Shadow Box for WWII Medals

I made this for my wifes grandfather who served in the Army in WWII. He made it through the entire war. I believe he landed in France just after D Day and traveled all the way into Germany. I don’t have the exact dates in front of me now.

Anyways he just now filled out the paper work to get his medals. When he finally got them he would always mention to me that he wanted to get a shadow box for them to be displayed. Not wanting to put and American Hero’s medals in some cheap piece of Chinese crap I made him a box using only vintage US made tools.

I did a full size drawing, just because, and still made measuring mistakes. I cut the sides two short, I didn’t take into consideration the thickness of the top and bottom for the trough dovetails. Somehow I split one of the side pieces with the tails on it, usually I split the pin pieces. Also I changed the design since I could not get the 45 miters lined up (I need a new shootingboard). I just did a simple half lap for the joints of the frame. The space under the main viewing are is for the original boxes the Medals cam in. This was a fun project using only had tools.

I retrospect i think I made the box a little to deep, but he loved it so that is all that counts.