Some holiday down time has allowed me back into the shed. There's a spot for the Kauri trunk in the house now.
The top has had it's first few coats of polish and I'll call it done for now.
Before ...
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After ...
Attachment 426680
I didn't really want to knock this trunk apart, so I'll fix up some of the loose joints separately.
Some problem areas
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I may set some bow tie keys in the case for this split
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The first of the repairs are underway.
I cleaned out the joints with a card scraper and washed them out with water.
The joint were flooded with hide glue.
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I was interested to see if the handles were original (pretty sure they were).
Looks like they have never been removed.
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One of the hinges broke while I was freeing it up. There was a lot of old fatigue.
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I'm going to have a go at welding it. A small neat weld with a bit of clean up.
Any gotchas?
Is there a better way?
I'll never be able to source another hinge like this.
I can have one made if it comes to that.