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I wanted to build some jewelry boxes for gifts. I had only one criteria; it had to have a secret stash area somewhere. I decided to mock one up in pine. The box portion and the base separate leaving a small area under the box to stash personal items you may not want seen by everyone (love letters?) The floor of the box has the dado about 1/2 inch above the base leaving a substantial 'stash area'. I was not going to finish this box, as I just wanted to get the logistics figured out before using substantial lumber. One thing led to another and I built the lower dividers and upper tray and I am glad I did. That upper tray was a bear to fit. I wanted it as deep as possible but the lid would hit it, so I had to keep trimming it by a 1/32 until the lid would close without hitting the tray. I used rare earth magnets countersunk in the inside corners of the base and upholstery tacks in the inside corners of the box to make the two fast. The registration cleats in the base line everything up. I think on the next box(s) I will totally enclose the base stash area instead of using just cleats. The third photo shows the upper tray supporting the box above the base revealing the secret stash area.
My son and I will keep this one for our tie tacks, clips and cuff links.
Thanks for looking

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Comments

· In Loving Memory
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10,077 Posts
I do secret compartments like this but never thought about the magnets. Did you just use 4 magnets and 4 tacks? It doesn't seem this would support the weight of the base but if it does, I gotta try this. Great idea and thanks for posting this.
 

· Registered
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1,166 Posts
gadvm
I tried several combinations and if you shake the box hard it will come apart. I first tried matching up two magnets in each corner but could hardly get the two apart. When I use a more substantial lumber I'll increase the size of the tacks (these are pretty small). I did not want there to be too much resistance for fear of upsetting the contents of the jewelry box.
 

· Registered
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1,833 Posts
Interesting project, nice work and I like the secret compartment!
 

· Registered
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499 Posts
This is one Cool Box!!

Thanks for sharing
 

· Registered
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7,502 Posts
Very snazzy, JJ
 
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