HOW TO MAKE A WOODEN CRATE?
One small positive thought can change your entire day. Seek what makes you happy and pursue it with zeal and zest. Beat stress playfully and build some inexpensive, simple and practical furniture for your home.
A wooden crate is a simple project that not only looks great but is purely practical too. A crate not only stocks up your flowers, magazines, toys nicely but can also be used to store heavy stuffs almost anywhere. Two or more big crates can be arranged together to form a sturdy coffee table or a settee.
Things You Need:
- Pallet Wood
Any type of wood could be used like pine or cedar but pallet wood is very hard and gives rustic look to crate
- Cutting Tool (Bandsaw Blade, Circular or Table Saw)
- Wood Biscuits or Dowels
- Carpenter’s Glue
- Nails, Screws or Wooden Nails
- Hammer
- Wood Chisel
- Planer
- Table Drill
- Stain Paint or Tung Oil
Let’s Start Doing it!!
Planning
You can build crate of any size according to availability of wood. Old pallets or leftover wooden planks could also be used. Only thing. you have to keep in mind is that the two ends are of the same size and your slats between the ends are of the same length. Choose thickness of the wood not less than 12.7 mm. 19.05 mm thick crate will be somewhat heavy but tougher than 12.7 mm thick crate.
Here, we will make crate of length = 406.4 mm, breadth = 304.8 mm and height = 241.3 mm approximately
Cutting
You need to cut your wood in planks of two different lengths using circular, table saw or bandsaw blade. The bigger ones will be the length and shorter ones will be breadth of the crate. You can increase or decrease the depth (height) as per your desire by reducing or adding up extra slats.
Here, we need four 317.5 mm long and 120.65 mm wide planks for side ends and thirteen 457.2 mm long and 57.15 mm wide planks for the stats.
Sanding
Remove any sharp edges or splinters, using electrical hand planer or sander so that the wood from each side looks clean and smooth.
Making sides of crate
Now, we have to join two 317.5 mm long and 120.65 mm wide planks together with the help of biscuit joints, dowels and carpenter’s glue. A biscuit joint or a dowel is inserted between the two planks and glue is also applied to the side of the plank and in sockets of biscuits for the purpose of extra stability.
Here, we have inserted 3 biscuits after marking and drilling space for them on both the planks. One side of our crate is ready now. Similarly, one more side is to be made from the other two 317.5 mm long and 120.65 mm wide planks. Use hammer to gently fix them together or clamp and leave it to dry for some time.
Creating Handles
You can create space for the handles by using a table drill with a 25.4 mm – 50.8 mm drill bit. Simply, punch holes 3-4 times in straight line on both the sides of crate. For more refined results, you can first create template of handle and then cut out space for it on side planks using wood chisel.
Assembling crate
Turn the sides upside down (handles facing down) and apply some glue on the slats and place 4 or 5 of them very close to each other. Now, hammer two 25.4 mm nails or wood nails in each slat on each end. The base of your crate is ready.
Turn the crate sideways and add four slats in the same way. Turn the crate again and attach 4 more slats on the remaining side. Little bit of space can be left between the slats on these sides.
Final touch
Apply some paint, polish or strain to your crate or leave it natural.
Your home made crate is ready now!! Fill it up with some interesting items, click photographs and share it with your friends and relatives on Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget to share with us also.
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