Fire Acadamy "Shadow box"

While my brother was in the fire acadamy, the class wanted to give a gift that would display all the “patches” the acadamy has collected over the years from different fire stations throughout the country. So, he called on me do build a “shadow box” which I was extremely exited to do. I wanted this piece to be my first piece with no screws, all wood joinery….I almost succeeded, as I used finger joints on the box frame and the faceframe is a mixture of Mahogany and walnut which I tongue and grooved and biscuit joined and glued to the box. The box was built out of 8/4 African Mahogany and the only screws I used was on the back. I used biscuits and pocket screws to join the mdf back, and then covered some soundboard with blue felt and glued it to the mdf back. The glass doors are 1/4” thick on slide on a KV aluminum track. This whole box is 12 ft long and 4 ft high.

I finished it with 4 coats of oil base satin poly. I really wanted to make a penetrating oil finish but I have never done that before and ran out of time before I had to install. All in all I was very pleased with everything and all the students and firemen there couldn’t be happier, which is the real satisfaction for me.

-- Childress Woodworks