Wooden Beer Crates

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dfess1

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So I've looked at some of the beer crates on here, and I liked some of the ideas, but wanted some that would look nice even if they were stacked up in our bar area (since we have no storage in our house). I came up with a design for 12 oz bottles, that includes a sliding top to help keep light out. Once I came up with the design, some in my homebrew club decided that they would like one, or five, as well. So we turned it into a non-brewing club event. We will be making more after the new year, to accommodate 16 oz returnables, grolsh swingtops, 22 oz, and Cage and Cork bottles.

I used Baltic Birch plywood to A) have a nicer finished look and B) to have no voids in the plywood itself. It is a stabler material in all.

Started out by cutting out the ends and the side pieces.

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Once they were done, I needed to make a jig for the handles on the end pieces. Started with a piece of MDF, drilled the finished sized holes with a forstner bit, and overlapped the holes. Then cleaned it up with a file and sandpaper to make it smooth.

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Once the blank was created, I attached it to a sled. The sled's thickness was a scrap of the same plywood we were routing, plus one playing card. This allowed enough room to get the blank into the jig.

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I had my drill press setup so that you would drill undersized holes to remove the bulk of the material for the handle. Then that person would hand it off to the guy running the router and jig/sled. A flush trim bit was in the router table, and was able to clean up the handles to finished size.

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It was nice to get a uniform size for the handles.

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Next up was to start the dado cuts on the sides. I cut the shoulder cuts first, as they would be the widest. A shoulder cut was cut on the end of each side. Once they were all cut, I cut a 1/4" dado along the top and bottom inside edge of the sides and ends.

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Here's a closer pic of said cuts.

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On half of the end pieces, I flipped them over and recut the dado at the top (in order to cut it off. Then we laid them out, and glued them up.

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Once they were glued, we put three brads on each side, into the ends. This allowed us to not have to clamp the crap out of all of these cases. We set them aside for the glue to dry, and started on the dividers.

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I made a sacrificial fence for my miter gauge, and made a through cut with the 1/4" dado blade. Then I measured from the inside of the through cut, over 2.5". I lined this mark up with the inside blade on the dado stack, and screwed the fence to the miter gauge. I then put a small piece of the 1/4" plywood in the slot I just made, and used it as a "key". Take a blank divider, and slide it up until it rested against the key, push forward and make the cut. Slide the divider down and now make the cut you just made, straddle the key. Rinse and repeat until all of your dividers were cut.

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We had to make a ton of them.

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We cut lids, and drilled another hole at one end with the forstner bit we used earlier. These slide in the dado groove at the top of the case.

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So how many did we make? 15! But they went pretty quickly/easily. Was able to get them all done in one day.

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Finished inside shot.

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Now I'm trying to find something like a plastic envelope that I can adhere to the end of the case. That way I can put a label or index card in there to say what the case contains.

If anyone is interested in making any of these, I can provide a cutlist.
 
Those are beautiful! Now I feel bad about the cardboard cases with about 3 layers of duct tape I've been using. :eek: Well done!
 
Very impressive. You can't find quality like that any more. By the way there is nothing better than Titebond II and beer.
 
Thanks guys. I made sure everyone understood there was no beer until we were done with the power tools!
 
Those are nice. Wish I had the tools and skill to build some of those.
 
I would love to have the cutlist for those.... ive been thinking about making some for a long time.
 
Very nice indeed!!

As for plastic envelopes for labels, check with an office supply or shipping supplies place - there are several sizes available.... Also, old-time wooden file cabinets used a little brass placard holder for labels - I think they're available from some wood worker's supply places.
 
Part Pieces Width Height Thickness
Side (A) 2 17.25” 11” .5”
End (B) 2 11.25 11” .5”
Bottom (C) 1 16.75” 11.25” .25”
Short Divider (D) 5 10.75” 4” .25”
Long Divider (E) 3 16.25” 4” .25”
Top (F) 1 17” 11.25” .25”

Construction:

1. From .5” Baltic Birch, cut and label parts A, and B.

2. From .25” Baltic Birch, cut and label parts C, D, E, and F.
NOTE: Using a 1” forstner bit, drill a hole 2” from one end and 5.625” from one edge of part F.

