What a great story - you should suggest adding sewing machines to the museum because you are right about them being a big part of the war effort. Even just photos of how parachutes and other equipment was made would be great. Perhaps they would say, if you find these artifacts, they will be happy to display them. It maybe would be a good guild project?

That is very cool. It looks to me like a home made version of the fancy train cases and specialty storage cases of today. It would go wonderfully with some of the fancy home made sewing boxes and stands from the 30s and 40s. My grandfather and my aunts FIL worked in plywood mills back then and some of the things they built out of plywood scraps were awesome. I have a few items they built and they are precious to me.

Cari

It was advertised as a sewing box and there are loose buttons in it - the guy was a man of VERY few words... I had visions of the box being much smaller, too. When Wilbur and I picked it up it weighed a TON so the guy carried it to my car - I think it might hold a couple Featherweight machines or Maybe Glenn is right a Wilcox and Gibbs machine. I don't know why but I had to have it. Maybe it is a sewing machine trap... If I set it on the porch do you think a Wilcox and Gibbs might step into it??? What do I need for bait??? I was thinking it might make a very cool tool box. It might make a cool display/storage for attachments, too.

No gap on the top of it - it is two pieces of plywood glued and staggered - VERY well thought out. I shot a couple more pics of the plywood maybe you can get some idea how they did it. Here is a pic of the center front of the lid. 3 layers of plywood - it keeps the doors in a firm position when it is shut. You would not dare shut those doors if the lid is down.
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And maybe you can see how the doors are two layers of plywood to fit in that stepped lid
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never mind that broken hinge - we'll get to that soon...

As far as a side view. The box lid is cut in a notch. Very well thought out.
Box is open so you can see how it is cut out.
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I would have put a heavier hinge on it from the get go... especially with the shelves on the doors.

I'll try again to get the picture to come up...
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You can see the door and sides are stepped - the top of the box fits down over that.

Thank you, miriam, for posting the side view - mystery solved :-) --- cool box!

Give it to a friend, relative or neighbor that can use it? Sometimes it's more fun giving something away than it is to have it cluttering up the house. I guess this includes sewing machines of little resale value also.

Jon

my Father was a builder and would use a tool to get the "grade" correct on a lot before he would build a house. He had a box very similar to this one that he made to carry that tool in. wish I could remember the name of it, but the box looks very much like his.