Comments on: Campaign Chests on a Budget

By: Christopher Schwarz

Christopher Schwarz — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:46:28 +0000

Gary,

I paid full price for all the lumber and hardware in this project. Period. End of story. Call Steve Wall lumber. Call Londonderry. Call Horton. Call anyone involved in this project and they will tell you I paid full retail. I always have and I always do.

So there is no deception. No donations. None. Ever. Period.

As to the book, it was not donated. Who is your source? I paid $100 plus a couple T-shirts for it. Want proof? Come to my house and I’ll show you the e-mails and PayPal receipts.

True costs have been revealed.

Chris

By: Gary Smyth

Gary Smyth — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:34:50 +0000

I’ve been following this project from your first announcement. With all respect, your comments about not letting the price of hardware/wood be of concern are not fair. You are doing an article for a national magazine and the advantage of getting it published is that it is an expense that costs you nothing either by expense account or a tax write off. Secondly, how many donations were involved? Honestly, I wish you the best, and I’m looking forward to the article, but I bet you didn’t pay $15 for the Londonderry Catalog. I know that the $300 book on Campaign Furniture was donated to you. You are a skilled craftsman/author. I just feel for the audience you are writing for, true costs ought to be revealed. $700 is the tip of the iceberg. I’m guessing this item for the article on the campaign piece is worth $6000 by the time we figure your material costs and at least part of your time in the design and build. I’ll have to read the article to finnd out if any new tools were involved. Writing/photography is in addition to that. Bring it on, I want to see what you made, but please don’t tell us about the vastly inferior underweight hardware as an alternative – It’s embarrassing. If considering using most of that stuff, it might as well not be used at all. Keep this up and the next thing will be an article about a reproduction Tansu chest, but don’t worry about the Paulownia and hardware cost.

By: Bill Lattanzio

Bill Lattanzio — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:19:52 +0000

Thanks for the good tips. I generally steer away from large projects because of wood cost, especially because I don’t like using plywood and would much rather use solid wood. The price of hardware can get scary.
Also, suggesting Amazon is a great tip. I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see all of the woodworking supplies you can pick up on the site.

By: dfdye

dfdye — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:34:14 +0000

Chris, I noticed that the Ansaldi & Sons hardware was brass plated cast zinc. Any opinion on how well the plating will hold up? The price is definitely nice, but if the plating is going to peel off in a couple of years, well. . .

Thanks for relaying alternatives!

By: loloane

loloane — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:45:19 +0000

Excellent series. Nice to see such attention to the fittings.

A book would be great, probably a best seller!

By: don2laughs

don2laughs — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:27:10 +0000

Sure appreciate this update, Chris. I really love this campaign design and have been nurturing ideas and hopes to start some projects to confirm & enhance my hand tool commitment but $700 for the hardware is a deal breaker for me. Believe me …. when I see $85 for one drawer pull …. my imagination is certainly stimulated.

By: GunnyGene

GunnyGene — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:14:14 +0000

Chris great ideas for budget minded folks in this day and age. Thanks. I have my own small forest and use my own as much as possible. Lot of work from tree to chest, but I don’t have much else to do since I retired.

Shameless plug for someone you might know. Michael Elledge – who builds a lot of civil war cannon carraiges and related stuff, that would go well with the campaign chest. Here’s his site. http://www.jmelledge.com/

And a post that shows some of his latest work: http://www.woodworking.org/InfoExchange/viewtopic.php?t=31110