Bike Cable Lid Support - Woodworking Tip #23

For a cyclist a broken brake cable just means longer stopping distance. For a pilot a broken elevator cable means landing, look mom, “no hands,” using flaps, power and trim for pitch control. For my lady a broken jewelry box lid support cable meant holding the lid with the left hand as the right hand sought the day's adornments. Really, not bad: after 29,251 cycles this bike cable lid support broke, though not the cable itself. The cable pulled out of its crimped ring connector on the lid. It was easily replaced with a fresh piece of bicycle brake cable and a new ring wire connector.

Using Soss hinges, as I did, on this walnut and cherry jewelry box with a full-width earring tray and music movement, the hinge itself provided no lid support. Furthermore, the full tray under the lid allowed no space for a scissors lid stay.  A light cord or chain tends to either get kinked or ends up draping outside of the box.  The solution was found in of all places my cycling ditty box. Taking a brake cable I cut the nipple end down to about 6 inches, threaded it through a diagonal hole in the support dowel for the earring tray and crimped the end to an uninsulated ring wire connector. The ring connector was then screwed to the underside of the lid. The clearance of only 1/16” between the tray and side of the jewelry box still allowed the cable to slide by, though during this recent repair I relieved the side of the tray slightly to permit even easier movement.  If you use a rail instead of dowels to support the tray the diagonal cable hole would go through it.

The barrel nipple at the end of the cable hits the bottom of the box when the lid is closed and neatly slides forward along the bottom of the box. The real beauty of this system is that the bike cable is rigid enough to have no tendency to fold or kink. Surprisingly, little pressure must be exerted on the felt as it appears completely unmarred even after 29,251 cycles.  There you have it:  a synthesis of two of my loves, cycling and woodworking, for my love.

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Memory Box -- Everyday Ofrenda

It was in Flagstaff that I first encountered the wonderful Mexican tradition of creating ofrendas, offering altars for the departed, during Dia de los Muertos, which correlates to Halloween, All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day in the Anglo tradition.  Two things struck me the most:  first,  just the very practice of collecting photos and special artifacts from an individual's life in order to remember and honor them and second, a strong injection of humor into our human condition of dying, taking the grim reaper to the Jay Leno Show.

This memory box was created to hold just such precious objects from a life past, a kind of everyday ofrenda to visit, to remember, to honor.  Fundamentally similar to a jewelry box, it departs, however, from it by being taller and having no removable tray or segmented compartments.  In the Dia de los Muertos tradition the dead are said to visit their ofrenda, take sustenance and cleanse themselves.  Regarding this, a true story:  I was pulling my F150 up to the garage, this memory box in the cab, and a powerful dust devil parked itself in our drive forcing me to stop.  I waited for it to move along, but it just dissipated, vanished, leaving a snowfall of yellow palo verde petals, identical in color to the petals that were tossed at the memorial for the individual whose memory box I carried.  Arizona and New Mexico:  places where wind is the garb of spirits.

Dovetail Detail

El Tiradito, Barrio Viejo, Tucson

Interior Detail