3. Make the handles. On parts B, using a 1.5” forstner bit, drill a hole 2.25” from the top, at 5.625” from the outside edge. Drill another hole 2.25” from the top, at 3.625” from the same outside edge. Drill one more hole 2.25” from the top, at 7.625” from the same outside edge. Drill overlapping holes to clean up the edges.
NOTE: A cleaner edge will be obtained if a template is used. Make the template to the same dimensions listed above. Drill the holes in parts B in the same manner as described in above, but with a 1.375” forstner bit. Then place the template over part B, and using a flush cut bit in your router, trim up the hole.

4. Using a dado blade, cut a .25” deep by .5” wide rabbit/shoulder on the ends of part A.

5. Without changing the dado blade height, set the dado blade to be .25”, and cut a dado slot .25” from the bottom of parts A and B on the inside face of each part. Flip each piece around and cut the same dado slot in the top of each piece. Take one part B per case, and flip it over and cut off the top dado.

6. Dry fit parts A, B, and C. Make any adjustments to ensure that all parts fit snugly.

7. Once the handle cavity is cleaned up, put a .25” roundover bit in your router, and route both faces of the handle.

8. Glue up the ends of parts A and B, and assemble them along with part C. Tack a 1” brad through part B into part A.

9. Create the dividers as explained in initial post.


As we create the other cases, I'll post up the cut list for those. Construction will be the same, dimensions will differ. For this go around, I purchased three .5" sheets and four .25" sheets. This created 15 crates. Baltic Birch plywood comes in 60" x 60" sheets, not your typical 4' x 8'.

View attachment BOX LAYOUT 5.PDF

View attachment DIVIDER LAYOUT 5.PDF
 
Nicely done! Thanks for the great write up. I look forward to your 22 oz version.
Cheers!
 
That is a great cutlist and very precise directions. Anyone that can run the necessary tools should have no problem making these. I think I'll be making quite a few myself.

Thank you for the plans.
 
That is a great cutlist and very precise directions. Anyone that can run the necessary tools should have no problem making these. I think I'll be making quite a few myself.

Thank you for the plans.

No Problem. And you are correct, they really aren't hard to make at all. With the simple joinery, you didn't even need any clamps to draw them together. Like I said, we just used the small brads to tack them together, act as clamps themselves as the glue dried. If you wanted to go without brads, a couple clamps would be all you need.

Really just need a router and a flush trim bit, as well as a roundover bit, a table saw with a rip/crosscut/combo blade (depending on how many times you like to change blades), and a dado set. Then again, if you have a good fence and a table mounted router table, you could make the dado cuts with a router bit as well, all depends on how you want to skin that cat. The dado blade option was easier in my opinion.

After making all of those, the only thing I would suggest doing differently, make the dado groove along the top edge of the pieces a hair wider than .25". Out of the 15 boxes we made, only 5 of them weren't deadnuts flat when glued up. The back end on the 5 in question was either a touch high or a touch low, causing the dado grooved to not be totally lined up. In either case, the top was not able to slide all the way into that groove. So we cheated there and ripped the .25" of the top (part F) that was over hanging the end of the crate, since there was no way to go back and fix the mistake at that point. Perhaps better care when putting them together would have caught that in the first place, but then again, I was trying to get all 15 assembled and finished in one day, as the older gentlemen seen in the pictures had stuff to do and I would be loosing my man power in short order. Either way, whether it did slide all the way back or not, didn't really matter. It keeps light out. We do know for next time to make sure they get lined up though.

Another thing we learned: My forstner bits are a set of cheap Chinese bits from Woodcraft, that came with my drill press. I don't use them enough to have warranted a new set yet. That said, we had to drill ALOT of holes to take out the bulk of the waste for the handles. When we first started out, the cuts were coming out fine. As the bit dulled, and more of my sacrificial table had more taken out (from an over zealous driller), we started to get alot of tearout. To remedy this, start on one side of the face, and drill your holes halfway or a little short of halfway down. Flip the piece over and drill both ends of the handle first (all the way through now) and then finish up with the overlapping in the middle. THis made for a much better/cleaner hole, and virtually no tearout after trimming it up with the flush trim bit. Any tearout we had on the other handles, we just made sure that they were the inside face that you wouldn't really see.

