Sangaku Japanese case mod

Outer Frame

The basic idea was to have a wood frame, joined with a few different joints, and an inside frame to which all the hardware would fasten. The inner frame will be made out of grey transparent acrylic, as would the front and back plates. The top and bottom of the case will be sitka spruce, and for an extra Japanese flair, the side doors will be sliding shoji doors with one panel left clear to see all the goodies inside.

Here are some pics of the frame:



The wood used is a mahogany, chosen mainly for the colour but also because Nick had some spare and it just happened to be suitable for this purpose. For the joinery, the top pieces are joined with a half-lap joint and the vertical members connect with a pinned-through mortise and tenon.



The black wood in the picture is ebony - very expensive but very hard and works very well for the purpose of pins, knobs, and the like.



The joints should be strong/tight enough to hold everything together. One unique benefit of this approach is that, if needed, the entire outer frame can be disassembled, since the pins are not glued in. This proved necessary several times during the build so it was a blessing that it was there from the start. Like they say, it's a feature not a bug, right?