Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Smith & Wesson 629 presentation case 5, dividing the interior.

The remaining part of the dust seal was glue in place, and while the glue dried, I started on the divider for the interior of the box.

It was made of a similar strip as the dust seal, but it was reduced to 1.5" in height (38 mm), this was also the height of the angled groove above the bottom.

The divider had its top rounded, and I started measuring from my 1:1 scale drawing, to transfer the measurements to the box itself.

A fine thing about adding a layer of felt later on is that you don't have to worry about markings etc. And the interior finish can also be left a bit more coarse.
I chiseled a small dado where the divider would meet the dust seal, so that the end of the divider had some support.
Since the divider is fairly thin, sort of 1/4", I was not sure if it could stand up to the load if it was merely glued together with a butt joint. So I took the extra time and dovetailed the pieces together with a mitered top. I marked the dovetails out by hand and surprisingly they went along really fine. at least the two that were right angle joints did.
The angled joint wasn't very impressive, but it will still hold up better than a butt joint, and in the end it will all be covered with felt.

The completed divider was glued to the bottom of the case, and the ends were glued into the dadoes that I had made.

With that part out of the way, I started on gluing up a block of wood that will receive 50 holes for holding the ammunition to the revolver.


Divided interior, dust seal and lid

First part of the divider.

Eyeballed mitered dovetails.

Gluing the divider in its place.

6 comments:

  1. Jonas,

    I'm getting a kick out of this build. Just because it is small doesn't mean there aren't lots of problems to solve or maybe it's because it is small. Anyway that and doing it shipboard with a limited tool set, all I can say is good on you.

    ken

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    1. Hi Ken

      Thanks.
      There is definitely more involved than I first imagined, but so far there has been preciously few screw ups. The worst is that I have somehow managed to switch the top and bottom panel. It is not a deal breaker, but I liked the original top panel better, because the color was more uniform, but I doubt that many people will notice it.

      I really hope that it will fit the revolver, because all I have are a couple of overall measurements on a similar gun albeit with a shorter barrel. So I had to figure out myself the overall length and the height etc.

      Right now by biggest concern is how I will make the holes in the felt where all the ammunition will go. But I guess that a sharp knife will get me pretty far.

      On another note: I decided against the Zündapp Bella. It could become a really nice machine, but when the owner looked further into it, he found out that the title and the frame number didn't match.. So that means I could have spent a great deal of time and resources on assembling and restoring, only to end up with something that I could not register and therefore never get to drive on the road.
      I guess I'll have to complete some other projects instead of starting this new one then :-)

      Brgds
      Jonas

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  2. Good choice dovetailing that angled miter. It is likely to get a bit of stress, and while a butt joint probably would have held, this definitely will.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brian
      That is exactly the way I see it. And I would hate to have a nagging doubt in the future, not knowing if the piece would hold op or not.
      Brgds
      Jonas

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  3. Mitered and angled dovetails -- didn't see those coming. Very nice, Jonas.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Jeff.
      Thanks a lot, I need to step up my game once in a while to challenge myself :-)
      The angled dovetails aren't that impressive, but the miters ones are actually OK.

      Brgds
      Jonas

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