I've been in the middle of a big project that's taking weeks to finish and sometimes I just need a break a side project that's fun to build and which will give me the satisfaction of actually completing something this is that project it's a basket that might be used for bread or I don't know anything you might put in a basket it looks great and it makes a wonderful gift or even something to sell at a craft show people love these because they look really delicate and thin on the sides but that's a bit of an illusion the sides are actually thicker than they look which makes for a very strong basket and while it looks like the wood has been bent to create it it's actually cut entirely on the band saw which is so much easier you can make one of these in about an hour of actual labor plus the time for glue and your finish to dry don't worry I'm going to walk you through it step by step now if you've been holding on to some scraps of woods that are a little too small for other projects but a little too nice to throw away now is the perfect time to use them as you can see I've glued up four pieces to make my black these Dimensions aren't critical just use whatever you have on hand mine's a little over three inches thick five inches wide and about 14 inches long I've also set aside one more layer that will be glued back on later draw a line down the center then a circle at each end as large as you can fit connect those circles with straight lines to create an oval these are the outer boundaries of your basket now repeat the process with circles that are a half inch smaller in diameter than the first pair connect them to create another oval and you have the inner boundaries of the basket the space between them is the rim and it should be about a quarter of an inch all the way around I'm using a band saw with a large resaw capacity and I love this saw but you don't need something this big for this particular project because your blank's only four inches thick and most 12 and 14 inch bandsaws can handle that what you will want though is a good quarter inch blade with four teeth per inch now most quarter inch blades come with six or more teeth per inch that's likely to cut very slowly in a thick chunk of hardwood like this and probably even Scorch and smoke and mave and wreck your blade bandsaw blades are not terribly expensive so just get one with four teeth per inch for this project and you'll be able to use it on thick resawing jobs in the future as well I got mine from sawblade.com if you need a source I'll put a link below this video now before you begin cutting tilt your bandsaw's table six degrees downward to the right I initially forgot to do this myself and it almost wrecked my project as you'll see later the Tilt is important because that's what creates the angled sides on the basket any angle will really do but six degrees seems about right now you'll be cutting the inside of the basket first so enter from one end making a straight cut into the waist area in the center you want this cut to enter straight and cleanly because you'll be gluing it back together later and you'll want that kerf to close up nicely so it disappears as I mentioned I forgot to tilt my table but fortunately I realized my mistake before I made the turn and began cutting along my pencil lines I was able then to save myself by Boring a hole in the waist area and that gave room for the blade as I tilted the table with the blade already inserted hopefully you won't have to do that but either way once you get inside the waist area in the center of the basket you can turn the cut toward the left side and begin following your pencil line it's important to cut in the counterclockwise Direction around the inner perimeter of the basket so the side slope downward toward the bottom of the basket follow your line carefully and make the turns as evenly as possible you can see from the waist that comes out of the center of mine that my cut wasn't perfectly smooth and I doubt yours will be either but that's what sandpaper is for first though you'll have to hide where the blade entered from the outside this is simply a matter of getting some glue in the kerf and then clamping it shut be sure to clean up any squeeze out on the inside now you can begin sanding this will go a lot faster if you have a spindle sander or even a sanding drum on your drill press just be sure you tilt the table to the same six degrees to match the angle of the band socket now lacking one of those options you can use sandpaper and some elbow grease start with coarse grits and work your way through the Grits working your way up to 220. slight undulations on the inside aren't a big deal as long as they're smooth and there aren't any blade marks now remember how I said I set aside an extra layer for later that's the bottom of the basket and now is when it gets glued into place be careful not to get glue squeeze out on the inside of the basket it's going to be difficult to clean that up later with everything dry it's time to cut the outside shape this time I decided to use a fence to help me cut the sides as straight as possible to reduce sanding afterward if you have a fence and your bandsaw isn't prone to Drifting during long straight cuts this is definitely the way to go otherwise just cut it freehand following the lines by eye as before either way you're going to have to cut freehand when you come to the curved ends again notice how I'm cutting so the blade goes counterclockwise around the curves tapering the sides again downward toward the bottom of the basket thankfully you can use an electric sander on the outside if you're wondering about mine it's the 3M extract random orbit sander it is among the best I've ever used it's comfortable it's fast the vibrations are minimal it's not cheap but it is well worth the investment in my opinion I'll put a link below this video you should definitely check it out is where the illusion happens note that the rim is about a quarter inch thick at this point that makes for a good sturdy basket but it looks a little heavy so I'm using a sanding block to thin that edge out by holding it at an angle and sanding all along the upper layer of wood then I blend it out with some hand sanding so it's difficult to tell that the outside of the rim is tapered at an angle that's different from the rest of the basket I also use some fine sandpaper to even out any undulations on the inside of the rim so I have an even width of about a sixteenth of an inch all the way around spend a little extra time here at The Rim because that is what people will notice slight bumps down inside the basket will be hard to see but any imperfections along the rim will stand out immediately I like to sand the outside up to about 320 grit then I put on a few coats of my favorite finish here I'm using shellac which is food safe really any finish is food safe once it's fully cured even polyurethane but shellac is a good choice here because
