Fly Box made on a Microrouter Compact

[Steve]

I am posting some photos of a fly box project carried out by Middle School Kids in Montana.

The project is done by all in the class where they machine the box themselves. I believe they then manually trim and finish the two halves before engraving a logo of their own design on the Lid.

The project has been run for a few years now and Mark has sent a sequence of photos to show how the fixturing has been developed to make production much more acurate and reliable.

The hardest part of machining these things is holding the work down and positioning the part accurately in reference to the datum position

[Steve]

Photos of the fixture to hold the work on the machine bed.

[Steve]

A fixture has also been made to drill the wood blanks before fitting into the machine.

[Steve]

The next pictures show the material clamped onto the jig and then the two halves of the boxes machined out with recesses for the hinges and magnetic catch.

[Steve]

The machined part is removed from the jig and then hand finished as two halves.

Then another fixture is fitted to allow a design to be engraved on the lid.

This fixture is a tight fit on the inside of the machined pocket inside the lid preventing side to side movement, though a couple of wedges are used to hold it down.

[Steve]

Engraving the Lid

[Steve]

The finished fly box shown with magnetic strip and rubber inside.

[Steve]

Note the modification to the side window in the photos of the box lid fixture.

The machine has been modified to work with shop extraction.

On newer machines always ensure there is somewhere for the air to get into the machine otherwise the windows or guards will be sucked in!!!