My wife has a thing for tea and has many different kinds depending on her mood. So that means that she has a bunch of it sitting out on the counter.

She asked me to make her a box for the tea bags, so I did a bit of research online and found various ones. But while we were out shopping awhile back she saw a contemporary metal box with a drawer for the Keurig coffee maker that uses single cup servings in little round packets. She liked that idea so I did some more research and found a tea box online with a drawer which she liked that also had a top with a lip around the edge and hand holds so you can carry the box and set it out with cups and such on top when having people over. So this week I made up a prototype of the tea box with a drawer using scrap 3/4" red oak, 1/4" red oak ply, 1/2" birch ply and 1/4" hardboard. The finish I put on it was some Minwax golden oak stain and some wipe-on satin polyurethane which matches our kitchen cabinets. The handles are from Home Depot and are an oil rubbed bronze finish which matches the color of the kitchen cabinet hardware. My wife really likes it.

Since this was a prototype, I will be doing a few minor changes and make up a few more for Christmas and wedding gifts for later this month. I will use maple instead of the red oak and I will spray "Endurovar Satin" for the finish instead of the wipe-on poly.

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee

that's what I need to make for my wife. She a big tea drinker her self.

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http://www.prchestnut.webs.com/

Allen that's a cool idea and a nice prototype. I like the drawer, it allows you to put items on top without limiting access. 

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www.thepatriotwoodworker.com Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops

Neat!

Ditto what Mike said.

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Nice. Since this  is a prototype may I suggest you do something to make getting a finger under the edges of a bag easier?

Things that come to mind include splitting the dividers between the cells  with a gap that can accept a generous finger.

Might require the cell walls be dadoed and glued into the  drawer base.   Alternatively could make the cells from dowels 8 would make up one cell with the two on each side contributing to the adjacent cell Other notions I had end up consuming more space requiring a larger box.

I do not want to glue in the dividers in the box as I want them to be able to be removed for cleaning as tea and sugar can get in there. As it is once the dividers (5 separate pieces with notches to interlink them) have the finish sprayed on them they are held tightly together by friction due to the added thickness of the finish in the notches so they are one solid unit. I will make the divided sections just a little bit larger (about 1/4"on each axis) as some of the tea bags are a bit larger and are a bit more cramped in there unlike the regular Lipton tea bags. On the next ones I may do a half round cut out on the cross pieces which will allow to get a finger in there to get the tea bag. Doing it with the 12 sections works out nicely for the size of the box with enough room on top to sit a tea pot and a couple of cups. I will also have to make a tile trivet to go with the boxes to set the hot tea pot on so it won't ruin the finish of the top.

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee

Nice job on the prototype. Do I understand correctly....the final drawer will be two inches wider and an inch bigger from front to back? 

Just curious, why are you switching finishes? Is Endurovar a harder finish?

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

I prefer to spray the finish as opposed to using the wipe on poly. I like the Endurovar as it sprays well and gives a good solid finish and looks great in the satin finish. The box will be a bit larger but I will also compensate with thinning down the thickness of the dividers as I don't have to have as thick of ones like on the prototype and thinning out the drawer frame stock. I can also get away with lengthening only the one axis (front to back) as that is the longer dimension for some of the most popular tea bag brands which are rectangular.

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee

Don't forget to leave room for that Blum self closing under mount slide. :-)

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

After the fact, it occurred to me that there may be something about the tea bag that obviates my suggestion, such as a flap or other feature that allows the user to just grab that feature and lift a bag from such a little cell.   I dunno nuthin 'bout tea bags.  But you have a resident expert.

No worries as I have to leave enough room to install the GPS device and WiFi so the Blum slides are good to go!

Gene Howe said:

Don't forget to leave room for that Blum self closing under mount slide. :-)

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Good lookin box - my wife is a tea drinker herself, might just have to make her one.

GPS and WIFI?????  How about a remote device that rings a bell or something if she looses it????

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
EX-21 (Presently on the floor. Using my 6-year old 788 ! ! ! ! !
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'

Yes. GPS and WiFi!

My wife has 3 travel mugs with no spill tops that she loves and she is always misplacing them. When she can't find her mugs then she takes mine. So with the GPS and WiFi she can find her mugs using her iPad.

Fred Wilson said:

Good lookin box - my wife is a tea drinker herself, might just have to make her one.

GPS and WIFI?????  How about a remote device that rings a bell or something if she looses it????

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Fred
aka Pop's Shop
www.pops-shop.com
EX-21 (Presently on the floor. Using my 6-year old 788 ! ! ! ! !
'Soooooo many patterns - sooooo little time'