Case Idea and Garage Sales

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Outcompute_123

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 5, 2004
Messages
494
Greetz,


Just got home a few minutes ago. A few blocks down, people were having a garage sale. I stopped in for a poke around their stuff to see if I could come across any bits and pieces for modding. I came across what appears to be a pirate's chest. Literally. A Big, flat, top lifting chest with a lockpad, bound in old leather, trimmed with rust, dirty brass and brass rivets. Its dimensions are pretty huge. 3.5 feet across, some 2.5 feet by 2 feet tall and wide. It looks JUST like freshly dug pirate booty.
Once cleaned and de-rusted, Think it would be worth a shot to make a project out of it? I thought at first.. Htpc for a bedroom except.. Bigger, with the tv sitting right ontop of it. However, the materials are clearly aged, withered and I wouldnt really know how to fix a screw up should one occur.

Because the composition of the chest.....on the outside ... It is made of wood, something like oak I think, as a base. The wood is covered with thin metal plating, then a layer of cloth, then the leather. Its all held together by these industrial revolution age-looking rivets. Inside is similar, except there is no leather. Just the cloth layer.


Would anyone have any recommendations as to how to go about cutting layers of material like that, without fraying it all and making it look like crap?
I'll get some info on material restoration and repairing the aethetics of the chest, but.. Any experienced cutters ever work with something like that?
 
I think either way you go about cutting it its going to fray. i was thinking line where your going to cut with some tape then use a dremel.

i think it will fray though.

try some things out on a peice of material laying around and see what you come up with.
 
If you didnt want the cloth material to fray, you try burning the cut with a wood burnishing iron or a soldering iron wiht as flat tip in it, that way it would melt or burn the ends so that they woulddnt fray, --kinda like you do when you cut a lenght of rope so it doesnt fray
 
That will only work with synthetic fibres (Polyester, Nylon, etc)

Last I checked, cotton, wool, and other natural fibers don't melt.. They just burn. If this thing is as old as it sounds.. Its probably not going to work.
 
Ra.. Youre right about that.


I cut a pre-lim circle out of an inconspicuous spot on the back of it. About the size of a dime...


The material sandwich.. I described.. All came apart once I began cutting through each respective layer.

I dunno. Not sure it'd work at this rate.
 
wil burn it and it will just get black and not turn out the way you want it
 
Youre right about the fibers turning black. Too much carbon.
Thinking of scrapping the idea, and trunk for that matter.
Its just too old and weathered. More as I find out.
 
I'd suggest cutting the leather and cloth with a razorblade or something, removing them, then cutting the metal and wood with something else. Once you've got your hole, treat the edges of the cloth and leather with some superglue, applied with a modeling brush. That's the best idea I can come up with.
 
Originally posted by Hard_Rocker
I'd suggest cutting the leather and cloth with a razorblade or something, removing them, then cutting the metal and wood with something else. Once you've got your hole, treat the edges of the cloth and leather with some superglue, applied with a modeling brush. That's the best idea I can come up with.
Click to expand...

Almost exactly what I waas going to post. :D

The trick would be to cut it layer by layer, not all the layers at once.

Although, if it is as old and beat-up as you make it seems, who knows if it's even possible to do.
 
Alternately, get someone with a pistol to shoot holes in it. Since it's a pirate chest, it'll add character and look right. ;)
 
Haha. Id just blast it myself :p


But.. Waddles and Rock, you guys had the right idea. I was testing it a bit. And while the methods are useful. Theyre not gonna be useful for this project. Im not sure if I have the proper kinds of liquid adhesive to keep all the layers together yet.
Going to wrap it up for today. Ive spent a good portion of daylight/and nice weather, acting like a techno-pirate here with the chest. Ill get back to it tomorrow, Matey's.



(after some more research and all.. Arrrrrrgh!)
 
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