General Craft & DIY discussion

I found a solid source for good surplus military ammo cans, nearby. This got me thinking about building a humidor. (The hygrometer is on order.)

I kept thinking about it, and I realized that a water tight ammo can would also make a nice mini bar for taking on canoe trips. It would also make a cool portable guitar amp.

What ideas can you guys come up with?

What is the size of an ammo can?

That's awesome. I had trouble finding any, but finally found 2 at a nearby junk store. I bolted one to the fender of my tractor, a John Deere 5103, to keep tools in. They make good first aid kits, too.

never mind re: the size.
i looked on ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Boxes-Chests-...

I'll have to give it some thought about uses.

I also looked on pinterest.
the planters look nice.
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins...

the little stoves are interesting.

They're sure expensive now. I'd try to keep to $10. Mine are 50 cal boxes. The 30 cal looks interesting though. We had one mounted on the side of our old Golden Jubilee tractor. It doesn't hold as much, but fits some situations better. It might be nice to mount that on the side of one fender & free up the top.

Jaye wrote: "I also looked on pinterest.
the planters look nice.
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins...

the little stoves are interesting."

Thanks for the link. There are several good ideas there.

The mini stoves got me thinking about a camp oven, for sites where you aren't alowed an open flame. It would need a burner, rack, thermometer and maybe a diffuser. It could run on those little butane bottles. If nothing else you could heat up something to act as a bed warmer. That would be a real luxury on a long late season canoe trip.

Jim wrote: "They're sure expensive now. I'd try to keep to $10. Mine are 50 cal boxes. The 30 cal looks interesting though. We had one mounted on the side of our old Golden Jubilee tractor. It doesn't hol..."

That's a good idea bolting it to the fender as a toolbox. Painted up right I bet it would look stock. I have an idea that might work for you.

The lids on ammo cans are on half barrel hinges so that they can go on and off easily. You could mask off the seal and rattle can the inside of the lid a light color. Then glue or epoxy a magnet, (old speaker magnet, maybe) to to outside of the lid. Strong enough to hold the lid in place on the the tractor, but not strong enough to pull out the tools when you take off the lid. You could use the lid as a detachable parts tray for screws and such, while working in the field. The lip will keep little things from falling out, and the light color will make small screws easier to see.

Good idea! Thanks.

If you try it let me know how it turns out. Maybe hot glue the magnet on to the lid until you're sure it's the right size. Hot glue is alot easier to undo than epoxy is.

I mentioned this to my son & he pointed out that I showed him how to pull the lid off the can on the Golden Jubilee & use it as a parts tray many years ago. No magnets, just opened & pulled to the side.

Honestly, I don't do much work on my tractor any more, thankfully. It's a fairly new John Deere 5103, only has about 500 hours on it. Last time anything broke on it, it was beyond me - an electronic diesel fuel pump that was acting up. Turned out to be a manufacturer's defect. When I do work on it, I pull it up to the shop or even partway inside.

Most of the tools I keep on it are for simple, large projects - mostly fence repair stuff. The rest are just various pins & such for connecting equipment.

Started sourcing the spanish cedar to line the ammo can humidor. Best price so far was $7 per board foot for 4/4 X 6".

The price doesn't bother me as much as the clerk did. He kept giving me milled dimensions for raw lumber, and he couldn't tell me wether the stock they could order was quarter sawn or plank. I'll keep looking. If I can find someone who understands what I'm doing and what I need to pull it off, it will save me a lot of frustration.

I guess that I shouldn't carp to much. At least I have more choices than Blue or Orange.

Finding quarter sawn lumber is tough. Sawyers have never liked to cut that way since it takes so much more time & wastes a lot of wood. I watched old Frank Thomas cutting up a walnut log that way once. He had 5' circular saw mill with full hydraulic positioning. He'd bounce the log to rotate it. His son, Bill, is my age & was trying to learn. Frank made it look easy. Bill made it look impossible.

Around here we have a lot of bandsaw mills & they're not set up for it at all, just flat sawing, so you get a couple of boards out of each log that are actually quarter sawn, if you're lucky. I went through a stack of lumber a few months back with a friend trying to get some & I think we moved 10 trees worth of wood for half a dozen.

I was rummaging around in the back of a local store, and I found a lot of 2' long 1/4" and 1/8" thick planks of spanish cedar. Score! It was a little more expensive than raw stock, but the time saved in resawing and planing is well worth it.

I'm planning on lining the bottom half of an M27 link can, and building a tray for the top half. The hygrometer will be through mounted in the lid. To allow for better airflow, I'm going to scroll saw a pattern in the bottom of the tray. I was thinking about using an old cigar ad as the template. Any suggestions would be welcome.

I'm also building a water resistant guitar amp for my nephew. (I really don't like his mother.) I picked up a lot of bits and pieces when Radio Shack went out of business so I'm good there. I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to pot the electronics package, to make it waterproof and shock resistant.

Cool! I've never worked with Spanish cedar. How hard is it? Our Eastern & Western Red cedars are very soft & generally brittle, but a company I worked for in Texas used to get Pacific cedar & it was a lot harder & tougher. Some was almost too tough to nail.

It's kind of funny. Spanish cedar isn't actually a cedar. It's more closely related to mahogany. They called it spanish cedar because it smells like cedar, and it is grown in former spanish colonies.

It is a little harder than spruce and a little softer than mahogany. Since my planks came from a plantation, they'll probably be closer to spruce.

Interesting. Thanks! "Cedrela odorata is a commercially important species of tree in the chinaberry family, Meliaceae, commonly known as Spanish cedar or Cuban cedar."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedrela...

Neat. I do like the classification Cedrela odorata, "smells like cedar". It's curious when I looked up the JANKA hardness, to answer your earlier question, the source said that C. odorata is plantation grown, but wikipedia said not really. Then wikipedia indicates that is grown by apiarists. I'll have to look into the matter, later.

It is a very pretty wood. Light brown with mostly straight grain, and it has that shimmer that birdseye maple gets. I should probably practice my joinery on some spruce or pine before cutting into the cedar.

This guy makes a convection oven out of an ammo can for his really tiny shed/snow mobile camper.
He uses candles as one heat source, I think he mentioned an alternative of a gas burner. Not sure if he meant for the build. He got up to 20° , and would be perfect I think for a shed workshop, small garage, tent etc..
https://youtu.be/6ZnayOUQN28

Now who knew the ammo can/box lid came off so easily?

Him pointing out the seal on the lid, had me checking the seal on mine. It still looks good though it probably wouldn't hold back water.

Back to the build. My son is interested in building this or a wood stove using my box. If he does, I will report.

P.S. anyone looking for an ammo box, I think garage, carboot sales are a great place. Online is easy too, I found a 50 cal box for 20 bucks US here
https://www.sciplus.com/50-caliber-am...

That's cool. They're so handy. I had a lot of trouble finding old ammo cans when I bought this farm 15 years ago. I needed one since I bought a new tractor (lightly used, 125 hours) & they've been the after market toolbox on almost every one that I've used since they're strong & waterproof. I finally found 2 for $5 each at a junk shop & I only used one. The other is still kicking around & occasionally used.