"No Bren Gun chests were hurt"....... A No 15 chest..

[skiprat]

Thanks to the detailed plans available on this site, I decided to have a go at producing a copy of the No 15 Chest.
I have a number of old Bren gun chests and originally saw these as a source of parts and a place to start from. But as the price of these Bren boxes are rising and the only parts that closely match the No15 chest are the hasps and catches, I started to look at building with all new commercially available parts.

A local timber yard was able to cut all the wood from knot free pine. the side walls, lid and bottom are slightly thinner than set out in the plans but this was a stock size and I did not want to make anything that could be passed off as an original.

The strap hinges were from a local farm suppliers and are a standard 4 inch strap hinge that I have bent to shape in a vice. they are the right length and have the correct number of holes for a British box.... but the spacing of the screw holes is a little "out". the hole nearest the hinge pin on the lid is closer the edge than it should be.. It works, has not split and is again distinguishable from an original..

The catches were purchased from a military vehicles dealer, they are repair parts for the tool bins on British army Bedford 4 tone lorry (they look the same as the originals)

the hasps on the original are/were a military produced item and I have not been able to find a source for these (apart from Bren gun / GPMG transit chests). So....many ...many years ago I did "O" level metalwork ..... At last I could use what they tried to teach me (why as a 16 year old would I need to make hinges)
the hasps on the box are made by hand from stock flat bar (a bit narrower than the original hasps) and the "key hole" cut out on the milling machine..

the rest of the construction was straight forward, I do a bit of leather work so I had the leather. It did take a bit of time to find a supplier for the screws, as slotted screws are not the screw of choice..

The paint finish is NATO green IRR paint (standard issue) on the outside.
inside I painted it with "red oxide" primer the standard primer used on everything in the army also called "red lead" (it no longer contains lead). The Bren boxes I have have been primed in this way..

The stencils are from an army issue set (yes... there need to be more of a space between S.A. and No)

thanks for the plans and the inspiration ......

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