Treasure chest

very cool…very inventive to make your own…turned out great…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...119 days to sanity...

I bet you got a lot of compliments! Great lloking chest and wonderful work.

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Nice job. I want to build one now.

-- Ron, Twain Harte, Ca. Portable on site Sawmill Service http://westcoastlands.net/Sawmill.html http://westcoastlands.net/SawBucks2/phpBB3

Great job Jeff. I bet a number of kids would like that chest too.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Good looking chest.

I guess next he’ll want you to make a peg leg for him. :-)

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Very cool looking pirates chest. You should have made her day. Nice work on the corners and lid. jockmike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Arrrr, fine job, Matey!

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Fine job! Great looking hardware. How hard was it to line up the locking mechanism? I’ve never done one of those.

-- Jesus is Lord!

Nice work. I just love small wooden boxes!

-- CanuckDon "I just love small wooden boxes!" http://www.canterburybaptist.org/

Nice job…really looks great. Did you drink his rum and pillage the village?

-- Bob, Carver Massachusetts, Sawdust Maker http://www.capecodbaychallenge.org

excellent!!

I’m guessing that she’ll be using it on “Talk Like a Pirate Day” in Sept.
(Not that I know anything about it).

You’ve done the task well—it looks very piratee.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

great job – now that a Pirate’s chest… but where is the gold?

-- Larry ------------------------------------------------------- "Have you hugged your pet today?"

Thanks for the kind words.

It’s been a while, but I remember the lock was fairly easy to line up. I dont remenber the details, but I remember using double stick tape and some ingenuity.

I do remember some wailing and gnashing of teeth trying to get the top lined up..
Matter of fact, I just finished a second one (a more rustic version), and I the lid is way off center.

Aargh :-}

-- Jeff - Pflugerville, TX

Hi, we have a task to make a chest very similar but will not be able to do the box joints – can you tell me another way to put the corners together for someone with very limited experince. We would not have taken on this project but my father started this for my son and is now refined to his bed and can’t even tell us what his plans were. All we have are the ends that he cut which are wider at one end than the other and was suppose to have a lid like yours. I don’t know why but the ends were cut from a piece of wood bigger than what he had for the front and back – which makes the grain go in different directions (and I don’t know if that is going to be a problem) ie side up &down, f&b side to side. We are working with 3/4 walnut.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!

And of course we are trying to get this made before Christmas!!! HA! :P
Lesa

Hi Lesa,
Sorry to hear about your Dad.

About the corner joints … I made a second chest without the box joints, I glued a ‘cleat’ into the inside of the corner joint. Instead of using a square piece of wood, I made the cleat by tipping the table saw to 45 degrees and cutting 4 strips from 3/4” wood. (This made the strips a triangular shape if viewed from the top). Then I glued them into the corners. I flushed the top of the strips with the top of the chest and left them about 3/4” short from the bottom, to allow for a full size bottom—I know that sounds complicated, and it wasn’t exactly easy…

Since the grain is running opposite directions, I would say the easiest way would be to drive screws from the front and back into the side pieces (counter-sinking of course). The side grain (on the side pieces) would hold screws very well. Since your wood is dark, you could use black drywall screws and they wouldn’t be too noticeable.

The cross grain wood could cause the front or back to split… I’d recommend elongating the holes on the front and back very slightly to allow for wood movement.

Good luck with the project!

Jeff

-- Jeff - Pflugerville, TX