Big Plywood Crate

[MogulTx]

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Photos of a crate measuring approx. 28w x 25h x 38L. Made using Box joints with dog bone fillets in 5/8" plywood. Took a long while to cut because of the size bit ( Smaller bit, slower cuts to get precise corners) , and the dog bone fillets. In the end, it is worth it. Have glued up the plywood, and it looks fantastic.....

[Kyle Stapleton]

Looks good, what is it for?

[MogulTx]

Shipping some materials to an overseas site. Plywood does not have a wood certification requirement like dimensional lumber would. We will put a lot of tools and things inside it for shipment for the labor we will perform on site.

I just like the way it notches together and makes a great protective case. I like practical things! Took about 1.5 hours to cut all six pieces- but prevented me from having to order a crate with certified lumber. Makes my time frame better/easier.

[myxpykalix]

FYI....I made a similar box joint box for shipping a legacy ornamental mill to Australia and i held it together with screws but the gorillas handling it abused it and broke it apart.

I would strongly suggest you glue all sides and use metal or plastic banding in addition. I glued/screwed cross braces inside for holddowns and the shipper told me he was going to band it but never did.

I did originally brace it with 2x4's but they rejected that and said the wood had to be "heat treated" to certify no bug infestation so you would need the wood stamped HA (I think...not sure).

[WMNH]

ISPM 15 is the regulation that requires all solid wood crates to be heat treated and or fumigated and to be stamped by a certified entity. There is a monthly fee to be certified. The exception is plywood/osb etc. I used to make up my own 2 x 4's with plywood but have since switched to LVL 2 x 4's and plywood to make export compliant crates. LVL's are more expensive but easier than laminating my own 2 x 4's out of plywood.

I ship 3 or 4 large crates (119 x 48 x 24) overseas every month, using LVL's has cut my labor down by at least 2/3rds.

[Brady Watson]

Looks great, Monty. It's always cool to see it all work out perfectly.

Here's a few I did a while back to help with moving. They are just zip tied together, which makes for a strong joint that can easily be knocked down and stored for later use. 1/2" OSB + 2x4 fork pocket risers. I think there was like two 1/2" strips of scrap left out of a single OSB sheet. Total cost per crate including 2x4s was $20.

Years ago I built a RhinoScript (v2) that would draw crates dynamically - allowing you to input LWH, material thickness and it would parametrically calculate & draw the dogboned tabs. It took a little work and math to figure out how to not have weird tab lengths at the end of a side, but it worked. Then it didn't work anymore when I upgraded to Rhino3...

These days, the Vectric stuff makes life so easy for things like this. Many have no clue whatsoever just how easy this stuff has become compared to only 10-15 years ago.

-B

[bill.young]

We cut flat-cutdovetailed crates when we ship the Shelter 2.0 parts out. You can vary which pieces that the pins and which have the tails to "program" how they come apart...if the top, end, or side come off first. 24413

[myxpykalix]

i've used this to make boxjoints for the cnc
http://boxmaker.connectionlab.org/

[MogulTx]

Jack: Yes they require heat treated dimensional lumber. The thing is, if you look at the dimensional lumber on the shelf at the big box stores.... they all have a subtle HT/KD stamp on them! ( Heat treated/kiln dried) but that is not acceptable ENOUGH... so when we ship overseas, using the dimensional lumber, we run into the same thing you did. That's why this one is plygoods only. ( It will actually be glued on 5 sides and banded. Then secured to a large flat crate that is certified, and then filled, and the lid will be screwed down.)

Brady: that design is great and straight forward. Easy way to have a strong storage /moving box, isn't it?!

Bill I think I have heard you talk about Shelter 2.0... and since I am plying hookie from work today- I think I should go do a search on your work on that and Jack's box maker software! (Didn't want to spread my sore throat and cough to my co-workers)... Then maybe I can download G's box/finger joining program too... I have been wanting to play with that, and my SHopBot does not mind if I am grumpy and cough a bit!!!

You guys have a great Friday and a fine weekend, too.

Monty

[MogulTx]

WOW! Jack! I need to figure out how to import a pdf into Aspire BUT- I spent probably an HOUR getting close to that point in my CAD program. ( OK. OK. I was figuring out a lot of other things too... and I have never figured out the dogbone fillets thing, so I drew in all my fillets and trimmed them to my dimension lines in my CAD program... and that took a good while, as well... my fault for not spending the time to find out why I can not get the dogbone tool to work)

But that is quick and easy! Awesome site to share. As you might guess, I will book mark that one so I can plop in some numbers pretty fast and easy and get half my work accomplished in 1/10 the time for the next time!! Thanks!

Monty

[steve_g]

I’ve used this program several times… It comes close to what I want it to do but not everything… I’ve done my part of a trade out with a programmer to polish it up. It will really be neat for decorative boxes when it’s done!
Monty, The PDF contains vectors, just import it as a vector right into Aspire…
SG

[Justin G]

I'm really excited about this box program. Awesome!