Last spring (2013), I was at the West Seattle Fruit Market and asked if I could snag an oak pallet that was sticking out of their dumpster. “No worries. Sure. Take whatever.” When I pulled out the pallet, I found an old trunk/chest under it that had the top ripped off and was in sad shape. I almost left it where it was, but then decided it would be good for tool storage in the shop as the top was under the box and all the pieces were there. I drug it all home and after I cleaned some old lettuce and a rotten beet out, stuck the thing under a wing of the table saw where it promptly started collecting sawdust.

While working on my own version of the Anarchist’s Tool Chest a few months later, I decided to fix the found trunk up as well. It took maybe a total of 2 hours was strait forward:

Vacuum job
Removal of the old bent and broken hardware
old hinges from some other scavenged project installed
Top refitted and put on
a little glue was applied to some trim
1″X4″ slats to reinforce the bottom…
A few well-placed screws
From the pieces of left-over pallet wood found on the same day, I glued up some 5″ blocks and turned them down to make bun feet.
Installation of the new feet
a quick light all-over sanding
Two coats of Teak tinted tung oil.
….and done…

Stamps-With-Foot saw it up on saw horses in the yard and claimed it for the house. Apparently, it was too “rustic & French & crafty” to be vanquished to warrens of my dark little shop to be abused with tools, dirt, dust, grease and boyness. When I first started putting it back together, I found stained receipt from a outdoor store (no date) and a cub scout pin wedged in the bottom. I surmised that this was a young man’s camping/scouting trunk that he or his dad or both built it together. From the construction and the materials used, it looks like it was put made in the late ’40’s or early 1950’s. It now sits in our living room in the south of France and serves as a coffee table and blanket/hammock storage chest.