My friend’s son joined a frat and made his paddles. He is a talented kid when it comes to blacksmithing. He has been working with metal since he was around 13. I helped him mill the lumber and gave him some copper I had from an earlier project. He cut out all the letters, made the hinges and assembled everything himself.
His father asked if I could make a box for storage. The paddles were made out of lumber from a tree that his Grandfather cut down. He wanted the box made from the same walnut so everything matched. The walnut pieces he had left over were small and there wasn’t enough to make the box, but I made it work by resawing the walnut and using another piece of wood he brought over for the project.
This is a short video of a close up view of the walnut top.
The hinges he brought me were kind of ugly and I really struggled with them. Even though I measured and took precautions, I still had trouble because the box sides were so thin. After grinding the screws down, there wasn’t enough thread left to hold in the soft lumber used for the front and back walls. I decided to make the hinges and I had to add blocks to the inside to make the wall thick enough to hold the hinges. I could have glued the hinges on, but I wanted them to be removable just in case something went wrong.
When I made the hinges I didn’t make the barrels perfectly round so the hinge would bind. I opened and closed the hinge and made some adjustments by sanding until it opened just past vertical. Not sure I can do it again, but it worked to my advantage and it acts as a built in stop. I also added some leather for the floor .
I had fun coming up with the design for the latch. I’m sure someone else has done something similar, but I was pretty excited that my design worked exactly like I wanted it to. I have several things in my shop that I use magnets for. I have found dozens of uses for them and seem to come up with new uses all the time.
I've been wanting to try engraving on stainless steel. I had some scraps laying around and used my sander to remove some paint and give it a brushed look. Not sure what kind of stainless because it’s magnetic. To my surprise it worked pretty good, so I designed the art (frats logo and his name) to fit in the latch.
Once the hinges were on, there was a slight gap caused by wood movement. So getting the latch mounted right was very important. I clamped the box together and used parchment paper to prevent epoxy from getting on the mechanism.
Using several things to position the latch correctly I glued it on.
Then to match the paddles I got some copper nails and drilled and epoxied them in place.
My friend insisted I put my logo on the box. I didn't want to put it on the bottom because it was so thin and I didn't want the kid to see it every time he opened the box either. The latch naturally hangs down when in the open position, this worked to my advantage because I put my coin behind the latch and unless you lean over or lift the latch, you don't see it. The last thing was I used mat board and leather to make a key holder with the logo lasered on both sides. Thought he might like it and Dad confirmed. This video shows the latch working.
