Chinese Dragon Pyrograved Wooden Coin Box

A friend asked me if I could make a coin box and I was happy to give it a try. Ended up making two different boxes and this one was my favourite! (I´ll be sharing with you some photos of the other box too, but I haven´t enough to make an single instructable just for that box)

• wood (I used pinewood from an old bed frame and some leftover pallet wood from another project)
• headless nails
• wood glue
• epoxy glue
• 2 magnetic purse round snap fasteners
• wood wax
• waterbased wood stain (I used yellow)
• sanding paper
• carbon paper
• a dragon design

• hammer
• wood carving tool
• pyrograver
• electric sander
• electric jigsaw
• pencil
• cloth (to apply wax)
• painting brush (to apply the wood stain)

Unfortunately when I made this box I didn´t plan on making this instructable, and therefore many pictures of the process are missing... I´m sorry about that. But I will try my best to explain how I made this.

1. With the jigsaw I cut the pinewood (from an old bed frame) , making 4 rectangulars of the same size (these will be the sides). I sanded the four side pieces. Then, I glued and nailed them so the bottom and the top formed a square.

2. I then cut a square of pallet wood to fit perfectly on the bottom (I used another type of wood, because it was thinner, and would be better for the bottom). You´ll have to sand it very well, and then glue and nail it to the bottom.

If you have clamps (I didn´t), you should use them now and let the glue dry well.

Meanwhile you can get back to the bed frame pinewood board and cut two triangles so that the two form a square (same size as the bottom).

When tour box has dried well you should now glue (no nails here) one of the triangles. Just one.

On the other triangle (don´t glue this one!) , mark the middle of the straight side, ,and use a coin to draw out how big your slot has to be, and with a wood carving tool and sanding paper make your coin box slot.

For this step, you will need a (dragon) drawing. If you are a talented artist, make your one or if you are like me print out an free design from the internet. Use carbon paper to trace over your dragon to the wood. After drawing all your lines start pyrograving. This will take some time, but I think the result is worth it.

This should be done before the finishing, so your coinbox shouldn´t be coloured yet. Sorry about the picture...didn´t take one before...

You will have to carefully measure the placement of your magnet on the lid and on the coinbox, and then carefully carve the wood so that they fit as perfectly as possible.

To glue in the magnets I used epoxy glue so that the magnets would stay in place in spite of the strenght of the magnetic field when opening the lid.

I painted the entire box (inside and out) with waterbased yellow stain.

When the paint is totally dry, it´s time to gently apply beeswax with a cloth. This will smoothen the wood and give it a nice finishing.

Hope you like it, and if you have any question please ask me!

In the introduction I told you I made 2 coinboxes, but didn´t have enough photos for an instructable, so I decided to share here the photos I have. It has many differences* from the Dragon Coin Box, so sorry about not having an instructable for it. However, please feel free to ask me about this project! I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

* This coinbox was made entirely out of pallet wood

* The woodbase stain is "cashew" coloured