I'm making a pochade for painting outdoors.  A pochade lets you store your art materials in a box that, when opened, reveals an easel and palette area for painting and, when closed, secures paints, brushes and tools so you're ready to go at a moment's notice.  It can be held in the lap or mounted on a tripod.  These boxes cost quite a lot to buy but you can save a lot of money by making your own from scratch or out of a cigar box. After doing some research online, I decided to make one from a ready made sketchbox thinking it would be easier and sturdier than a cigar box and less of a hassle than building one.  My 11 3/4" x 9 3/4" box has storage for long brushes and dividers that will hopefully come in handy.

Preparing the box
The first thing I did was to modify the box by removing the part of the hinge that prevented the box from opening more than 90 degrees, then I reinforced the thin bottom of the box by glueing in a piece of wood to give it enough depth for the t-nut to be put in for the tripod connection.  I also cut and measured two pieces of wood equal to the height of the dividers  already built into the box and glued them to the rear wall so my palette could rest atop the the inner supports of the box.

The T-nut
I drilled my first hole about three inches from the back of the box and hammered the t-nut in from the outside of the box but when I put the box on the tripod it was wobbly.  I thought drilling a new hole closer to the rear wall would solve the problem but the box still wobbled on the tripod and I could see that the tnut was getting pulled out of the box by the stress of the poor connection so I removed the tnuts and hammered them in from the inside of the box.  This provided a much better connection.  No wobbling, no stress at the juncture.  (Note:  Only one hole is needed for the tripod connection.  I have two simply because I didn't know what I was doing.)

The side brace or hinge
I tried to find parts that were similar to what I had seen on mass manufactured pochades with no luck at all.  So, I fashioned a side brace from mending strips, screws, washers and wingnuts as I had seen on so many other pochades on the internet. 

To attach the brace, I drilled a hole in the side of the box which worked but the hinge extended beyond the box when it was closed, so I drilled another one.  Again, the result was unsatisfactory and I was pretty upset about messing up my pretty box with unnecessary holes.  Then I decided to cut a slot between the two holes which allowed for better movement of the hinge.  I used an exacto knife to do this and I think it looks pretty good.  This was more like what I wanted but I have to admit that my hinge solution is not perfect.  I'm just happy that it works since there weren't any inexpensive alternatives I could find at local stores or on the internet.

Now I'm working on the lid of the box where I'll place my artboard or canvas for painting.  I've already chipped out the block of wood you can see in the top of the lid in the second picture below.  Not sure of it's purpose but it was in my way so it had to go.  Hopefully, I will finish the box soon.  More later.