There are times we are contacted directly by service members for help. This is one of those times. We have been called up to duty folks, and Uncle Sam Needs You!

I was contacted by Mr. Clint Bates who is in need of a shadow box at a very reasonable price or?

If any of our Patriot Woodworkers would like to help him out great! If our folks are tied up and are unable to build a box, then perhaps we can look at a small fundraiser here to get the funds for our vet to have the shadow box he needs for his early retirement. I have funds at the ready to contribute, but we will need some help too.

My name is Clint Bates and I am retiring from the Navy earlier than planned with severe medical issues.  I have over 21 1/2 years of Naval service and am in need of a shadow box for my retirement ceremony.  I have priced some online and most companies are pretty steep on the price.  Would anyone like to give me price to make one for me?  I have one in mind but don't know how to post a picture of it on here to show Y'all.  There is only one issue...I have to have it here at Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA by May 22nd.  I hope I am not asking too much but would greatly appreciate the help.  .  Thank you for your time.
Very Respectfully,
Clint Bates ACC(AW/SW/FMF)

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

We will be happy to pay for the cost of materials.  Please email me the costs with details of where to send it and I will send you a check. 

I have a friend in Key West (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bluejacket-Woodworking/111786108852669?fref=ts)  whom does many of these, and said  he'd be interested, I will supply him with local tropical hardwood for the project. You can either contact me thru (https://www.facebook.com/KeyWestCustomWoodworkSawmilling?ref=tn_tnmn)

Please let either of us know.

Doug

Hello, In order to show us an image of what you want, there are a few ways you can do that,

 

First if your image is on your computer, click the first small blue icon in the bar just above the text page you reply from. This will allow you to upload the image directly to us

 

If the image is on a website, you can LINK it to us with the LINK word in that same bar., Either way, we wil be able to see what you need

 

Thank you for being here.

 

---

Charles Nicholls
Site Host
nicholls61@att.net
Proud supporter of The Wounded Warrior Project, Homes For Our Troops and the NRA

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nichollswoodworks

Guys, Mr Bates is not a member of our site thus unable to post images. I received this request via personal email asking if one of our Patriot Woodworker's could help him out. I have sent him back an email asking for perhaps some links to some shadow boxes he saw on the internet that he liked, and we can go from there. Once I get it down what exactly he needs I'll post it here, thank you all so much for coming to the table for a service member. This is what we do folks, you're all the best.

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Dorald, that is very nice of you, we will update you with an image hopefully soon so you can see what he needs, thank you!

dorald keefer said:

Do you have a plan? I would be willing to provide you an shadow box for the cost of materials if it is something involved of exotic woods. If not, I would be honored to build it for you in memory of my father who served in the Navy for 24 years.

Sincerely-

Dorald Keefer

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Catherine, thank you so much, it looks like we have it together now folks. I will contact the participants shortly with details. As always, Laguna Tools gets involved with our troops, thanks again Catherine!

Catherine Helshoj said:

We will be happy to pay for the cost of materials.  Please email me the costs with details of where to send it and I will send you a check. 

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Douglas, please tell your friend are so very thankful for his offer, it looks like Dorald jumped in here above and offered up his talents too. We'll give Dorald a crack at it first.

But please let your friend know we would like to keep him on a short list when something like this comes up again, we need generous woodworkers to work with for our troops and your friend fits that bill! I'd like to encourage your friend to join us as well. Thanks Douglas.

Douglas Helliesen said:

I have a friend in Key West (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bluejacket-Woodworking/1117861088526...)  whom does many of these, and said  he'd be interested, I will supply him with local tropical hardwood for the project. You can either contact me thru (https://www.facebook.com/KeyWestCustomWoodworkSawmilling?ref=tn_tnmn)

Please let either of us know.

Doug

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

John,

My friend Jon is currently serving in the navy and due to retire soon. He has a passion for woodworking and is pretty good at it, and he has built quite a few shadowboxes for fellow retires. He is also a licensed electrician and recently donated his time building electrical panels for our local Key West American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. I am going to be saddened when he does move on as he has been a great asset to our community. You can reach out to him on his f/b site, Bluejacket-Woodworking as he does not have time to surf, or prefers spending web time in his workshop.

Doug
 
John Morris said:

Douglas, please tell your friend are so very thankful for his offer, it looks like Dorald jumped in here above and offered up his talents too. We'll give Dorald a crack at it first.

But please let your friend know we would like to keep him on a short list when something like this comes up again, we need generous woodworkers to work with for our troops and your friend fits that bill! I'd like to encourage your friend to join us as well. Thanks Douglas.

Douglas Helliesen said:

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Douglas and Dorald, our Navy man has requirements of the size etc, I'll have the information up here tonight I believe. We'll hammer this out between you guys, Doug, if you and Jon can help fine, Dorald, it's up to you, you both are very generous and I appreciate it very much, I'll be on here later, thanks!

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

dorald keefer said:

No problem here if Douglas has one already in stock or his contact does. Any way we can get her what she needs ASAP.

I do not believe my friend has any stock, he just makes to order as they are almost all custom built around the person's service, rank, rating, duties etc. . Hopefully she will have the info needed to assemble a classic shadowbox. All she has to do is make contact and go from there with either. Jon is too busy with Navy/family/hobbies, etc. to make 1st contact but he has agreed and will get it done.

Likewise anyone needing wood for similar types of projects, I would be willing to donate necessary tropical woods.  I may need help with shipping though as I am at the end of a 150+ mile dead end road. If Dorald wants my wood to build it, contact me and I will get it to him. I own a small urban band sawmill in Key West and have a lot of tropical wood not commercially available and nothing common.

Thank you Douglas, I will keep this going, I will have details here soon, and I'll contact you Doug after work today and we'll get this going. Sounds like we got a plans then! Thank you all so much.

