I've been a woodworker all of my life.  I became interested in cigar box guitars through an organization called Blue Star Connection.  They are a non-profit organization which through donations, supply instruments to children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses.  They have supplied instruments to musical therapy departments in many Children's Hospitals in the United States as well as to children in other countries.  When I became interested, they gave me a basic unfinished cigar box guitar, which I hand painted and returned to them.  They in turn sold it to raise funds.  This gave me a good feeling, and I decided I could make a better guitar and also a wider variety, to help them raise money.  I have done this with my own money, which is sometimes offset by the occasional ones that I sell.  I have also donated guitars for Ronald McDonald House and Colorado Blues Society, Pikes Peak Blues Community, Greely Blues Jam, BPOE Elks raffles, Voice Of The Wetlands, as well as varies medical assistance fundraisers.  The donations to Colorado Blues Society have helped fund their Blues In The Schools program.   

I have made a variety of cigar box guitars, ranging from real cigar boxes, tins, hardwoods, and solid bodies.  They are 2, 3, 4, or 6 string, with no pickup, piezo pickup, or electric magnetic pickups.  The hardwoods I use include ash, ambrosia maple, birds eye maple, curly maple, cypress, bamboo, cherry, lacewood, mahogany, rosewood, spanish cedar, and others that I may find interesting.  I've also used various veneers with interesting grain patterns.  Multiple coats of lacquer are normally used for finishing.