Big kid Crackerjack

I just cut the top off some boxes


and there was a prize in every box


I started these straight edge cases before the holidays and pulled some boards from the No-Kill Wood Shelter. The long one is a piece of macacauba and the short one leftover purpleheart from my bench build. After jointing/planing, both were a hair shy of my target thickness. Since it twas the season I decked the walls with boughs of holly (fa la la la la well la dee da). Then replaned that and routed out the center and lined it with 1/4" self-stick wool felt.


Drillied 4 holes for 1/8" dowels as alignment pins for gluing the halves together. Then decided I sort of liked the look of that and put more 1/8" dowels in after glue-up. Then hand planed everything, rounded over the edges and stuck 3 coats of shellac on them.

Still need to square up the cap ends a skosh, put some 1/8" rare earth rod magnets in the cap and case, and attach a leather strap to keep the cap tethered to the case.

Cool idea!

Doug somewhere you lost me. What are these felt line rectangular boxes for?

Rob Keeble said:

Doug somewhere you lost me. What are these felt line rectangular boxes for?

Click to expand...

The big one is for a 3' LV steel straight edge and the short one an 18" Starett, You can seen them sticking out the top on the 2nd pic.

Great idea. I've still got my 38" LV aluminum straight edge in the tube it came in. I like the box approach much better.

Errrrr

My LV aluminum straight edge is hanging on a *gasp* 2" common nail on the end of my pegboard wall. It never leaves my shop, so I never thought about making a case for it.

When I used to install built-in cabinets we carried a Stabila 6ft level to the job site. The boss asked one of the new guys in the shop to build a box for it. He went a little bit over the top and made a long skinny case in birch ply, brass hinges, latch and carrying handle. Then he rounded all the edges and applied a couple of coats of lacquer. It was a great case, but we took a lot of grief from the other trades when we showed up toting this long shiny "suitcase".
"Hey, did you bring your pool cues?" is one of the milder ones I remember.

But, precision equipment needs protection and you're wise to look after your investment. Good looking cases.

I cant say I've treated my 40" Alum one with much respect either. It's my beater straightedge It normally resides lying on top of my Accufence between the UHMW faces. Over the years it's gotten nicked, dropped, one whole end covered with a fine patina of spray adhesive, yada, yada. But I never had to worry about rust. The steel ones needed some pampering though. All I had for the 18" Starrett was the factory paper sleeve and the LV one was in the shipping tube. Both were not doing well corrosion-wise so the cases were born. The thinking is that over time the wool felt will absorb a bit of whatever oil I wipe them down with so just sliding them home will keep them well protected.