I made my first attempt at a box today following the process from @45rpm John Clark’s videos.
I just replaced my router and retrammed the machine and was super happy with the results.
This is 1.75” this walnut and the box is 3.25x8.
I pocketed out the bottom leaving only .25”. I only had the pocket on the top go to .75 leaving it pretty chunky but I plan to flip it over and do a 3D carving on the top to reduce the overall thickness.
I had to sand the lip ever so slightly to get it to fit but it looks good and is tight.
Once I do the 3D carve I will sand and finish the outside.
Lesson learned: deep sweepy was too tall to be in there for the deeper cuts and the regular sweepy was too high to be useful unless I moved the mount constantly. I decided to just pause it every now and then and cleanup.
I did use a .275” pocket for the outer contour to relieve stress. Once that cut was going I ended up just holding the vac hose to the cut.
EDIT: I did the whole thing with a single bit: