Shoe Shine Kit

I went down a rabbit hole of shoe care videos, which inspired me to build myself a shoe shine kit. This was a weekend scrap wood project, so I didn't bother with SketchUp and just winged the whole thing based on the measurements of the items I wanted to store and the materials I had on hand.

The box sides are white oak, with cherry keys and handle, the top and bottom are hickory, and the internal tray is aromatic cedar.

The top and bottom panels are set in a dado  in the sides, then the box was glued up as a whole before I cut the lid to separate it from the bottom. I picked up some cheap hinges from the big box store, added a mortise for each in the box and lid so they'd sit flush, and then shaped a quick handle from cherry and cut a mortise in the lid for that too.

The tray parts were cut to size for a snug fit in the box. The bottom of the tray received a small chamfer around it, making sure the chamfer was not too large so the tray would still sit flat on the supports. This chamfer will help guide the tray into the box when placing it back in.

Once it was assembled, I added a coat of Antique Oil finish to protect and seal the wood from stains without changing the natural color of the woods used.