Book Trunk

[terryHHI]

I’ve wanted to try making a trunk or hard sided suitcase for some time. My wife suggested a trunk for her cook books. Sure, sounds fun.

I used 1/2 inch maple plywood for structure. Leather is chocolate pull-up from Waterhouse Leather and W&C English bridle for black trim. Hardware from Ohio Travel Bag and Brettuns Village. A bunch of brass escutcheon pins and black wool fabric for lining.  

Since I’m not a woodworker, hand sawing and assembling a “square” trunk took some time and practice to get it where I wanted it.  Primarily watched You Tube videos for ideas on how to construct, cover and finish a trunk.  Couldn’t find many written resources so I created a document with screen shots of the build process from a variety of videos.  Not too scientific but gave me some ideas on how to proceed.  I’m happy to share it if anyone has an interest.

I am happy with how it turned out.  There are a few things I’d do different on the next one but mostly little stuff to make build easier.  

Most importantly, my wife loves it.  

[noobleather]

Very cool

[terryHHI]

Here are some build images to give you an idea how I built it.

1.  The plans will give you an idea of the size and pieces. This is as close to a “plan” as I get.  On the right side you will see outlines of hardware. I was trying to understand the sizes. 

2. Bought a Japanese saw to improve my cuts  

3. Bottom template to understand size.  Laid it in kitchen floor to make sure size made sense.

4. Main body glued.

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2018 by terryHHI

[terryHHI]

5. Body pieces glued.

6. Lid construction

7. Handle 

[terryHHI]

5. Body pieces glued.

6. Lid construction

7. Handle 

[alpha2]

Wow. That's amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[KingsCountyLeather]

Looks great! And a lot of work. Good job.

[kiwican]

Wow that's cool

[YinTx]

I really like how that turned out!  Did you cement the leather to the wood?

YinTx

[battlemunky]

Really cool. See, I never think of things like this but I'm awfully glad other people are and do or else trunk making would die. That looks great!

[Retswerb]

Looks great! I love seeing stuff like this that reminds me that there’s so much more that can be done with leather.

[garypl]

What a great project Terry!  Couple of questions:

1. Did you wrap the leather around the front and into the case, or did you glue it to the front and trim it?  Looks like you metered the corners of the leather.

2. Hard to tell where the wool lining ends - does it extend all the way to the front of the case opening and butt up against the leather?  Or does the leather wrap around inside the opening and overlap the wool lining?

It’s apparent that a lot of time and effort went into the design and build - really nice job!

Gary

[terryHHI]

7 hours ago, YinTx said:

Did you cement the leather to the wood?

Hi YinTx, thank you and yes, leather was glued.  I glued to outside first and let it dry.  Then I glued flap, stuck the leather to top edge of box, trimmed the corners and then stuck the leather to inside.  

[terryHHI]

53 minutes ago, garypl said:

1. Did you wrap the leather around the front and into the case, or did you glue it to the front and trim it?  Looks like you metered the corners of the leather.

Hi Gary,

See my response to YinTx about process. I think was writing that when you were writing this question. I found that trying to glue entire piece, wrap and trim all in one process created a mess. I went back and watched some videos and realized trunk makers did it in two steps. 1. Glue outside. 2. Miter corners and glue top edge and inside. Having outside firmly in place made everything much more manageable.

53 minutes ago, garypl said:

2. Hard to tell where the wool lining ends - does it extend all the way to the front of the case opening and butt up against the leather?  Or does the leather wrap around inside the opening and overlap the wool lining?

The lining is wool glued and wrapped around bag stiffener. I made a bottom piece and glued it in first. Then I made long sides and attached them. Last,  the end pieces were added.  Lining overlaps the leather on inside and comes up to about 1 cm from edge.  

 

And thanks for compliment.  It was a fun project. 

Edited June 1, 2018 by terryHHI
Added picture

[harryhorse]

WOW that is really amazing!  You did such an outstanding job Terry!  Happy Wife=Happy Life

[ABHandmade]

Really nice and useful work!

[garypl]

4 hours ago, terryHHI said:

Hi Gary,

See my response to YinTx about process. I think was writing that when you were writing this question. I found that trying to glue entire piece, wrap and trim all in one process created a mess. I went back and watched some videos and realized trunk makers did it in two steps. 1. Glue outside. 2. Miter corners and glue top edge and inside. Having outside firmly in place made everything much more manageable.

The lining is wool glued and wrapped around bag stiffener. I made a bottom piece and glued it in first. Then I made long sides and attached them. Last,  the end pieces were added.  Lining overlaps the leather on inside and comes up to about 1 cm from edge.  

 

And thanks for compliment.  It was a fun project. 

Thanks Terry - picture tells it all!  Nice job!

Gary

[Northmount]

On 5/31/2018 at 7:54 AM, terryHHI said:

Since I’m not a woodworker, hand sawing and assembling a “square” trunk took some time and practice to get it where I wanted it.  Primarily watched You Tube videos for ideas on how to construct, cover and finish a trunk.  Couldn’t find many written resources so I created a document with screen shots of the build process from a variety of videos.  Not too scientific but gave me some ideas on how to proceed.  I’m happy to share it if anyone has an interest.

Terry's 141 MB PPT file converted to pdf, 8.8 MB.  As noted above, it contains screen shoots from various web sources.

Trunk Build Images.pdf

Tom

[Jerod]

That is a very cool idea.  It looks great.

[Caesar]

I am really late to this post but....  WOW!   Incredible work!  

Thank you for sharing!

Cheers

 

[Basically Bob]

Wow!  

Very cool project!

[bikermutt07]

Stellar job!

[Railrider1920]

Very nice!

[terryHHI]

Thanks everyone.  It turned out better then I expected. I’m thinking about trying a hard sided suitcase next. 

[Fire88]

Very cool