Camp Table Box: Packing Box Sawn in Two, With Leg Sockets for Travel and Table Use (Boy Mechanic, 1919)

"A very useful combination packing box and camp table may be made from a coffee or other large box." A box 14 in deep, 20 in wide and 29 in long outside slips under a spring-wagon seat and lets a person's knees go under it as a table.

Saw the box in two on the centre line of the narrow way, making two open boxes of the same size and depth. Brace the corners of each well on the outside (A, Fig. 1).

Fasten strips 1/2 in thick, 1-1/4 in wide and as long as the box is deep inside each corner to form sockets for the legs. Put rope handles in the ends of each box, and a hook and eye to lock the halves together.

Make four packing legs about 12 in long to fit the sockets, and eight table legs 30 in long. Fit them loosely, as they swell in damp weather; wedge them to make them rigid.

To pack, set one half open side up, put in the four short legs, fill it to the level of the leg ends, slip the other half on the legs and hook the two together; properly roped it goes as baggage. Pack the canvas and things needed first on arrival. Carry the long legs diagonally in the bottom, wrapped in a piece of oilcloth that later covers the table. To make one table, or two, take out the packing legs, put the long legs in the sockets and turn each half over as a table top.

From "A Table Box for Campers" by Geo. J. Easter, in **The Boy Mechanic, Book 3**, Popular Mechanics, 1919 (Project Gutenberg 71856; checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0003unse, p. 124). He gives no leg section; the legs are sized to fit the sockets. The tools and metric figures are ours.