I built this box as a Christmas gift for my best friend who is a self described Lego “addict”.  I once asked her how many Legos she had in her house and her best guess was several hundred pounds!  She frequently buys them in bulk by the pound as well in the many kits that Lego produces.  I wanted to give her a unique gift that she would have fun playing with and displaying in her house.  The box is 10” long and 5” wide.  I found several sites on the web that gave the dimensions for the Lego bricks so I could accurately scale the box.  Many different design options for the hidden compartment were considered and I finally settled for a box within a box that is held in place by rare earth magnets concealed in the four removable posts.  The wood is maple selected because of it’s fine grain structure and interesting patterns.  The finish was a complicated one (for me) that I had never used before.  I used the Transtint blue dye dissolved in alcohol to bring out the grain structure, sanding back aggressively between each of 2 coats.  This was followed by Transtint dye toned shellac in a 1lb cut to tone the box, lightly sanding back between each of the 6 or 7 coats.  The final finish was 5 coats of clear dewaxed shellac with a thin layer of paste wax for the final shine.  The outer box construction used splined miter joints with wrap around grain.  The inner box was built using the same technique.  The inner box was built a little oversize and then sanded to a piston fit with the outer box.  Four pairs of rare earth magnets are used to hold the inner box inside the outer box.  One magnet epoxied in place on each corner of the inner box with a paired magnet in the end of the removable corner posts.  My friends thirteen year old son figured out how to get the box open in about two minutes!  I guess I will have to make my next secret compartment a little more secret.

 

Tom 

 

Launch Gallery