morganew Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Finishing a pirate chest for my daughter's birthday. Looking to do a very very simple secret compartment and the tentative design is one where the compartment is in a false bottom. It's not the entire bottom, but rather a small box within the false bottom. I am thinking of a lid that is pressure fit (seamless) with a piece of steel epoxied on the underside so that she can lift it up with a "key" with a rare earth magnet on the end. I've started building it and I can take pictures, but I wonder if anyone else has suggestions or ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 If the bottom is a glue up with several sections, then you can have one section loose and the seams won't be obvious. My first thought was to have the top panels sitting in a rabbet, and have the rabbet on one end a little lower than the others, with cut-outs on the side rabbets. So, if you know where to press, bingo, the other end pops up and you've opened the secret compartment. I would get some costume jewels and put them in the secret compartment, and then don't tell her about it. Except maybe mention that pirate chests sometimes had secret compartments. Hee hee hee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 i thought about doing something similar its kind of hard to find diagrams with secret compartments. most of the old furniture that had secret compartments the builder never put on paper how they did it. what you might think of doing is looking at some puzzle boxes where you have to move part of the top to open up the box. i think i have a few diagrams on my home computer when i get home ill post them on here for you or email them to you. oh and buy your kid some candy coins to put in her treasure chest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimV Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 How about a piece of moulding around the base? The moulding is attached to the false bottom and when you pull on the moulding, the false base slides out with it. You might have to consider how easy it is to get into the secret compartment relative to her age. If she's anything like my 9 yr old daughter, she'd lose that magnet in just a couple hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMadson Custom Wood Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Stickley makes them in their dressers. They have a dust frame under the bottom drawer that has a slidable inset panel. The panel doesn't actually go into the left and right sides of the frame, it just looks like it does. There's a small spring in one of the other dados that keeps it tight. A slight push toward the spring and the panel pops out of the opposite dado (there must be something under the panel that pops it up, but I can't picture it right now). They would put a padded jewelry tray in each compartment for your treasures. I can Sketchup a diagram if you are interested. You could do something like this in the chest. Make the bottom out of the dust frame mentioned above and then set a removable tray on top of it. Whatever you end up doing, I would love to see a picture when you're done. Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganew Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 So here's what I ended up doing. I made a false bottom. For the "bottom" you see if you flip the box over, I used 1/4 underlayment, set into a rabbet so it looks like the box has a thicker plywood bottom. Then on the inside, I made a rough torsion box insert that went between the outside bottom, and then the bottom of the cabinet you'd see when you look in the box. For the new bottom, I took a new 1/4" piece and made it oversized so when I cut it for the trapdoor, the kirf would be accounted for. I left one of the "boxes" in the torsion box about 10" x5" and then cut the trapdoor 11" x 6". On the bottom of the trap door, I epoxied the biggest rare earth magnet I could find on to the underside. Then I hand fitted (lots of teeny tiny scrapings with a block plane) the trapdoor into the bottom so that no edges were shown. I then flipped it over and marked where the edges of the torsion box lined up with the trapdoor piece. Taking the trapdoor piece out, I glued a shallow frame matching the INSIDE of the torsion box hole so that the trapdoor wouldn't move around and rub on the edges. Finally, I decopage'd some distressed, pirate-y looking map fragments onto the inside and lined up one of the map lines with the seam of the trapdoor. To open the trapdoor, you have to line up another rare earth magnet in the exact right spot and then just lift. By using magnets the secret compartment has no latches, no keyholes, nothing mechanical to break. I made a wooden pirate dagger and embedded the other magnet into the hilt, so that is the "key" for the box. The really time consuming part was getting the trapdoor juuuust the right amount of "tight" so that it is invisible, but not so tight that you can't lift it up. lots and lots and lots of tiny sanding and scraping. Other than that the design I came up with was pretty easy to execute. Thoughts? enhancements for the next time I do one of these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
croessler Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I think it sounds great... I would love to see a picture or concept drawing. I have interested in including secret compartments into my furniture pieces recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimV Posted January 23, 2012 Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 Pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morganew Posted January 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2012 I don't have many construction pics, but I can see what I have. otherwise I'll see about doing a sketch up. It's pretty basic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckkisser Posted January 24, 2012 Report Share Posted January 24, 2012 this is probably not what you were thinking but i thought it was cool http://dornob.com/hidden-desk-secret-spaces-in-a-simple-wood-dining-table/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonPointer Posted November 16, 2014 Report Share Posted November 16, 2014 I am wanting to do this for my sons for Christmas. Just ordered the hinges and latches and want to put the false bottom in as well. I am very visual and could not follow to well with the comments. Did a sketch or pictures ever happen? would love to see if there is. Thanks in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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