Wooden crates and storage boxes are a staple for many dolls house scenes. Practise making them by making these simple decorative boxes with rabbet joint ends. The joints are made with a simple flat file, and files are also used to help form decorative heart cutouts in the box sides. As shown here the box is used for a planter, but it can also hold pots of dollhouse plants, scale patterns, magazines or cd's. If you change the size, the same techniques will make beer and milk crates, or storage boxes for all kinds of miniatures.
The rabbet joint is one step up from a butt joint where wood is simply glued on edges. A rabbet joint is cut halfway through a piece of wood, allowing glue to hold on both the ends and the sides of an adjoining piece. This strengthens the join slightly and also makes it easier to make square sides, bases and ends.
Rabbet joints can be used to make a basic box, by cutting the rabbets on the base, gluing the sides to the base, then making a fitted top by cutting rabbets on the edges of a top piece and adding a handle.
This project is designed to help you learn to file simple rabbet joints accurately. For that reason the rabbets are made on the box ends. Normally the rabbets would be made on the base, and or the decorative side edges, so that no joins are visible on the main sides. Here they are used on the box ends, as it makes for a bit less work while you practise making straight rabbets.
