This is my second project on my XXL. I had a Wixley Digital Angle Gauge in the plastic package for the last two years. Every time I used it I would put it back and thought that DAG really needed a real home. I learned a lot making the box and the butterfly on top.
I found some very good instruction on youtube from a man named John Clark. He has good tutorial for box making and putting vcarve on the top. Check him out.
Yes the box is red oak. I watch Craigslist and bought two pickup loads of oak and mahagony from a furniture factory that made church furniture for $200.00. I have been whittling down the stack. Most of it is 8/4 and many glued up into seats and legs.