The Armour Archive

Very nice... Inspirational, even.

I C

BaronConal wrote:Pull out the hinge pins and the legs come off for packing...
I added the hinges so that you could pick them up and move them without the legs falling off...

Can you assemble them with the legs "folded" for packing?

Donal Mac Ruiseart wrote:

BaronConal wrote:Pull out the hinge pins and the legs come off for packing...
I added the hinges so that you could pick them up and move them without the legs falling off...

Can you assemble them with the legs "folded" for packing?

probably not.... no way to get the pin into the hinge that way....
unless you have very long skinny fingers...

So my wife said she was "Tired of living out of totes" while eventing.

I volunteered to make "a box".

I settled on a clampfront, modeled vaguely on the Canfield Coffer, and found some plans online to work from.

It's a bit bigger than I envisioned:

[img]http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a181/maeryk/mebox2.jpg[/img]

Solid poplar, the sides are actually pegged and glued into the ends, and the bottom is glued and screwed into glue blocks glued along the sides. Lid is also poplar, and will be hinged, and currently, the whole damn thing is bright pink, cause that's the color primer we had left over from painting our room burgundy, and it gives the best "shine through" to the maroon and beige paint that will be the final design on the box.

Line it with a plastic trash bag and you have yourself a tub....

WEll, it's got 9327.5 cubic inches of interior space, when all is said and done.

WE now have _ONE_ plastic tote going camping with us. Rather than the four we used to use. It works as a bench (for putting on shoes) and as a changing table (For der bebe) and as a night-stand/toiletries stand, etc.

It's mucking HUGE, takes two people to move, and takes up half my car.

And I LOVE it.

My father made us a "campaign chest" as a wedding gift, which I believe is slightly longer than yours. We can pack *everything* we need into it for War. Yes, it takes a couple folks to get it into and out of the car, but I love it.

The cover I'm making for the ice chest looks about that size...but it breaks down

First thing I thought when I saw the pic with you sitting in it was "Coffer or coffin?"

What are those little compartments at the ends?

And where do you get such wide slabs of poplar?

They aren't compartments, they are the handles for the chest. I put one about the level of the bottom of the "box" part as well, to make it easier to lift higher.

(The original had the same type handles. Canfield Coffer).

Not wide slabs.. well.. the uprights are one piece, but the rest of it is glue-ups.

Ah, I think I get it . .. the slabs at the ends are only a few inches wide, supported by the extended planks at the corners.

I like that, the problem of handles has always perplexed me


And the floor is sturdy enough to take your weight . . .

The "wings" from the vertical legs (the front and back of the chest) extend past the "end" of the compartment a good 2.5 inches. There's a milled piece of 3/4 x 2" wood flush with the outside of that. Lid battens can fit nicely in the "gap" (or not, I've done it both ways).

I put two handles on each end.. one level with the top, and one level with the bottom of the compartment. (Much easier to lift into the car with the lower handles).

And yeah.. I stood on one foot and bounced a bit in the dead center of the floor. It's milled 3/4 (ish.. probably over a bit.. I just got to "all boards smooth and same thickness) poplar edge glued and biscuited, and then glued and screwed around the edges to 3/4x3/4 glue block strips that run the perimeter of the base. They are in turn glued and screwed to the carcass.

The lid I thinned down to closer to 1/2 when I planed it, cause.. just.. yeah. That's a big, heavy assed piece of wood, and it really doesn't need to support cars or anything.

Bear in mind.. the Canfield Coffer, (and, in fact, many of the REALLY DAMNED BIG surviving boxes, like the Voxthorp) were built to have the valuable church items locked in em. Too big to move, to solid to break into.

and that bigassed box I built, with a hasp and a padlock (a "real" one if I can find one), is as good as a safe at an event.

If you notice it gone it wasn't me

Bring someone.

or two someone's probably.

And it's easy to track. "Hey! Anyone see a couple of hearniated guys carrying a BIGASSED Pink box?"

I'm camping with a load of 21-35 year old guys.

If anything we will turn it into a giant open beer cooler.



Er, and PINK!? Wow, talk about a low tech anti theft device

I found the pictures of the prototype with removable legs....








this was the idea testing prototype, a little rough around the edges.

Neat! I really like that!

Maeryk wrote:WEll, it's got 9327.5 cubic inches of interior space, when all is said and done.

WE now have _ONE_ plastic tote going camping with us. Rather than the four we used to use. It works as a bench (for putting on shoes) and as a changing table (For der bebe) and as a night-stand/toiletries stand, etc.

It's mucking HUGE, takes two people to move, and takes up half my car.

And I LOVE it.

Hee hee .. made two of 'em myself. One with a fitted lid, the other with hinged. One is in the center of the 'living room' and the lil' one (2 1/2 yrs) loves it for her jungle gym and storage chest. The other is at the foot of our bed. Both were originally made for Pennsic camping, but after the 1st year haven't had a return trip (course that was when we had a queen sized pegged slat bed to put 'em at the ends of) ...

Now the next stage is to do the chip carving to 'personalize' them.