DIY Montreal: 3 Ways to Build a Hexagon Box (Beginner to Pro)

3 hexagon boxes, built 3 different ways, from beginner to pro. And by the end, we'll see which one is actually worth making. So I know you've been wondering what I've been up to since my last video. No major life decisions yet, but I finally made enough space in here to actually build something. In my last newsletter, I asked what project you'd like to see next, and hexagon boxes got the most votes, hence today's video. And on top of that, I've got a super cool new tool to show you, and I promise you don't want to miss it. So be sure to stick around for that. So let's start with the version almost anyone can build. So how would a beginner build a box? Immediately, I decided on pine wood. Not to be confused with construction grade lumber, this is select clear pine that's been milled to ¾ inch and squared up. And you'd find it in the appearance boards section of your big box store. My plan is to use only the miter saw for the entry level box, because I figure that's how most beginner woodworkers would do it. A hexagon box has 6 sides, and I know I need to tilt the blade by 30 degrees to make the cuts. Now you really can't rely on the dial here, so I'm going to use a digital protractor to make sure I have that 60 degree angle dialed in as best I can. The cuts are the easy part. I'll just make a first cut towards the end of the board to set the angle. And then I can simply flip the board, cut again, and repeat. But to make sure all the sides are the same length, I'll use a stop block. And here's my safety tip of the video. You could experience kickback if you leave the cut piece trapped between the stop block and the blade. So instead, I'm going to add a small removable stop in the middle that I can use to set up the cut, but then remove it just before I make the actual cut. That way the piece won't bind. With my 6 pieces cut, I can move on to glue up. I'll use a straight edge to line up the pieces, and then apply painter's tape across the outside faces. Now one thing I realized after I made a couple boxes, and I'll share the tip with you so you don't make the same mistake, is don't try to pull the tape super tight. That's what I thought I should do at first to keep all the seams nice and tight, but too tight and the edges will actually tend to want to overlap each other. Then your glue up goes all out of whack. So check each seam one by one to make sure that it's nice and flat once you've applied the tape. That's the key to getting this right. I like to remove any squeeze out while it's still wet with a scraper and a rag. And lastly, I'll add a couple rubber bands to keep things nice and tight, but I'm really not even sure this is necessary. So while that dries, I'll start gluing up panels for the bottom and the lid. Again, I'm using the same milled pine wood. Glue, clamp, remove the squeeze out, and sand it. For this next step, the good news is that there's no measuring or math involved. I'll just make sure I have one edge of the box lined up with the very top edge of the board, and then trace the box. The bad news is that there's a lot of eyeballing involved. I'll make the angled cuts at the miter saw, but I figured it would be easiest to first cut that parallel straight edge at the table saw. I can now go to the miter saw and set the blade to 30 degrees. Now personally, I don't like having my fingers this close to the blade, so I'm going to use my hold-down stick to make these cuts. Then it's just a matter of lining up the cuts so that the blade just kisses the line. I'm really taking my time here and creeping up on them to avoid any mistakes. Alright so time to see how I did. Actually pretty good. I can see small edges sticking out just barely, but that's okay. Because this is the bottom, I'll be able to sand it flush once I've glued it onto the box. I know, in theory, this should be the easiest version of the box to build. It is the beginner version after all. But I had serious doubts about using the miter saw. I mean, it's not the saw that I think of when I want to make precision cuts. But so far, with a little patience and taking the time to set things up, it's been going pretty well. Here I'm using a plastic straw with a tip cut on an angle. I find that this paired with a wet rag works really well. And once it's dry, I can sand all the edges to get a perfect flush fit. Now for the top. Essentially the same process as the bottom, but this time I won't be able to sand the edges flush, so I'll try to be as precise as possible. So just like before, trace, cut the opposite side, then cut the angles on the miter saw. And now if I line it up with the box, it looks good, sort of, but it's not perfect. There are two corners sticking out, and this is when I realized that I never checked the angle on my miter saw using my gauge, so the angle was likely