Woodworking Project - Portfolio Cases

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A few weeks before my younger sister graduated with a degree in graphic design she called me up to ask if I could give her a hand with her graduation project. Basically, the assignment was to take all of the various types of artwork and graphic design work that she had created while in school and put it all together in a creative way into a "portfolio" that could be displayed and shown to potential employers. I have to give her credit for thinking outside the box on this one. Or, maybe she was thinking inside "the box"... Anyway, while her classmates were putting together the obvious art easals and scrapbooks, her idea was to build a couple of wooden boxes to house and display her work. She was basically looking for a couple of wooden cases (think large briefcases) that would not only protect her work during travel, but also compliment and show off her work while on display. Her instructor said that the students could seek outside help with the execution of their project, as long as they participated in the design and construction. So, she gave me the dimemsions that she wanted and a basic idea of how she wanted her cases to look. We talked about material and hardware choices. Then, I put together some rough plans and ordered the hardware that we would need. When she came home for her spring break, we spent the week out in the barn turning her ideas into a reality.

The cases are pretty simple, but the details make them look very high-end. There is a large case for graphic layouts, large sketches, and paintings and a smaller case for photographs. She wanted something with a strong grain and good color contrast, but it had to be light weight, for easy portability. So, I suggested that we use solid oak for the case frames and 1/4" oak plywood for the large front and back panels. The result is a very sturdy case that is suprisingly light and easy to carry. True to the assignment, my sister participated in each and every step of the custruction process. She had never used woodworking tools before, but she's a fast learner and has good insticts about shop saftey. She learned how to use the table saw, power miter box, router, router table, jigsaw, drill press, plug cutter, hand chisels, backsaw, block plane, random orbital sander, and the ubiquitous cordless drill. Plus, she learned how to stain and poly the finished cases. I doubt that she'll take up woodworking as a hobby any time soon, but we did enjoy spending a couple of days together in the shop.

The case frames are simply butt jointed and screwed. We cut plugs to cover the screws from matching oak and sanded them smooth. Then, we used the router table and a rabbeting bit to cut a rabit around the inside edge of the top of the frame and bottem of the frame to recess the face panels. Once the panels were glued in place, we used the hand-held router to chamfer the edges of the cases and sanded everything smooth. We applied a coat of Minwax Red Mahogony stain and finished with three coats of ZAR aqua polyurethane. After allowing the finish to dry over night, we installed all of the brass hardware and glued burgundy felt liners into the case bottoms and tops to dress of the interiors. The cases turned out pretty nice and my sister got an A on her graduation project. So, I'd call them a success.

Here are some snapshots of the finished cases: