Tournament Transport Box, Part 3: Main Construction Done and a Dice Tower from the Scrap!

 Sunday morning I was determined to finish up the construction of the tournament boxes.  The next step involved  adding rabbets to the sides of the boxes s to accept 1/2 plywood that would be used for the bottoms.

Using a rabbet mean the interior height of the box will go from 5.5 inches to 5.0, but that still allows for stacking three troops trays (at 1.5 inches each).

After that was done, the next step was to fire up the 'Ole Table Saw and cut the plywood to fit.  I had a 4x4 foot price of 1/2 plywood in the shop and used it for the bottoms.

Everything fit really nice as you can see from the dry fit in the fist photo.  When building something with precise corners always dry fit each piece as you go.

 The next step involved glueing the bottoms to the rabbet slots.

 I also added a few brad nails to hold every thing in place.  The wood glue plus the brad nails means the bond will be stronger than the wood.  The wood will split before the glue bond breaks.  Thats important because it wouldn't be a good outcome if the bottom fell out while I was carrying a bunch of troops.

 All nice and square.  I did sustain a minor shop injury doing something stupid....  Handling rough wood without wearing gloves which resulted in a 1inch long splinter.

With the boxes done, it was time to move onto the the tops.  The tops will be cut to the exact dimension of each box (18x18 or 18 x 24) and  will have a lip around them to fit sung to the box.

You can see I suck at miter cuts and had to add a little extra to make one corner "fit".  I'll be able to hide the gaps when finishing but it's something I need to learn do a better job with.

The framing is just stock 1/1/8 corner molding.  It makes a tight fit the box top and will serve as a nice frame for the sceniced top.

 Here are the boxes all nice and done - at least construction wise.  They still need to be sanded and finished and there will be some interior work also.

I did order some "aged brass" clamshell handles from Rockler which should arrive in a few days.

 On a whim. I decided to use the remaining plywood from the 4x4 piece of plywood to make a dice tower.  This is one of those projects that has zero planning so we'll see what happens.

The dice "motivators" are glued in place.  I'm sure their is a more technical name for these in the the world of dice tower science but I haven't bothered to look it up.

 The sides and bottom are attached.  I still need to cut a 45 degree ramp at the bottom to make sure the dice flow out of the tower.

 Another shot of the boxes.  I'm pleased how they are shaping up.

 The basic dice tower.   I'll add some details around it to make it look like a castle.

A look down the business end of the dice tower - I suppose this will work.

Lastly, I did come up with a use for the first test box - it will serve a a tool caddy onto the workbench.  I'm constantly looking track of measuring tapes, pencils etc in my workshop.  I suspect it's gremlins moving that stuff around.

Having a caddy to put small frequently used stuff in and keep it with reach may reduce the time lost to looking for that #&%@ pencil.  I will drill some 3/8 inch holes down one of the long sides to hold screw drivers and pencils.