At last! With handles made from scrap rosewood smuggled back from a Costa Rican surf trip, the mirror box is easily mounted and ready to use. Its dimensions are: 43" wide, 42" tall, and 11" deep.
To see the progress of this project from the beginning, scroll back a mere 28 posts.

With the finishing complete, it's time for final assembly. Here I'm attaching the box frame within the notches of the runners. Later, the curvy supports that go below the box frame will attach to the frame and runners. The hook bar will then attach to the supports. Finally the mirror is attached to the runners as well.

A first coat of linseed oil for the mirror frames.

With the mirror frames fitted and glued, the mirrors and backing boards need notches within which to rest. A great job for the router.

Transferring the joints from the vertical members of the mirror frames to the horizontal with a drafting pencil. Cuts are then made with table and bandsaws.

Giving the dovetails that hold the mirror frame together a bit of style.

The box frame sits on supports that will attach to the wall-mounted runners. With the bandsaw, giving them a bit of curve is easy.

Once the glue has dried, all surfaces must be sanded smooth before finishing.

After many hours cutting, shaping, sanding, and fitting forty vertical supports from walnut, the shelf/ box frame gets glued. A total of sixty small surfaces are being glued at once. Speed and accuracy are critical.

Using dado blades (multiple table saw blades sandwiched together to bake a wider cut) the notches are cut in the top and bottom of the box frames. These cuts are made to accept the vertical walnut parts that give the box frame structure. Look for the already notched boards behind me.

Portions of the piece that call for wide boards require careful glue-ups of thinner boards.

The last cut eliminates the blond sapwood.

Once rough-milled, the pieces are left overnight to release any internal tension as well as absorb/expel moisture from all surfaces evenly.

After labeling each piece and cutting it to an approximate length, the stock is rough-milled to obtain flat, clean and square edges. The first milling gets the wood close to its final dimensions while still allowing the internal tensions of each board to be released and, thus, stable after the finish mill.

Once I'm happy with the look and feel of my scale drawing (on the cork-board in the upper right) I make a list of each puzzle piece with exact dimensions. Then it's to the basement to select the rough stock. Each piece is selected with a careful eye for how the dusty plank will present as part of the finished piece.