I stormed my brother's shop and cleaned enough space for me to work. I was so ridiculously eager that I was racing along and, sadly, making mistakes. But ultimately, it's looking good so far.

Here is the bottom half of the first Beaver Box. Next to it, you may recognize from an earlier post, is my drawing of this box. I must say, [i]the bright red is so sweet looking! I cannot wait to see the green Beavers on top of this.[/i]

This has 2 latches on each side, because it will have 2 half-lids. These latches have locks built in, so the box is secure. Kids can't loosen the lids and cause the Beavers to topple. And if I do drill holes in the top for money to fall in, it will be a secure vault for the quarters.

The handles are on the same side as the latches, because I want the front to be clean looking. As I intend to most often have these lined up, I think the clean front will be nice.

Tomorrow: the lids. They will be tricky. I've not made "half lid pairs" before.

[color=#4b0082][b]UPDATE[/b][/color]: My "skills and forethought" have resulted in a half-lid that is about 1 or 2 sixteenths of an inch too wide I must drill out the rivets, disassemble it, cut it down, put it back together, and try again. [color=#0000cd][i]Why[/i][/color], you may ask, [color=#0000cd][i]don't you just build the other half-lid 2/16ths narrower?[/i][/color] Because when all boxes are done, I want all the lids to be interchangeable. So they must be identical widths.