I’m not even sure if I want to post this, but here goes. I just finished a breadbox, which qualifies as the worst woodworking project I’ve ever done. Wonder why? There are lots of reasons, but let’s just get a photo out of the way first:

This project has been languishing for years. How long? I don’t even know anymore. There was a reference to it in a post many years back, three moves ago, probably saying that this was taking an embarrassingly long time. That was at least a few years ago. (I also found a photo from five years ago showing the door frame being made.) The reasons for delay? All obnoxiously stupid:

• Couldn’t decide how to do the door
• Couldn’t decide how to seal and stop the area around the door
• Couldn’t be bothered to find decent hinges
• Couldn’t decide on the handle
• Couldn’t decide what kind of clasp hardware to use
• Couldn’t be bothered to order the clasp hardware
• Didn’t remember that I actually ordered the clasp hardware, then spent a year or two absentmindedly trying to decide on the clasp hardware (again)
• Didn’t want to finish it
• Didn’t remember that it needed to be finished
• Any and all other methods of procrastination

That all sounds bad enough, but there are even more reasons. The best I can say is that I made the box and the door very quickly.

And then there’s the quality of work. It’s not great. It looks OK from a distance. Maybe just don’t look too closely. I don’t want to go into the details, but let’s just say that I wasn’t particularly careful here. I can only conclude that I just wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about this albatross of a project.

Despite all of this, it’s better that it’s done and now in service. This was an incredibly irritating monkey on my back.

Oh, I guess there are technical details: Beech, half-blind dovetails for the carcase, mortise-and-tenons for the door, floating panels on the door and rear of the carcase.

Here it is, open (I didn’t even remember to use the same exposure on both pictures, and nope, I’m not gonna go back and redo it):