I want to make, buy, or scrounge a box around 8"x11"x4 to make a fiddle-gurdy. Is it possible to get the wood that cigar boxes are made from in sheets? Or maybe boxes already made, Darren Dukes recommended wine boxes. I am not sure where to get such boxes. Would a liquer store give away wine boxes? Maybe Costco.... I am at a halt because of the cost of making my hickory boxes. I want something cheaper.
Any help on sources to get boxes cheap or free would be most welcome!
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I too use door skin sometimes when I need to make "adjustments".
Mostly when I'm running short of boxes and still have to turn out enough product.
What I do is pick out some of the thickest boxes and rip them down so I have 2 partial boxes.
One needs a top and the other needs a bottom.
I then grab some door skin and cut it to fit both boxes. In a few hours after the glue sets I now have 2 boxes from the 1 I started with.Door skin is easy and fast to work with and easy to get.
This week I need to build 10 to 15 1 stringers to have enough stock and 2 or 3 3 stringers IF I can find the time to get it all done.
Hollow-core doors are skinned with thin plywood, usually with a nice birch or oak face on the outside. They aren't too hard to pull apart and can be found very cheap or free.
Hollow-core doors are skinned with thin plywood, usually with a nice birch or oak face on the outside. They aren't too hard to pull apart and can be found very cheap or free.
I came up with a solution(I hope) to part of my "find a box" problem.
One of the guys at our local "bacca" shop is a dulcimer player.He had ask me to build him a dulcimer using a special box he had been saving.
So I built a nice neck using several different kinds of wood ,installed his box and strung it up according to his wishes.
When I presented it to him he ask what he owed me, ( knowing he's in the same boat as the rest of us right now),I suggested rather then coming up with all the money right now that we do it different.I suggested that simply from this point for the next 2 years when I need boxes that their already paid for.
So now for the next 2 years all I have to do is just go in and pick up my boxes, Simple solution to a problem that bugs me now and then.
I do get boxes from tobacco shops. My recent big purchase (17 boxes) was from K&S Tobacco in Cary, NC - they quoted 50 cents per paper covered and $1 per all wood, but actually sold me 9 paper covered and 8 all wood for $10 ($2.50 discount).
But most shops want more - Tobacco Road in Sanford, NC - the other shop where I regularly buy (because it's next door to the UPS store where my mailbox is located) - charges $1 for paper covered and $2 for all wood... but sometime, they'll just give me the boxes.
The whole thing is pretty random. But most tobacco shops are willing to sell or even give away their extra boxes. If the shop knows about the cigar box purse craze, they charge more (even though that craze is mostly over now).
Michael Carnright said:
Hey Doc, I am guessing where you got the RYJ boxes is from a cigar/smoke shop. If that is correct do you find them pretty open to selling empty boxes?
Doc Oakroot said:
Actually Romeo Y Julieta is a cigar brand and they make a very wide variety of cigars in a wide variety of boxes. I happen to have quite a few RyJ boxes at the moment, because the store where I got boxes recently sells a lot of them. Some are square and deep, some are pretty normal paper-covered boxes. The box for my recent Blues Jam Special CBG is a RyJ Medallas de Oro all wood box with a golden colored figured veneer top - very cool looking (the top is the back on my guitar so not in any of my photos).
Michael Carnright said:
Man! I was stunned at the amount of cigar boxes for sale on ebay! I will check out home depot ASAP. Thanks for the info on Romeo Y Julietta box.
Jkevn said:
Romeo Y Julietta boxes are cigar boxes. They are usually more square and deeper than what one would use for guitar making. I'm sure the wood to make boxes is available at Home Depot and the like. 3/16 or thinner plywood, or even luan type panels are in 4x8 or 2x4 sheets. "wood cigar box" or "Craft box" on ebay will keep you busy for a while.
I think what I need to do is start looking for likely boxes.
Our brains have amazing filtering abilities! I wanted to watch a movie recently and did a search for a local video store, it turns out there was one next to a place I eat at often, but I filtered it out cause I did not need to go to that video store normally!
Thanks for measuring it Brian! I am thinking if I had two I could glue them together and if need be cut out most or all of the middle, making one box.
Brian Lemin said:
Today i went to my cupboard to get my box of wood chisels out. I took it down and then realized that it was really quite a nice box and realized it was one of my old wooden 35mm slide boxes. I am sure it would work well as a CBG body and they can be bought cheaply in the op shops. Hold on i will go out and measure it. It is 10 1/2 x 8 x 2 1/4. I see that the depth will not meet your needs.
Hey Doc, I am guessing where you got the RYJ boxes is from a cigar/smoke shop. If that is correct do you find them pretty open to selling empty boxes?
Doc Oakroot said:
Actually Romeo Y Julieta is a cigar brand and they make a very wide variety of cigars in a wide variety of boxes. I happen to have quite a few RyJ boxes at the moment, because the store where I got boxes recently sells a lot of them. Some are square and deep, some are pretty normal paper-covered boxes. The box for my recent Blues Jam Special CBG is a RyJ Medallas de Oro all wood box with a golden colored figured veneer top - very cool looking (the top is the back on my guitar so not in any of my photos).
Michael Carnright said:
Man! I was stunned at the amount of cigar boxes for sale on ebay! I will check out home depot ASAP. Thanks for the info on Romeo Y Julietta box.
Jkevn said:
Romeo Y Julietta boxes are cigar boxes. They are usually more square and deeper than what one would use for guitar making. I'm sure the wood to make boxes is available at Home Depot and the like. 3/16 or thinner plywood, or even luan type panels are in 4x8 or 2x4 sheets. "wood cigar box" or "Craft box" on ebay will keep you busy for a while.
Replies
Mostly when I'm running short of boxes and still have to turn out enough product.
What I do is pick out some of the thickest boxes and rip them down so I have 2 partial boxes.
One needs a top and the other needs a bottom.
I then grab some door skin and cut it to fit both boxes. In a few hours after the glue sets I now have 2 boxes from the 1 I started with.Door skin is easy and fast to work with and easy to get.
This week I need to build 10 to 15 1 stringers to have enough stock and 2 or 3 3 stringers IF I can find the time to get it all done.
Don Miller said:
One of the guys at our local "bacca" shop is a dulcimer player.He had ask me to build him a dulcimer using a special box he had been saving.
So I built a nice neck using several different kinds of wood ,installed his box and strung it up according to his wishes.
When I presented it to him he ask what he owed me, ( knowing he's in the same boat as the rest of us right now),I suggested rather then coming up with all the money right now that we do it different.I suggested that simply from this point for the next 2 years when I need boxes that their already paid for.
So now for the next 2 years all I have to do is just go in and pick up my boxes, Simple solution to a problem that bugs me now and then.
But most shops want more - Tobacco Road in Sanford, NC - the other shop where I regularly buy (because it's next door to the UPS store where my mailbox is located) - charges $1 for paper covered and $2 for all wood... but sometime, they'll just give me the boxes.
The whole thing is pretty random. But most tobacco shops are willing to sell or even give away their extra boxes. If the shop knows about the cigar box purse craze, they charge more (even though that craze is mostly over now).
Michael Carnright said:
Our brains have amazing filtering abilities! I wanted to watch a movie recently and did a search for a local video store, it turns out there was one next to a place I eat at often, but I filtered it out cause I did not need to go to that video store normally!
Brian Lemin said:
Doc Oakroot said:
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