Wedding Present

[rnt80]

I made this trunk for a former player of mine that is getting married on Friday.  She's a fantastic kid and sacrificed a lot for her team her senior year.
The trunk was made from scrap I had around my shop - poplar, alder, maple, maple ply for the top and mdf for the panels.  The corners were mitered using my ts55 and are reinforced with dominos.  The finish is some exterior latex I had left over from a plantation shutter job I did this summer.  I put on two coats of primer and then two top coats.  After it was painted I beat the heck out of it with some old keys and took some chunks out with a chisel.  Once that was done I applied Mohawk's Van Dyke Brown Glazing Stain.  I followed that up with two coats of USL.
I know that the hinges don't match the feel of the piece but I wanted to use them.  They are the new ones from Rockler that allow the lid to stay in a fixed position. 
The little tray in the middle was to fix a bow in the front panel.  I had to pull it back in so that the lid would shut.  Not what I wanted to do but it did the job.  Constructive criticism is always welcome.

 

[rnt80]

  A couple more...

 

[robtonya]

I really like the finish. It turned out great!. Don't worry about the box in the middle. You did what you had to do to make it right. It still looks like it's large enough to fold quilts, and have two stacks of them.

 

[mwhafner]

An awesome wedding gift.  I hope that she appreciates your efforts.

Woodworking is about finding ways to correct our mistakes.  It has been said here before, but each project is just a series of errors brought together to a result.  Your result is incredible. 

I wish that my attempts at distressed finishes worked out as well as yours. 

 

[nickao]

I think you worried about nothing at all, another mistake that just made the project better!

Oh I forgot, that tray was in the plan from the get go. 

 

[rnt80]

Thanks for the kind words.  This was another project that Festool made a lot easier and faster.  Cutting the miters with the 55 to join the four sides was a breeze.  I don't think I could've done it on my ts since my fence doesn't extend that far.  I not only used the Domino to reinforce the corners but I also had to use it on the top.  I mentioned that I used scrap to build this thing, well the piece of ply that I used for the top needed another 3" along the length.  I just glued a piece of poplar and reinforced it with Dominos.  In face the edging around the entire top is attached with dominos, no brads or pins.
I was able to pick up a Jet 22-44 this summer for about $1000 and it has proved indespensible on a few projects, this was one of them.  I used 1/2" mdf for the panels and they protruded out the back of rails and stiles by about 1/4".  Passing them through the drum sander brought them flush.  Actually, I sanded all of the assembled rails and stiles that way.  It makes things so much faster and guarantees that it will all be perfectly flush.
I used an exterior latex for the paint.  If I do another one of these I'll probably use a tinted lacquer instead.  While my gun did an admirable job of spraying the paint it didn't come out as flat as I would've liked.  That wouldn't be an issue usually but the glaze highlights those irregularities.  That may not be a big deal to most but it is something that I see and it's bothersome.  Using the lacquer would also speed up dry time.
The inside bottom of the trunk is 1/2" stained a dark cherry, it makes well with the off-white of the case.  Thanks again for looking.

 

[chrisrosenb]

Nice save. ;D

It looks great.
How do you like the hinges?
I got a pair of those for a toy box I plan to build for my Granddaughter.
I had not seem them before & the Rockler salesperson did not know much about them.

 

[rnt80]

Nice save. ;D

It looks great.
How do you like the hinges?
I got a pair of those for a toy box I plan to build for my Granddaughter.
I had not seem them before & the Rockler salesperson did not know much about them.

Chirs,  they work as advertised.  I believe I got a pair of the 40 lb. and they work well.  They're hard to open by themselves but once you get them attached to the piece it is much easier to open and close them.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

rnt80,

Very nice work and a wonderful, personal gift to her!  I think your little center tray solution to the bowed panel problem was a great idea.  I've never had the heart to intentionally distress and "antique" any project I have made, but yours came out looking great.

Dave R.

 

[rnt80]

Dave, it may not look like it but the process of distressing a piece and getting it to look authentic is a real art.  I haven't done a lot of it but I've done enough to know that it can make a piece look really bad.  Too much of the distressed work looks like someone distressed it as opposed to a real antique.  I've got a long way to go but I'm pleased with the overall feel of the piece.

 

[nickao]

All the furniture in my house is distressed, when the kids scratch or dent something it  just adds to the beauty!