Favorite Deck Box Design

Here’s another little deck box I made.

I like the design of this deck box better than the sliding top or the suction fit since this design doesn’t squeak or wobble.

I have two smaller pins on the top and bottom for extra stability. When closed this box feels like one solid piece of wood.

The latch is a metal nail that I’ve bent and driven into the lid. It fits into a ~1 cm long metal tube hidden in the side of the box.

You can adjust how tight you want the latch to hold by bending the nail slightly with pliers. My latch is set tight enough to never open accidently or even when vigorously shaken.

I prefer wood deck boxes to metal ones because wood is more rigid and lighter, but fresh cut wood does produce acid. To deal with this it is important to seal the inside of the box with 3 layers of shellac or polyurethane.

No need to worry about the protective layer breaking down, by the time that happens (~15 years) the wood will have dissipated all of its acid.

See this technical document about wood and acid with a list of low acid emitting woods.

The sides and top are 1/8^th inch thick Walnut. The bottom panel is actually 1/16^th inch thick to reduce the thickness even more.

The box is only 3.7cm thick so it can easily fit in my pocket. It holds 75 sealed perfect fits sleeved cards.

If you decide to paint your box note that it takes three weeks for acrylic (aka latex) paint to fully dry. Even though it feels dry, the lid will make sticky tacky sounds and may stick to the bottom. This will all go away in three weeks once the paint is fully dry.