off by just a hair. So after I adjust that, I'll shave the thinnest piece off the corners. And yeah, now it's perfect. So that's it. An entry level hexagon box. But it does seem silly that the top just floats there without any way to secure it or align it. So as a bonus optional add-on, you can use magnets to fix this problem. These are neodymium magnets that are super powerful despite their tiny size. I'll insert magnets on three of the six sides. This should be enough to hold the lid. I'm spending some time here finding the center of each edge, then making symmetrical marks on the box and the lid to make sure that the magnets will line up. I'll then grab a brad point drill bit that matches the size of the magnets and drill the holes, making sure not to go too deep. I want the magnets to sit just below the surface or flush. I'm using CA glue to secure the magnets, making sure to orient the polarity so that the magnets in the lid will actually pull towards the box rather than push it away. You don't want to mess that up. And now the lid should just snap into place, almost aligning itself, thanks to the strong pull of these magnets. So that's our beginner box. It looks alright, but let's see if we can make it even better. The first way to level up a box is with the choice of wood. I'm going with walnut that I've milled to half an inch thick, which is a little more refined than the 3 quarter inch pine wood that I used before. Another level up from beginner to intermediate is the tools I'm going to use. I'm moving away from the miter saw and leaning into the table saw. And with this digital angle gauge, I can dial in the angle of my blade with precision so I know my cuts will be spot on. Again, I'll start by cutting the sides of the box. I'll start by trimming one end of my board to set the angle. I'll be using a stop block again to cut the six sides to the same length. To set it up, I like to clamp a block to the back end of my fence. I can then butt my workpiece up against the stop and make the cut. This avoids cross cutting directly against the fence, which you never want to do. So now I could just flip it over and keep cutting, but as you can see, the grain pattern won't match whatsoever. So instead, I'm going to maintain a continuous grain pattern. I'll flip the board and cut off as little as possible just to re-establish the correct angle. I can now flip it over again, butt it up against the stop, and make the cut. And now I'll just keep doing that until I have my six pieces. And there we go! I think that looks so much better having that grain pattern maintained. For the top and bottom, I'm going with contrasting maple that will look great with the walnut. Now this is 3mm maple plywood. You could mill up real maple if you want to, but once I'm done, no one will be able to see the difference. Because what I'm going to do is cut grooves to insert the panels at the top and bottom like this. With my blade back at 90 degrees, I'll set the blade height to a quarter inch and also set the fence to a quarter inch. Then I'll run each of the pieces through, cutting a groove at the top and at the bottom of each piece. With that done, I need to widen the groove a little bit, so I'll bump over the fence and run all the pieces through again. My secret is that I always have an extra test piece on hand so I can dial in the test fit and in case I make a mistake, which inevitably happens. So once I have the width dialed in, I'll run all the pieces through once again. Perfect, so all the pieces are ready for glue up, but I'm not quite there yet. First I need to cut my top and bottom hexagon panels. I'm still going to prepare the box as if I'm gluing it up so I can see the final dimension and use it to trace the top and bottom. To make these cuts, I'm going to use one of my favorite jigs. This sled has an adjustable stop so I can batch out perfect hexagons any size. To use it, I'll first remove the stop and place the reference edge up against the fence. The great thing is I can sneak up on the cut until I get it just right. Once that edge is cut, I can line up the next cut and bring the adjustable stop back on board. And with that now locked down, I can just cut, rotate, and cut again until I have a perfect hexagon. So back at the box, you can see that the hexagon is the exact dimension of the box, but I need it to be half an inch smaller all around to fit within the grooves that I cut. And this is my favorite thing about the hexagon jig. To make a hexagon smaller, I can just move the stop over just a tiny little bit and then start cutting away and then take it back to the box to test the fit. I'm close, but not quite there yet. So I'll adjust again and this time it's a perfect fit. And now I can cut the second panel without touching that stop block because it's already dialed in perfectly. And now I'm finally ready for