Wavy Flag Concealment Case

I wanted to try my hand at making a concealment case. I had seen many on woodworker's channels, so I wanted to make something a little different. A lot were considered art, some were coatracks, some were furniture, like a coffee table. I had even seen the American flag and a few Gadsden flag concealment cases.

I had also seen where people did a lot of grinding to make a wavy flag, but until I made mine, no one had combined the two - a wavy flag concealment case (at least if they did, I couldn't find any videos or even pics!). I ordered a grinding wheel, and Union Star stencil. The flag's dimensions were going to be approx. 13" X 24" and was going to be made out of 2" X 4" pine scraps I had around my shop. I ran them through the table saw to a final dimension of 1" X 1 1/2".

I needed 13 pieces 1" X 1 1/2" X 24"

2 cedar pickets 3/4" X 5 1/2" X 6'

1/4" hardboard 14 1/2" X 24 3/4"

Harbor Freight has their cheapest side grinder on sale occasionally for $9.99 (I bought 2)

Got the handle from TEMU for about $3 (Very handy for this type of grinding)

A set of 22" drawer slides

Magnetic lock (found on ebay) A package of 6 was $12.99

Foam 1 1/2" X 10 1/2" X 22"

Flat black spray paint

Screws

Step one is grinding away the wood to look like a flag waving in the wind. I basically drew lines horizontally at a slight angle about 5-6" apart. This creates a massive amount of dust, so I recommend doing this procedure outside. I took me about an hour to grind these grooves. Then our favorite part... Sanding! First I used a sanding disk on the grinder, that took several hours to smooth out the rough spots in the grooves. Then about an hour and a half sanding using an orbital sander with 80 grit paper. Another hour using 120, and eventually getting up to 240 grit. Then feeling all over and touch-up hand sanding. Whew! Lots of sanding! I had man glitter all over me!

Taping for the stain. Many woodworkers recommend Frog tape. I found the regular old blue painter's masking tape works best for me. I had to order a star stencil from Etsy, but you can get them on-line just about anywhere. Just remember to order the size needed for the size flag you're making.

I taped off the 'white' strips because I was not going to stain them, just the red stripes. I also taped off the area for the Union. I'm used Navy Blue stain for the Union and Scarlet Red for the stripes. These can be found at Lowe's or Home Depot. I wiped off any excess so that it would dry quicker.

Stained the stipes and the Union and let them dry for 24 hours. Took the tape off and touched up any bleed over with small screwdriver and small piece of 240 grit sandpaper. I took my time with this because I wanted it to look great.

Taped the stencil down and outlined the stars with a pencil. Used my WEN rotary tool (Dremel clone) to start etching out each star. I followed the pencil lines at first and then went back taking out most of the material out with a bigger bit. This took about an hour and a half.

After staining the stripes and union, I put on several coats of polyurethane.

I took the cedar pickets and milled them down to 2 @ 3 3/4" X 24 7/8" long to long (mitered @ 45 degrees) and 2 @ 3 3/4" X 14 11/16" long to long (mitered @ 45 degrees) These need to be painted black and left to dry. I took these and the hardboard and started assembling the case. I used both 24 7/8" side board and only one of the 14 11/16" end board and used a speed square, corner clamps and glue to assemble the main part of the case, putting 1 5/8" screws through the hardboard into the cedar. Inside along the long sides, I put in 1 3/8" by 1 1/2" pieces to mount the drawer slides to. These were also going to be mounted to the wavy flag. I had gotten a magnetic latch on-line and mounted it. Once everything was aligned, then the other end board was mounted to the flag so that when closed it looked like a frame around the artful flag. A magnet is passed over a certain area and the flag can be slid out revealing the foam and whatever you have hidden there.

This first one was a gift for my Brother. I wanted to see if I could do it, and I learned a lot of things from doing it. The lessons learned from that experience went into making another one for sell. I had a friend that saw my Brother's case and wanted one. The second one I went over it with a torch, which really looked cool, and also used a white stain for the white stripes and the stars. I sold it for $200 which I used to buy more tools! LOL This might seem like a huge profit considering the materials, but there was quite a bit of labor for milling, sanding, staining, etching, gluing, assembly, and clean up!

Running out of time here, but will be back later with more pics and explanation.