Tack Trunk completed -- Thanks For the Help

[Ken Cohen]

I finally finished a tack trunk for my daughter (only 6 months later than expected). As a WW novice, I relied heavily on this community for advice at critical moments -- and could never have finished without the help and patience of many individuals. I hope I can repay the debt someday.






As attached pix show, I imitated pretty basic tack trunk design (my daughter's wish) with frame and panel joinery to attempt to lighten things up. A mechanical engineering/woodworking friend at work suggested sliding dovetails during the design -- which proved both a blessing (structure and looks) and a curse (never quite met need for perfectly square/level stock without a planer or jointer). Wood is African Mahagony (got a deal) and Okoume Marine Ply. Finished with Waterlox.

I know this is beyond overkill for the barn environment it will find home, but it was a blast to build. And, if making mistakes is the way you learn, I learned a tremendous amount.

Thanks again to all.

Ken

[Brent Ring]

That is extremely impressive! Nice Work! How did your daughter like the new family heirloom?

[Jim Kountz]

It looks fantastic!! Your choice of woods and joinery are excellent and it shows in the end results. I like the interior options you included too. I did a couple of these some years ago and never outfitted the interiors so one got used as an end table/storage kind of thing for the den. I went with raised panels where yours are flat, about the only difference on construction.
You did a heck of a job on this, congrats!!

[John Thompson]

Excellent...

Sarge..

[Guy Germaine]

Nice work Ken. You can be very proud of that!

[Jarrod McGehee]

Whoa that's nice

[John Keeton]

Really like the overall construction - especially the box joints on the interior pieces. What kind of wood did you use for those? Kind of hard to tell??

[Ken Cohen]

Thanks to all for the kind feedback (which I guess I was kind of fishing for in the first place).

Couple of answers to questions:

Box and tote wood is also African Mahogany -- just lighter than the trunk stock. I don't know if others have experienced this, but I found a very wide variation in stock color in the same lumber stack -- from the more traditional dark brown to a much lighter brown/ivory tone. Like everything on this project, I learned this the hard way as I progressed.

And, yes, my daughter is very happy with the outcome -- though was a bit more than frustrated at times with the incredibly slow pace of my work

[Jim Finn]

Very nIce

[John Olson]

Boy that is really nice. I love your choice of wood.

[Jeff Skory]

Very nice Ken. I love the looks of it. You sure your daughter doesn't want to just keep it in her room and use it strictly for the show gear and you can build a grubby one for the barn and the practice gear?