Starting with a simple drawer set from Ikea, I've reversed the drawers and added oak knobs, that look a bit more old fashioned, stained and waxed it to colour it down and this formed the core of the box.
I constructed the main carcass with 9mm hardwood ply, simply fixed with brass screws. Not the strongest form of construction but I added some reinforcement later.
I sized the compartments around some items that would be stored and transported in the box which you can see here.
Staining and waxing the plywood brought it to a pretty good match with the drawer unit. You can see the unwaxed colour on the front flap here which will be waxed later.
Almost finished now. Brassed up with some reinforcement straps and the handles. Labelled up too.
Just waiting for a hinge for the front flap which I will wax to match the case.
The chain for the flap is already in stock and I'll knock up a catch for it when I see how it fits.
For the time being I'm going to use it as a table top box. I may add legs later so that it can free stand at some point but I want to try it out first.
Most of my camp kit is fairly organised now but there are still a couple of loose bags that carry stuff which gets used at Steam Tent events but also at Bushcraft type camps or even just at festivals.
I decided it was time to give it all a better home and build a proper Chuck Box.
Sometimes I just can’t stop tinkering with an idea.
I woke up one morning and realised I was missing a trick. Those brass carry handles on the ends would make great hanging points.
I had been looking for a more convenient way to set out the cutlery so I made up a couple of small boxes with bail wire hangers.
When packed, they fit into the lower right compartment, as I would normally pack the lanterns separately anyway.
I realised I had made a rookie mistake with the centre of gravity and the suspension points of the side boxes which was quickly rectified as you will see in the next picture.
For the final touch, I wanted to hang a couple of lanterns at the sides for evening illumination. Sometimes luck just goes your way and the car boot sale I went to this weekend produced two replica coach lanterns which were just right.
The cheaply made oil lamps they contained leaked a bit so I decided to make some trench candles from pipe fittings to replace them and also upgrade a couple of other candle lanterns at the same time.
So, here you can see it on it’s first outing. I’m sure the contents will shift and change as time goes by but on the whole it seems to work well enough.
Having used it once again at the Bushmoot 2021 for nearly two weeks, I can only say how useful this has been.
Having one organised place to keep everything, that can then just be folded up for packing sames so much time.
It’s also easy to slide out of the packing to restock any consumables used before the next camp.
I’m a total convert.
