Building a Box for the Dummy Woodworker

Nice wooden box

It worries us when we see freelancers who claim to have some expertise in a topic completely blowing a simple set of instructions. Well, it would worry us if we believed the bios that some of these people claim, not to mention the fact that many of them claim to have been "writing about" the topic instead of performing it. A case in point is one Michael Straessle, an eHowian who claimed to "written professionally about the construction industry." We guess that's not the same as working with wood, a difference that is made crystal clear by Mike's ham-handed attempt to write the OurPastimes.com post, "How to Build a Regular Wooden Box With Hinges."

Right up front, the plans Straessle dumped on the 'net will not make the pretty box show above, which is the same image that accompanies his post. No, it probably won't make a box at all – at least not one that will serve to hold anything for long. What's distressing is that Michael referenced a set of plans that would make a serviceable wooden box. Not beautiful, mind you, but serviceable.
Straessle's original plans included a cutting list, neatly snipped off by Leaf Group when they ported this junk from eHow. Mike called for

"2 pieces of 1-by-4-by-12-inch wood, 2 pieces of 1-by-4.5-by-4-inch wood, 1 piece of 1-by-4.5-by-10-inch wood, 1 piece of 1-by-6.5-by-12-inch wood"

The clumsiness of "1-by-4-by-12-inch wood" notwithstanding, we figured out that he intends to make a 12 inch long box with the 4½" pieces sandwiched between to make the ends (the idiot should have given the dimensions as 1x4x4½, not "1-by-4.5-by-4-inch") and the long piece ("1-by-4.5-by-10-inch") for the bottom. That, of course, raises a problem: unless Straessle means, literally, one-inch lumber (which is unlikely), his bottom is going to be half an inch short.¹ Ditto his top, except it will be half an inch too wide. Dumbass.
Straessle's design is entirely butt joints, glued and fixed with finish nails. Again, nothing like the illustration...

Our expert's "tips" are the usual eHow.com boilerplate about proper ventilation for staining and painting and caution using sharp tools. There's not a word about not expecting a Dumbass of the Day to come up with a quality set of plans!

¹ Someone must have caught that, because the instructions call the bottom a "1-by-4.5-by-10.5-inch wood piece," although no one changed the cutting list. Oops. They also didn't catch the wide top. Double oops.

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