Douglas Helliesen said:

dorald keefer said:

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

John et al,

All, I grew up with Clint's wife & referred them to this site. I am so glad you are able to help him out. Health issues have forced me shutter my shop, or I would have made it up for him. That being said I have over 2,000 bf of hardwoods in my garage. It is one thing to sell a table saw, but I couldn't part with the amazing wood collection I have put together. Whoever decides to build the shadow box, I will gladly donate the wood to build it. Please PM me once that is decided. I have some beautiful Figured Maple, Walnut, & Mahogany.

Sincerely,

Chris Dinsmore

425-306-7810

Chris, thank you so much for your kinds comments about our community here, and we are grateful to help out. I am going to post the shadow box Mr Bates wants below and lets all go from there!

Chris Dinsmore said:

John et al,

All, I grew up with Clint's wife & referred them to this site. I am so glad you are able to help him out. Health issues have forced me shutter my shop, or I would have made it up for him. That being said I have over 2,000 bf of hardwoods in my garage. It is one thing to sell a table saw, but I couldn't part with the amazing wood collection I have put together. Whoever decides to build the shadow box, I will gladly donate the wood to build it. Please PM me once that is decided. I have some beautiful Figured Maple, Walnut, & Mahogany.

Sincerely,

Chris Dinsmore

425-306-7810

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Well we tried to get the pics to show up but no luck.

If our interested parties could please go to this website at http://www.basementwoodworks.com/colonial_style_shadow_box.html

and see the Grand Colonial Shadow Box, this is the one Mr Bates has been looking at and would like us to build as we offered. Let me know what you all think. It needs to be the same dimensions and his flag is a 3x5 that will be folded the traditional way at the top.

I look forward to our builders feedback on this! We'll need permission from the original builder to use the design for this build and any builds in the future, Sean Arnold must be contacted.

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

Also, we want this done in oak. Hey, a man puts in almost 22 years of service to our country, he gets what he wants! Thanks again Patriot Woodworker's. I'd like to get some definite feedback on this today as May 22nd will be here in no time, and we need to allow time for shipping to CA where he is currently stationed.

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

ATTENTION BUILDERS AND DONORS

To avoid confusion and duplication in the process here, please direct all ideas and offers of contributions to the Shadow Box Project to us here in this discussion. Please do not contact Mr. Bates at this point offering to help as we are possibly duplicating efforts and possible confusion for Mr Bates as well as to who is handling this operation. We want to make this as streamline and easy as possible for our service member. We are so appreciative of the outpouring of support you all have shown, we only need to keep it all in the one place right here. Thank you so much to all.

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project

I have had no contact with Mr. Bates and I have no Oak lumber, it does not grow here, so hopefully Dorald is in contact and getting the ball rolling. I will wait to notify my builder if something changes but do not believe he has been contacted either.

Doug
 
dorald keefer said:

OK, I know who's on first but I don't know who has this project?!?!?! I just want to be clear.

     Gentlemen, I am the owner of Basement Woodworks. I do this for a living now and I understand that this case is a costly one but it is well worth it. I am awaiting a phone call from John Morris today to work out the particulars, and my Father and I will make this happen, However, I cannot do it Pro Bono. I can do it as a custom job, and work in a discount, I have to be careful because I do have a GSA contract so I must be careful how I do it so I do not violate the conditions of my contract.

    I'm sorry, but I don't give out my plans, and I just recently had to deal with an individual who actually used the picture of the Grand Colonial Shadow Box (my personal shadow box from my retirement) and tried to claim it as his work and sell it online. Needless to say, he and I have an understanding now and he has taken down all the pics from his site from other woodworkers as well, but I am still keeping an eye on it. Long story short, I get a little nervous when people are talking about copying my work, and I would prefer that you didn't copy it. I took great pride in designing that case for my retirement and wasn't going to offer it to the public, but is was a great hit at my retirement and I was encouraged by my fellow CPO's to offer it on my website, so I did. I have seen other knock-offs of it posted online and it does kinda get under my skin a little bit, but we all get ideas from each other so I try not to let it bother me.

     I am flattered though that you like this case. That make me feel real good.

Not to mention, this guy is a fellow CPO and I am willing to help a brother.

Sean, I have contacted you and I'll call you at noon today, we are in the baby steps of this project so we have some details to work out. Let's put this on the side burner for now gents till I get control of where every body is at, thank you all so much for your generosity!

Sean L Arnold said:

     Gentlemen, I am the owner of Basement Woodworks. I do this for a living now and I understand that this case is a costly one but it is well worth it. I am awaiting a phone call from John Morris today to work out the particulars, and my Father and I will make this happen, However, I cannot do it Pro Bono. I can do it as a custom job, and work in a discount, I have to be careful because I do have a GSA contract so I must be careful how I do it so I do not violate the conditions of my contract.

    I'm sorry, but I don't give out my plans, and I just recently had to deal with an individual who actually used the picture of the Grand Colonial Shadow Box (my personal shadow box from my retirement) and tried to claim it as his work and sell it online. Needless to say, he and I have an understanding now and he has taken down all the pics from his site from other woodworkers as well, but I am still keeping an eye on it. Long story short, I get a little nervous when people are talking about copying my work, and I would prefer that you didn't copy it. I took great pride in designing that case for my retirement and wasn't going to offer it to the public, but is was a great hit at my retirement and I was encouraged by my fellow CPO's to offer it on my website, so I did. I have seen other knock-offs of it posted online and it does kinda get under my skin a little bit, but we all get ideas from each other so I try not to let it bother me.

     I am flattered though that you like this case. That make me feel real good.

Not to mention, this guy is a fellow CPO and I am willing to help a brother.

---

John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project