Just another lidded storage box made from birch-face plywood and maple (it turns out they are maple, not birch) scants. This one is custom sized so that it fits in the storage cabinet over Sharon’s desk.
A useful box to put things in
The cabinet has sliding doors, and the box she was using was too bit to fit nicely. If she put the box in long-ways, the door couldn’t slide shut. If she put the box in sideways, there was all this wasted room in the cabinet.
Old box, boo!
This box is a little shorter, and a little wider, so it fits in longways. Even the inner sliding door can shut, although the clearance is about 1/16th of an inch.
New box, yay!
the only real difference (besides size) between this one and the Storage Box for the Coronet of a Duchess is that I finished this one with “Garnet” shellac instead of “Blonde” shellac, so the color is deeper.
Some of you may remember that, earlier this summer, after inventorying the large selection of surplus plywood in the shop, I went on a bit of a storage box kick. Starting to feel like I was getting pretty good at making these simple boxes, I offered to make boxes for anything for which my friends might need a storage box. The only person (so far) to take me up on the offer is a friend of ours who is a Duchess in the SCA.
The title of Duchess is typically given to those who have been Queen two or more times. Those who hold Royal titles in the SCA (from Baron on up) are entitled to wear coronets that signify their rank. Sometimes, but not always, these come with a box. Sometimes, this box is too nice to be carted around, even though you want to take the Coronet itself to the event so that you can wear it to court.
Anyway, she sent me the rough dimensions of her coronet, and I added an inch to each of those dimensions to allow for a half-inch of padding all around. I did not feel that my standard lauan plywood box was sufficiently nice for this use, so I dug into the supply of birch-face plywood and birch scants that my wife bought for a project long ago.
The Duchess’ Coronet Storage Box, in Birch
It’s just a simple lidded box. The interior is roughly 10″x12″x5″ It is assembled using butt-joinery, glue, and 23-gauge pins from the nailer. Inside and out, the box is finished in blonde shellac. The table saw blade left some scorch marks on the ends of some of the boards, but other than that I am pretty happy with it.
Birch Storage Box, Open
It should be pretty useful for the coronet, or whatever else she might choose to store in there.
