{"id":1308,"date":"2018-01-22T17:41:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T00:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/?page_id=1308"},"modified":"2025-08-24T08:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:03:52","slug":"transforming-art-box-easel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/?page_id=1308","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Art Box & Easel"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was a fun gift to make for one of my nieces, who is always painting something every time I visit. This is a combination of a “diary box” for her art projects (and brushes, paints, etc), which converts into a bench-top easel with extending legs that come out of the bottom. Took longer that I originally expected, but the result was worth it.<\/p>\n

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Finished cutting all the pieces from pine rough lumber.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Time to glue and clamp the “face” boards. Put some light dumbbells on top to keep it from potentially flying apart due to the tension of the clamps<\/p><\/div>\n

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Cutting the remaining pieces to length.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rounded the “face” boards with my plunge router and a DIY jig I made.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Stained all the pieces and finished with some poly. I think the stain was named “raspberry”.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Initial assembly with pocket holes, glue, and wood screws.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Installed the handle, latch, and hinges.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Added some hooks and a “gold” chain inside to help hold the box open at a specific angle when in “easel mode”. I later used some transparent shrink tube on the majority of the chain so the box couldn’t lock itself shut.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Legs deployed in “easel mode”. There are four sliding latches inside to lock the legs in deployed\/closed positions.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I used my chisel set and an eletrician’s knife to cut out a 6″x1.5″ recess to epoxy in some very strong bar magnets. After the epoxy dried, I filled the remaining space with wood filler, and stained it too. Now, we can just put a decorative magnet on the front outside face panel to hold pictures in place (no need for hooks or clips on the outside of the case).<\/p><\/div>\n

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Finished result (inside). I supplied an additional bar magnet to hold pictures in place until a “pretty” one arrived in the mail to replace it. The magnetic area also keeps the chain from clanging around.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was a fun gift to make for one of my nieces, who is always painting something every time I visit. This is a combination of a “diary box” for her art projects (and brushes, paints, etc), which converts into … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1219,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1308","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1336,"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1308\/revisions\/1336"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.giassa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}