This is my old sail-box from way back when, I think I made it around my 2nd last year at school, so that would be ~1976 at a guess and it held my first mosquito's (245 Stinga) gear way back then too, in really good nick for its age hey (unlike the owner )

yep its old but as you can see it holds a large amount of kit, in this case its Jurassic Karps gear in it

going to need another one for 1182....



Number 1 son is a carpenter.....

so now we have.....





the hinge.....

I hate ...... WITH A PASHION ..... piano hinges

great for piano's...... that's all
back in ~1976 ish, I hated em too, and thats when I came up with this hinge system, not sure where I got it from or why it came about but its the best damn hinge system I've ever had on equipment like this. I've converted heaps of other containers over the years to much the same setup...

The alloy strips are the stuff you find joining carpet to timber floors it has several other uses in the caravan world as well.
Under the 2 alloy strips in this case is a piece of fire hose, its been opened and closed thousands of times and its the original piece thats still fitted, these days I prefer to use old seatbelts, the webbing is nice and strong and flexiable....

and it's lots cheaper than fire hose





tomorrow its back to the lathe, more bits of stainless to be machined down for those tent poles....


till then

Happy new year to all
may you all have fair weather and smooth sailing in 2014

Kingy