glue up. But first I'll give the inside faces and the panels a sanding since they'll be hard to sand once the box is assembled. You'll notice I'm applying glue to the seams but not the grooves. Those panels are supposed to float, although inevitably some glue will get into those cracks, but not because I want it to. Now this is the fun yet somehow stressful part. Rolling it up and making sure that that final seam lines up perfectly and getting it nice and tight. Then rushing to clean up the squeeze out before it dries. You may be surprised to hear that these boxes had me really stressed out at times. You might think, but you're an experienced woodworker. Or you're the hexagon queen. Or even, come on, they're just simple boxes. And yes, you're right. But mistakes happen. No matter how skilled you are or how simple the project is. But what helped me was to always have extra materials on hand so that I could make extra parts in case I messed up. Which I did. More than once. So start with a longer board than you think you'll need. Or glue up extra boards so that you can cut another top or bottom if you happen to cut the first one too small by accident. It'll help give you more confidence and save you from a lot of frustration. Now that is one good looking box. I can't wait to get some finish on it to really make it pop. But first, I need to cut the box open. And for this, I'll use the bandsaw. There is a way to do this on the table saw too if you want to look that up. But the bandsaw is easier and will yield the best results. Now, it's only been about an hour since I glued the box together. So lucky for me, the glue inside hasn't fully hardened and I can easily clean it up. Looking good! But now I still have that problem of the lid not holding on. This time, instead of using magnets, I'm going to add a simple liner to the lid that I'll make out of this strip of maple. I'll start by ripping it into half inch strips and cut some extra because there's going to be some trial and error here. Using the same setup as I did to cut the sides of the box, I'm cutting a strip, then testing the fit on the lid. Then I adjust and cut another piece. And repeat until the fit is just perfect. And then, once I found that sweet spot, I can cut all six pieces. You know, I was initially going to add a thin liner to the box itself instead of the lid, but I thought it would be such a waste to cover up all that beautiful walnut. And it would actually make the inside of the box smaller. So adding the liner to the lid seemed like the smartest option here. And with that, I have a perfect fitting lid. All while looking almost seamless from the sides. This box is so great and I haven't even applied the finish yet. But that makes me wonder, how will I level up from here? The pro box definitely calls for hardwood. And I'm going with walnut again. But there are plenty of other beautiful woods to choose from. To start off, I'm using the exact same method as before to cut the six sides of the box. And once again, I'll cut grooves on the inside, but this time only at the bottom of the panels. Because we're going to make a different lid this time. To me, the pro version is all about how you decorate the box. How you make it one of a kind. How you make it look like it's worth all the time you spent building it. At this point, in theory, I'm ready to glue up the box. But not quite so fast. First, I want to add some customization to these outer walls. And that's where this comes in. Meet the world's first 3D texture personal UV printer. What does that mean? It basically means you can print pretty much anything you want onto almost anything you want right in your own home. And I'm going to show you everything it can do. When I first got this Eufy Make Printer, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the unboxing and initial setup was. There's almost no assembly required. Just plug it in, load up the ink cartridges, and snap in the cleaning solution and the filter. Then just follow the instructions and the calibration pretty much does itself. Then it even walks you through your first test print with the images and materials that are all provided for you. And just like that, I had a fridge magnet with a 3D print of the moon. But then came the real excitement. As I experimented with the Eufy printer, I saw for myself what it can do. I started by printing a basic sign that I designed onto wood. It's pretty simple, but I was still impressed. I love that you can see the wood grain through the ink. Then I switched to the add-on rotary attachment and printed right onto a metal tumbler. The ink is cured instantly by the UV light, which makes the finish highly resistant. And you can even do a full 3D wrap. Now that's impressive. At this point, my brain was just imagining all the possibilities and everything that I could do with it. It can print on