greene & greene style coin bank
^{a wortheffort project by shawn graham}

woodworkers:

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This project features one of the most forgiving hand tool based woodworking joints I know of and it just so happens to be a key defining ingredient in the Greene and Greene style of design. The Finger Joint.

Plus it repurposes those nifty little brass doors that used to be found in every Post Office across this nation to make a classy little Bank. A perfect gift for a niece or nephew. I kinda like the idea that these doors have spent thier lives securing birth announcements, wedding invitations, draft notices... basically the entire history of modern America and now it'll be protecting a kids prize possesions.

I also love this joint because it is basically half of a dovetail joint, in that you only saw straight up and down, no angles. So it's the perfect learning tool for more advanced joinery. Plus, just like the Hall Brothers design, the plugs hide screws which will sync down any gaps. And lets just assume that the gaps are too big to be sucked down... well then the curves at every joint will hide them unless you are looking at it at just the perfect angle. While not idiot proof it is a very forgiving joint.

I've devided this project into 4 video's so that if there is just one aspect of the project you are interested in you won't have to listen thru the whole thing.

An overview of the project, how I design stuff and how to diminsion the material for this project in a small shop using very inexpensive hand and power tools.
How to change the combinations of the banks. It helps to set them to initials or something easily remembered.
How to cut finger joints with hand tools.
Final assembly and finishing.