Making a Chauchat magazine box

This last weekend was extremely busy, I ended up working all day Saturday and over 1/2 of Sunday at my primary business so not much time in the shop. That with the fact that it was 115degrees and no A/C in the shop meant not much time for projects.

However with the above said, some where on the internet I came across some pictures of a chap making a magazine box for a Chauchat. Having a Chauchat I really wanted one to hold the few magazines that I have. Now the pictures were great, but there were no measurements so a great deal of guessing went on, The second thing I had to deal with is that I just wanted to make an example and not an exact reproduction, at least not yet. I needed to work out all the details of the design first. I made mine over the weekend and used available materials that I had on hand. I can tell that the thickness of my basic material is wrong and my measurements are also wrong. That now being said it did give me the information I needed to now redesign my solid model and make a correct box.

This is an original box that he used to pattern his new box after.

A couple of side views.

The latch that locks down the lid

A look at the rope handle

The hinge and latch views.

So this was my quick weekend project. I just wanted to make a quick copy that I couple obtain measurements from.

I have hinges and a latch to go on it for temporary use. The side were made from an old kitchen cabinet that I demo. The ends, bottom and top came from Axel,a friend of gun lab, on his last trip over here.

So my next step is to draw it up in solid works and make on with the proper look.