over 300 materials, including canvas fabric, using flexible ink so it won't crack. And the colors come out so vivid and crisp. Now those were just 2D prints. But then I started playing around with 3D printing and my mind was just blown. You can really see the texture of the bird as if it's carved into stone. And look at the height of the dome on this soccer ball keychain. So my plan is to add some texture to the hexagon box. As I was building these boxes, the hexagon shape of course made me think of a honeycomb, which brought me to a beehive, and then bees, and ultimately honey. So my thought was to make it look like honey was oozing over the edges of this box. After taking a snapshot and lining up the images, all I have to do is tell it I'm printing on wood, then choose what kind of texture I want. So instead of going flat, I want this honey to be 3D, so I'm going with flat raised. Now you can even specify how thick you want the texture to be and click preview to get a feel of how that'll look. All right, I'm happy with that, so I'll go back and hit print. Look at that. Oh, it looks so good. I'm just giddy with excitement at this point. Look at that! Of course, now the challenge will be not to mess up the honey print. While it's extremely resistant, I won't be able to sand the box once it's assembled, so I'm taking time here to fully tape each sheen to help prevent glue from squeezing out. I mean, I went with honey, but there's so much more you can do with a box to decorate it and make it your own. To elevate it from just a simple box to a unique piece of art. And that, to me, is what makes a pro-level box. Now the lid is going to be different and a little more challenging. This is a pro-level box after all. Just as before, I'm lining up that top edge with the very edge of the board, and then I'll trace the box. I'll use my hexagon cutting sled once again for this. It's really just the easiest and most accurate way to cut hexagons that I've found. I have a dedicated video on making this jig and step-by-step build plans too. A quick test fit confirms that the fit looks pretty spot on. So now that I have a lid, I bet you think we're pretty much done. Not so fast. We're not quite done yet. There's two more things that I want to do here. One, I need to create a rabbet on the back side of the lid for a pressure fit close. And two, I'm going to make inlays into the lid to dress it up. And I'll start with that. Again, keeping up with my honey theme here, I figure why not inlay contrasting hexagons within the hexagon lid in a honeycomb pattern. Now I could have just used the UV printer to print them right onto the lid, but I also wanted to share alternative methods. After cutting out the template on my laser, I got my layout all figured out and strategically placed the double-sided tape out of the way from the pockets I plan to carve out. I'm using a quarter inch flush trim bit with a plunge router so I can plunge into the center and eventually make my way outwards where the bearing can ride along the template. Now this template is designed for epoxy inlays, but I had something else in mind, so I used my laser to cut out small maple hexagons to fit into each hole. I'll apply some glue and just press them in. They stick out right now, but I'll sand them all flush once dry. I am so glad that that turned out well because I'm out of walnut at this point, so if I had to start the lid all over again, that would be a problem. Now let's just hope I don't mess up this next step. I've mounted a straight bit into my router table and I'll set my fence back half an inch to match the thickness of the box's sides and carefully push the lid through, keeping it flat against my fence. So I wasn't as lucky this time. I can see that the fit isn't quite there yet, but that's okay. It's better to be too tight than too loose at this point. I can go back to my router table and just nudge the fence back by a hair and then run the lid through again. It took a little sanding to fine-tune the fit, but in the end, I got a perfect fit. The lid holds on by itself, but not so tight that I can't easily be removed. As I apply the finish, I begin to wonder, is this box really better than the other two I made? This one definitely took more time and effort, that I can confirm. But was that effort really worth it? To me, the basic box isn't quite elegant. It's kind of bland, and you can see the edge grain on the tops and bottoms. It's still a great project to start with if you're new to making boxes or cutting hexagons. The intermediate box is on another level. More precision, better looking, and easy to batch out many of them if you want. But if you really want a pro-level box, it's all about the customization and making it a showpiece. Whether it's UV printing dripping honey or custom inlays, the sky's the limit, and you can make it anything you want.