo engraves as mud without preparation: dithering, contrast, choosing a pale even-grained wood, and matching line interval to the material.

• Nesting parts to waste less sheet

  How to pack parts onto a sheet, why shared cut lines are usually a bad idea, and how grain direction limits what you are allowed to rotate.

• Living hinges: making plywood bend

  How a pattern of cuts turns a rigid sheet into something that bends, which patterns survive use, and why most living hinges break at the ends.