Sweet! Love using found/free materials. My go-to sources are always the free section of Craigslist or Freecycle, and being generally aware of curbside trash on trash days in the neighborhood.

Looks like a great start to the chest!

 

Thanks, Frankie's Girl! I was waiting for the site to publish the thread before I added any more pictures; here's some more:
I disassembled both the base and the lid after the first coat of stain, as I didn't like the "barn / old crate" look I had created. The changes in the building of the pieces gave me great anxiety, as I had already used up the planks I salvaged from three palettes. That meant no room for error from an error-proned guy! "Saints preserve us!", as my Mom would say, I managed to re construct both parts with two planks to spare (after lowering the arch diameter of the lid).
One coat in a wash technique of General Finishes brown mahogany (I bet you thought I was going to say Java gel!) gel stain really gave it an aged warmth. The EVA foam-iron bands help sell the strength and dimension to the chest. Hardware was found at Hobby Lobby during their 50% off metal items sale!
The finished product cost me just under $50 total, and that includes three cans of Greatstuff. I had a silver plated coffee urn that just needed some polishing, and much costume jewelry from my two daughters.
I had such fun convincing myself by my own actions that I could actually pull this off,and my youngest daughter has decided to have a pirate themed birthday party (she turns 11 in October!) so it will be highlighted twice this year for decorating! And, many thanks to my loving, understanding, pirate-loving wife for letting this thing in the house!

 

Nice!!!!!! This turned out excellent!! Love it!!!

 

Great job!

 

Great job on the treasure chest and particular thanks for showing how to use the great stuff to provide a gold base on the insides.

 

Thanks for the kind words, bayoubrigh, and glad to know my contribution was helpful! The Great stuff idea was born out of the necessity to keep the chest from being heavier than it already is, as well as needing a way to remove the tray / pile-o'-gold to close the lid for transport.
*An unintended (good) consequence of the removable foam-on-wax paper application is that I can now run a string of little LED lights from underneath to make the shallow parts of the foam glow "from within"! I'm going to try to capture the light effect in pictures, as soon as I go buy the right lights. I only have green lights right now to test out the idea, and it looks a bit too much like Kryptonite. But, I now know a way to make foam look like Kryptonite, so, bonus!

 

how'd you turn microwave Mac-n-cheese boxes into gold?

just kidding..

excellent build. I love it.

 

Thank you everyone, for the kind compliments!

 

Super nice work! it turned out superb!

Grab me some of those pallets!! I'm having the hardest time finding any. ha ha!

 

"it's pallet season; I'm pallet huntin', he heeehee" (Elmer Fudd, three weeks before Halloween) Thanks for compliment, Kindo!!
I was just given a tip by a friend that some of local Oktoberfest events have been leaving pallets behind after the events are done. You should check those! The latest event near me left four pretty nice pallets at the dumpster

 

That is really outstanding! We built a treasure chest years ago with similar construction, but a bit smaller. I've always been kicking myself for not figuring out how to put avast (see what I did there?) amount of treasure inside. You've inspired me! Great idea using the great stuff to provide the base. Where'd you get the silver and gold "plates"?

 

Thank you for the generous compliments!
I went hunting through my local Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, and found the plates there. Ironically, I just found another platter yesterday, and a fancy box (probably supposed to be an ornamental cotton ball box?) each one was $4. There seemed to be a need for just a little more treasure, so in they went!
I piled some loose plastic "doubloons" from Hobby Lobby into the platter and then set it on the pile to let the coins spill out naturally, like a pirate would throw them into the chest without any great care of placement

 

I should add that the plates and silver items were heavily tarnished, so there was a bit of polishing to be done. A Google search of home made tarnish removal techniques and a little carnuba car wax did the trick! Those $2 and $3 cast-offs really have some beauty left in them!!

 

Very cool!