Zelda Treasure Chest

This project came about because I simply wanted somewhere nice to put my various herbs and spices, and I heart Zelda!

Please hit me with any feedback and let me know how you would have done it. Here's how I made mine...

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Step 1: Design

Luckily most spice jars from supermarkets and name brands are the same size, and need a 43mm² footprint. I did some rough sketches and drew up a basic plan on AutoCAD to make sure I got the important dims right. Most of the design decisions were made on the fly though.

I wanted to work in solid hardwood, and went for walnut as it's nice and dark.

Step 2: Prepare Wood

I got down to my local timber yard and found a chunky plank of walnut in their offcuts for £13 (although I only used half of it). Using my table saw I cut it to roughly the right size so I had 2 bits about 12mm thick, 140mm wide, and about 0.8m long.

I ran these bits through my planer/thicknesser to get two nice looking bits of 10mm thick walnut. I marked out the pieces that were to make up the sides and sides of the lid, and cut them off with a little excess, then thicknessed the remaining timber down to 6mm.

Step 3: Base

Taking the bits of 10mm I'd set aside for for the base, I ran them through the table saw gradually moving the fence in until they were 125mm wide. I cut them to width (2x153mm & 2x232mm) using my mitre saw.

I made a little template for the cut away for the feet, and cut it out of each piece using router & flush trim bit.

The joints were going to covered with leather trim, so I could get away with a simple glued rabbit joint that I made using a 6mm rebate bit in the router. I also routed a rebate into the top edge to receive the lid, and cut a 6mm groove near the bottom to receive the base on table saw.

Next up was the base....I simply cut a length of the 6mm thick walnut and trimmed it down on the table saw until it was nice and square and fitted the groove in the side pieces.

Then I glued it together with Resintite wood glue and some clamps...I left the base piece floating, and scraped glue off inside edges to make sanding a bit easier later.

Step 4: Lid

This basically consists of 2 semicircles of 10mm walnut with strips of the 6mm walnut going between them.

So...I took the other bits of 10mm walnut, marked out my semicircles (d=153), and cut them out using the circle guide on my little dremel tool. I needed the two pieces to match up perfectly and there was quite a lot of error from the dremel, so I taped them together and sanded them so they were nice and flush. Each of the side pieces then got a 6mm rebate (router) around the inside edge.

I cut what was left of the 6mm walnut into strips on the table saw. 16 strips, 17mm wide, with the table saw set at 6.5 degrees. These then got cut to length (230mm) on the mitre saw.

I dry clamped it together with a sliver of cardboard packing out at the edges, and popped out a few of the slats at a time for gluing.

A whole lotta love with some sandpaper, and the lid was there.

Step 5: Triforce

I popped a fresh blade in my knife and marked on the 3 equilateral triangles of the iconic Triforce. Then I carefully chipped away with a little carving tool until I had a recess a few mm deep to a lighter hardwood into.

I'm not sure what wood I used...it was pretty bit of hardwood offcut I'd picked up a while back. I cut out the the triangles and gradually reduced them until they were a nice snug fit in the recesses, and fixed them in place with glue. Then simply sanded it flush with my belt sander.

It probably would have been easier to do this before gluing the box together, and the grain was off so it makes it look a little wonky, but nevermind.

Step 6: Oiling

Time for more sanding!

I went at it with 120 grit until it was pretty, and polished it off with 240 grit. I wetted it all to raise the grain, and sanded it back down with 240 grit to get it lovely and smooth.

I had some "skydd" chopping board oil from ikea, and this got rubbed in with a cloth. Once this had soaked in it got a second round.

Step 7: Brass Trim & Hinges

Now to hide all the joints with some shiny brass!

I had a brass piano hinge kicking around the shed...it wasn't perfect and the holes didn't line up nicely, but I like to work with what I've got to hand if possible. I cut it to the required lengths with a junior hacksaw, knocked the rod out, and spent a long time awkwardly trimming off the hingey bits. There were a few scratches but this largely came out pretty nice.

I fixed the strips to the box & lid with upholstery nails.

Last step I attached the lid to the box with 2 butterfly hinges.

Step 8: All Done!

Whoop!

A few things I would have done differently:

• Do the detailing on the face panel before putting the box together
• Find brass strips rather than bodging it from a piano hinge
• Take more care in gluing the lid together square...spent many hours correcting this

Other than that, was really pleased with my little treasure chest!