I started out this week’s project with the intent of making a padauk and walnut box. However, my plans were thwarted at the last moment by my router. I ended up leaving off the top, and adding a divider. The result… the Gentleman’s Caddy.

I had plenty of padauk and walnut lying around the shop, so I cut all my pieces for the glue up.

I glued up the boards and clamped them in a matching pattern. Since I was going to run these pieces through the planer, I wasn’t worried about cutting them to the same length. I haven’t made a planer sled, so I usually have to cut the ends off from snipe.

I cut the boards to length using my miter saw, at a 45 degree angle. This isn’t a very large piece and won’t be used to hold a lot of weight, so I didn’t worry about using splines. I cut a rabbet with my router table, and inserted a piece of backer board for the bottom.

I created the top using the same pattern as the sides, and it really looked sharp. I cut the top down to about 1/4 larger than the sides, and I planned on using a flush trim bit in my router table. I successfully routed three sides. Everything was looking great. On the last side, the router bit tore out a huge chunk of the side. This required me to either cut pieces for a new top or change my project plan. I opted for the latter and decided to make a caddy for my electronics and pocket items. This is what I planned on doing with the box anyway, so no big deal.

So close!!

I used a leftover piece of padauk that I cut for the divider.

After a little sanding, I started applying the spray lacquer.

While padauk is beautiful, it’s not my favorite wood to work with. It is pretty brittle, and it gets everywhere! I guess all saw dust does this, but the red padauk is even more visible.