Treasure Box

[Don Grubish]

Eventually I want to get around to making a hope chest. My brother has made a few as toy boxes for our nieces and nephews, and they look relatively simple to build. He, however, uses the dovetail method to build his sides. I would like to simply use the Kreg Jig to join the sides and bottom.

In order to understand the concept, I decided to make a smaller version and build a treasure box. Since my roommate's daughter's birthday was coming up (June 2nd), I thought I'd use the previous weekend to get started. It was going to be a total surprise to her, so I had to hide what I was doing the entire time he had his girls over that weekend. When asked what I was doing, I just said, "I'm putzing around with scrap wood. Nothing special."

The result was this box, made with scrap aspen pine wood I had from previous jobs.

The lid was made by cutting two strips of aspen wood into arched pieces, and nailing strips of 1/4" plywood to them. I got the plywood from a friend at work who didn't need some of the scrap wood in his garage. He needed space, apparently, so I picked it up from him. More of that same plywood was cut for the bottom of the box.

Once the lid was made, I took out my trusty woodburner and burned her initials into the lid. It's a good thing I'm also a graphic artist by trade, because it gives me access to all kinds of neat fonts and a very good printer.

Anywho, after the woodburning, I stained and finished the box and lid like you see above, and screwed in the hardware. I picked up a set of hinges, a tough brass chain, and a locking mechanism for the front. With McKenzie getting to be the age where she needs her own privacy, I figured this box better lock up, so her younger sister, Danielle, can't get into her personal things.

One thing about the locking mechanism, I'd never used this type of lock before. I had no idea how to install it until I went to the Rockler catalog and saw it in an example. Believe it or not, you have to carve out a cavity on the interior of the box, and drill a large enough hole to allow the key to be inserted and activate the lock. That's not an easy thing to do. Sure enough, I mucked up the cavity size, so I used some Minwax wood filler and a baggie to fix my mistake. I gooped in a bunch of the wood filler into my cavity, and then wrapped the lock with the baggie and inserted it into the filler the way it would be installed. When dried, the result was a perfectly formed indent of what I needed.

I wouldn't recommend always doing it that way, but it worked for me in a pinch. A good sanding later, I stained the wood and applied coats of finish. When I was done, it looked like this:

I wrapped the box up and presented it to her on her birthday. Needless to say, she loved it very much, and displays it in her room. The key is now worn on a necklace that she adores. Not bad for knocking one out of the park on her birthday, and using only scrap wood in my shop!

[Don Grubish]

"You don't often see Pocket-Holes used in such a small piece."

Well, it makes for one VERY strong lock box. Her younger sister is going to have a heck of a time trying to get through that if she wants in. =)

[KregRep]

A great project, Don. You don't often see Pocket-Holes used in such a small piece. Very cool. Looks like you plugged the holes and they matched real well.

I thought your insight about making mistakes with the lock and having to adapt to the circumstances was very telling of a lot of woodworkers. Mistakes happen with wood, but you persevered and completed the project! Also a running theme through woodworking, even though those of us who build know the minor imperfections... others usually don't and sometimes those errors can be the most interesting part of a project like this.