Help With Designing Some Crates.

[Beerisyummy]

Hi AHBs,

I managed to salvage some old maple shelving from a job the other day and figured it would make for some good quality storage crates.

First the pics. Maple, dead straight and 370mm wide (1300mm long x 9 lengths). Yes that is a longneck not a stubbie.

After a quick buzz with the planer to dress the surface and show the grain. A splash of oil and a bit of limewash to see how it looks.

Close up.

Now before anyone asks, the lump on the left is around 100kg and is another project in itself. A little on the heavy side for a crate anyway although it would make a nice bar with a few taps sticking out of it.

If anyone has any suggestions on the dimensions, capacities or design of some crates I'm all ears.

The requirements are as follows:
I would like some to hold Coopers longnecks and some to hold most styles of stubbies.
Stackable is a must along with some sort of dividers.
There will be no dovetails or fancy joinery work going on. I spend all day doing it for other people and can't be arsed.
The timber will go through the thicknesser for dressing.
All joins will be neatly butt joined and fixed with SS square drives I have left over from a deck.
The handles will need to be very simple to cut in. I Know I'm going to end up making a router jig even though I don't want to.
Some sort of label to personalise them.
Crates are meant to be functional and rough around the edges IMO. I want to be able to knock out the lot during an afternoon or two including getting them sprayed.

Thanks in advance for any tips or links.

Cheers
Ross.

 

[hsb]

Heres a bookmark I had set by, no fancy joinery
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-make-b...bottles-318788/

 

[Beerisyummy]

Heres a bookmark I had set by, no fancy joinery
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-make-b...bottles-318788/

Nice one. That's the type of simple design I'm after only I'd like to make use of the uber wide planks if possible. It's not often you get free timber that's 370mm x 19mm and straight.

If I were to make one like in the thread you linked I'd use the western red cedar leftovers I have lying around. It could happen.

I really need to think about a personalised logo and whether I use a stencil with paint or map gas. Hmmm.

 

[Batz]

That's a bar mate!
Way to good to make crates out of.

 

[Beerisyummy]

That's a bar mate!
Way to good to make crates out of.

Not the one on the left Batz. That sucker is a slab of wooly butt( I think) that I got for a job a while back. The clients ended up getting a slab of Mackay cedar sent down to Sydney in the meantime so I still have two of them sitting in the garage.

Here's the Mackay cedar slab, the pepper spray like ******* that it was.
If anyone wants a bar I can do them but that would be for the commercial forums I guess.

The clients were freaking out about it pulling the wall down so I got the labourer to jump on it( quite literally several times) and snapped a photo. I then sent the photo with the invoice for a laugh.

Now all it needs is a couple of taps installed and some concealed lines running back through the wall into the other room and that's a bar. Maybe a custom SS slops tray recessed into the slab. That would look **** hot.

 

[NewtownClown]

Now I have wood for wood

 

[Batz]

Nice piece of timber mate, so nice to get hold of something like that. I scored a nice slab of Gympie messmate a while ago.

Here's a great Gympie messmate growing with lots of other trees that were never logged. This site is opened to the public and close the where I live. Amazing how many people around this way have never visited the site, it's such a nice and easy walk.

http://www.nationalregisterofbigtrees.com....p?listing_id=34

 

[bradsbrew]

Nice piece of timber mate, so nice to get hold of something like that. I scored a nice slab of Gympie messmate a while ago.

Here's a great Gympie messmate growing with lots of other trees that were never logged. This site is opened to the public and close the where I live. Amazing how many people around this way have never visited the site, it's such a nice and easy walk.

http://www.nationalregisterofbigtrees.com....p?listing_id=34

The inlaws have same massive slabs from bunya trees as tables at there place up the bunya mountains, I am talking huge one is about 1500L x 900W x 150Thick and awsome. They are almost too good for a bar, almost. Oneday :lol:

 

[emnpaul]

This thread is giving me a hard on for hardwood.

http://www.slabhappy.com.au/index.php
http://www.tablelandtablecraft.com.au/

Batz, that messmate is freakin awesome. We don't have too many trees like that where I live and the biggest one I knew of (a redgum about 1.2m diameter) was cut down recently. Nice to know there's still a few big ones out there though.

 

[Beerisyummy]

Now I have wood for wood

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I searched the Internet for ideas on crate designs and eventually came up with a design using ideas borrowed from various other creations.

There were 4 main criteria that I wanted to put into the design. Number 1 was keeping the bottles separated with a divider, this was to ensure no more breakages from bottles knocking together when handling.
The others were stacking, carrying and aesthetics.

Obviously the timber you will be using is much bigger than the 7 mm ply that I used, but hopefully you might find something that you can incorporate into your design.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

 

[Black Devil Dog]

 

[Beerisyummy]

Nice one BDD. I like them.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

In their natural habitat.