From Shipping Crate to Militaria Display

[Steven M]

Recently, I took delivery of a WWI downed aircraft section from a friend. The piece was shipped in the crate you see below. Not wanting to discard such a well-crafted box, I started thinking of how I could make good use out of it. First, I thought I might use it a storage chest for tools...but then a light bulb turned on in my head and I thought I would use it to house an aviation trunk group.

I took a measurement of the width and length of the trunk and saw that it would fit perfectly within the piece. So I decided to stain the crate and stand it vertical for display purposes. Here is the crate as it arrived:

[Steven M]

First thing I had to do was to remove the fork lift access section on the bottom as they would only detract from the piece and serve no useful purpose for display. Then I power-sanded the entire piece to accept the finish properly. The inside was not sanded as the "finish" I am applying will not require the extra effort. Another part of the preparation process involved my cutting and gluing 3/16 in. oak dowel rod into all of the exposed countersunk screw holes.

[Steven M]

And here is the result of power-sanding the protruding excess of the dowels after drying. After painting, you will never know that there was once a hole there. The inner braces you see here are part of the outside structure as well and were placed there to hold the lid flush with the top of the crate. Since my objective here is to not create a furniture grade piece, I left everything as is with the exception of removing the attached fork lift access 2x4 pads on the bottom.

[Steven M]

As to not bore you with every detail of the conversion from crate to display, I'll skip to the project nearing the end. The stain is an oil base deep red mahogany, and the trim is a flat black oil base. I used blue painters tape to speed up the process of painting all of the inset sections.

[Steven M]

Nearing completion, this will give you an idea of what the end result will look like. All I have left is to construct a simple 1X2 in. frame that will rest on top of the inner brackets that were originally intended to hold the lid in place. The frame will also be painted flat black and screwed in place to provide a picture frame effect. The painters tape is in place as the next step was to paint the insets of the trim.

Lastly, I am going to use adhesive spray on the inside so that I can apply a deep cream-colored material that I obtained from good ol' Mom. I think the color combination will compliment the olive green color of the uniform and black trunk that will be placed within.

I will update the thread as I progress and the last shot will be of the finished display with the items inside.

[ironcross1]

Looking awesome , look forward to the finished product , cheers Raymond

[Steven M]

Looking awesome , look forward to the finished product , cheers Raymond

Thank you Raymond.

[Bugme]

When I first saw the crate that your aero part came in I thought, nice house for a group of pygmies. I see now that you took it a step beyond... only you could create a display out of a crate and end up impressing me!

[Steven M]

When I first saw the crate that your aero part came in I thought, nice house for a group of pygmies. I see now that you took it a step beyond... only you could create a display out of a crate and end up impressing me!

And only you my friend, could stretch the imagination to the truly bizarre by associating a simple crate with pygmies...you da man!

[Bugme]

And only you my friend, could stretch the imagination to the truly bizarre by associating a simple crate with pygmies...you da man!

Hey, someone has to think outside the "box"... pun intended.