Number one Son’s Fiance’ has been riding in horseback competition since a very young girl. I do a bit of woodworking so for Christmas she asks for a Tack Box. They want to replace the rubbermaid one with a wooden piece with some class. A quick review of on-line sellers shows basic plywood boxes with near 4 figure price tags….for plywood!.
OK, now we need to by a new tool for this new project. Goal with tool purchase and materials is to meet or beat store cost for a trunk with a superior tack box and I add another tool. Never did dovetail joints before so after some quick research and knowing how large this needed to be I settled on the Leigh D4R. Next for a serious conversation with my good friend Ron at McCormick’s Lumber Mill and I have some wonderful Sycamore and Black Walnut to construct my project with. Since they deal with only rough cut lumber I have to first spend some time on the Dewalt (bought for another project) to get dimensional lumber. I thickness planned these boards to 7/8″ and after the gluing and table saw work I made my first dovetail joints. Hardware came from both Rockler’s and Van Dyke’s and I started the assembly.
Ended up with a trunk about 36″ long, 21″ deep by 21″ wide and with a 5″ deep storage lid, makes the over all height 29″ with the casters in place. The finish is natural stain (Minwax) and urethane top coats. I also made a sliding top tray and a removable bottom tray for horse grooming essentials.
I was fairly satisfied with the results of the dovetail joints having never done them before. I would recommend the Leigh Jig to any first timer as it did make easy work of some large pieces.
The horse may care less but hopefully the readers and equestrian riders agree the combo of Sycamore and Black Walnut dovetailed together makes this trunk lots more pleasant to look at than the basic plywood boxes……..and I have another new tool to add to my workshop.
– Bob Savo, Shelby Township, Michigan
