| Project by Richard | posted 1222 days ago | 1817 views | 4 times favorited | 10 comments |  |
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I found some free used flooring on Craigslist, some red oak, maple and walnut. After removing the nails and damaged areas, I had quite a bit of usable lumber, but in 3 inch strips. I decided to build a trunk because the wood was always in my way and the dogs was always dragging them out to the pasture and chewing on them.
Note: the trunk is not tongue and grooved. I found some 1/2 inch birch plywood from a trashed packing crate and simply sawed, glued, and screwed it together into the size I wanted. Then I planed the used flooring into strips and carefully glued and screwed the flooring onto the birch plywood. The trick is to completely hide all the edges of the plywood, so it looks like solid wood. As for the inside of the trunk, I ripped some cedar boards and planed them to about a 1/4 of an inch and carefully laid them out inside of the chest to look like slats which hides the plywood carcass on the inside.
I then finished with tongue oil and used Rockler hardware. If you look closely you may see some nail holes, but it gives the trunk a history. The chest measures 36×20 x 18 inches. I plan on using it for storage and as a coffee table for my house. I always liked using reclaimed materials in my wood working, and hopefully this will give you an idea when you come across free flooring or reclaimed lumber.
The last picture are a couple of “lumber thieves” which frequently raid my lumber storage area
-- Richard Boise, Idaho
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10 comments so far
mancave
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114 posts in 1230 days
#1 posted 1222 days ago
Nice recycling. I have a work bench made from packing crate lumber, looks nice, but your trunk is way better!
Karson
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34367 posts in 2567 days
#2 posted 1222 days ago
Great recycling. Nice use of some old flooring.
-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
OutPutter
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1194 posts in 2156 days
#3 posted 1222 days ago
Anyone can see them dogs is innocent. That trunk might need to be converted to a bed or something. I’ve often looked on Craig’s list for left over flooring to use for boxes but, I’ve never scored anythin as good as this. Nice work and thanks for the post.
Best,
-- Jim
Jason
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628 posts in 1674 days
#4 posted 1222 days ago
I actually have a fair amount, for me, of oak flooring from a bathroom that I tiled. I can’t complain about the pieces I’ve used to this point.
-- Jason - Colorado Springs
woodworm
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14104 posts in 1757 days
#5 posted 1222 days ago
Very very nicely built & finished chest. A great work on material recycling.
-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.
scrappy
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3474 posts in 1596 days
#6 posted 1222 days ago
Great trunk. Love the use of reclaimed wood. Get lots of my stuff from pallets. Nice job on hiding the plywood edges.
Keep it up.
Scrappy
-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!
newTim
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528 posts in 1773 days
#7 posted 1222 days ago
Good dogs. Nice trunk. Now all of us Lumberjocks are going to be ‘hounding’ our local hardwood floor retailers for damaged stock.
-- tim hill www.newcalshop.com
AngelofDeath
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116 posts in 1242 days
#8 posted 1222 days ago
great job with the free wood…. really nice looking trunk….and i feel your pain about the pups…
itsmic
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1423 posts in 1284 days
#9 posted 837 days ago
Sharp looking chest, eye catching design, looks great, I like it, thanks for sharing
-- It's Mic Keep working and sharing
Roger
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9191 posts in 970 days
#10 posted 488 days ago
gr8 way to recycle, and turn out such an awesome chest
-- Roger from KY. Work/Play/Travel Safe. Kentuk55@bellsouth.net
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