I built this as the prototype for the 1-Board Cedar Trinket Box plan. My goal had been to create something that would make a nice gift, only use 1 cedar fence picket (about $3 in wood), didn't require any special cutting or ripping, and could be made with just your miter saw and brad nailer (you could use regular nails and hammer too, but I love my nailgun!) Also highly recommend using a palm sander for this. (Love my power tools!)
As I was building I discovered the beauty of cedar, the imperfections of cedar fence boards, and the value of prototyping. I added some tweaks to the plan to identify the places where you should build the first part, then measure, then cut the next part.
This took about 2 1/2 hrs to build, which included a whole lot of sanding. I started with 80-grit, then 220 grit to get the board surfaces smooth. After the prototype was assembled and I noticed how much cupping there was in my fence board, I broke out the 60-grit and went over all the high spots to smooth them down. Next time I'll be much more careful to choose a board without much of a cup. It did give some real interesting grain patterns though, so it all worked out in the end.
For pulls I cut a couple of interesting looking knots from my cedar board and glued them on. The next one I'd like to try some strips of leather or maybe a rope knot for pulls.