Lastly, the directions call for a .5" wide dado cut that would accept the ends. Keep in mind this is a rough size. Baltic Birch actually comes in mm sizing. You just have to use the .5" as an estimate, and use some scrap pieces until the dado width will cover up the ends. It helps to have a long piece of MDF that you can clamp to a fence, and the bring the edge of your dado blade up into from underneath. It buries the blade in the sacrifical fence.

View attachment BOX LAYOUT 5.PDF

View attachment DIVIDER LAYOUT 5.PDF
 
Well done and thanks for the great pics and detailed explanation. You mentioned that you used 60" X 60" birch plywood but in my area the standard size is 48"X 48". Not a problem but the cut list diagram takes some modifications. These are definitely on my to do list.
 
Has anyone designed any really nice crates for the larger bottles? I'd love to see dimensions & photos of them. Thanks for posting.

Mark :mug:
 
Those look awesome! And were you thinking of something like this for the end?
Pocket

They have a larger selection too, magnetic, zippered, hanging ect.
More

Hope that helps.
 
Wow, those are really great looking, BRAVO!! Thanks for the pictoral, it actually helped me out on my next set of boxes. My last ones came out good, but nowhere close to these as I started with 1x12 pine and also not having the advanced wood shop that ya'll got. I'm doing mine on down time out in my backyard on just a portable jobsite table saw.

Was thinking about doing my next ones out of shipping pallets for the ones I'll gift to people for using to get their brews and empties to and from me, but I think I'll try this route now.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think your cost was per box? looking to get another ready to use material other than 1 by pine.

Also, my 24 bottle box I used some luan for the spacers, also didn't come out like I wanted, but unless you take it apart, you will not see those imperfections I don't like.
 
Those look awesome! And were you thinking of something like this for the end?
Pocket

They have a larger selection too, magnetic, zippered, hanging ect.
More

Hope that helps.
Thanks, pretty much what I was looking for!

Wow, those are really great looking, BRAVO!! Thanks for the pictoral, it actually helped me out on my next set of boxes. My last ones came out good, but nowhere close to these as I started with 1x12 pine and also not having the advanced wood shop that ya'll got. I'm doing mine on down time out in my backyard on just a portable jobsite table saw.

Was thinking about doing my next ones out of shipping pallets for the ones I'll gift to people for using to get their brews and empties to and from me, but I think I'll try this route now.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think your cost was per box? looking to get another ready to use material other than 1 by pine.

Also, my 24 bottle box I used some luan for the spacers, also didn't come out like I wanted, but unless you take it apart, you will not see those imperfections I don't like.

Be careful with shipping pallets. Personally, I would not let that stuff anywhere near my tools. You have no idea what is imbedded in that lumber, hidden nails, rocks, etc. Just takes one to smoke a nice crosscut blade or nice router bit.

I shopped around for lumber pricing. I'm buying a 5'x5' sheet at a time, one of .5" and one of .25". Lumber alone ends up around $15-$18 a crate, depending on the size you are making. This first go around, we did just 12oz crates. I needed 3 sheets of .5" and 4 of .25" to get 15 crates. It was around $14 and change per crate. Figure in glue and nails, and I just rounded to 15.

This past go around, (see my next post for cutlist), we made 16 crates, of various sizes. I needed 4 sheets of .5" and 4 sheets of .25", so this brought up the price to $18 ish.
 
12 oz Case – Divider Key = 2.5”

Part Pieces Width Height Thickness
Side (A) 2 17.25” 11” .5”
End (B) 2 11.25” 11” .5”
Bottom (C) 1 16.75” 11.25” .25”
Short Divider (D) 5 10.75” 4” .25”
Long Divider (E) 3 16.25” 4” .25”
Top (F) 1 17” 11.25” .25”



16 oz Case – Divider Key = 3”

Part Pieces Width Height Thickness
Side (A) 2 20.25” 11” .5”
End (B) 2 13.25” 11” .5”
Bottom (C) 1 19.75” 13.25” .25”
Short Divider (D) 5 12.75” 4” .25”
Long Divider (E) 3 19.25” 4” .25”
Top (F) 1 20” 13.25” .25”

*** Take note the dimensions for 22oz parts changed since original posting ***

22 oz Case – Divider Key = 3”

Part Pieces Width Height Thickness
Side (A) 2 13.75” 13” .5”
End (B) 2 10” 13” .5”
Bottom (C) 1 13.25” 10” .25”
Short Divider (D) 5 9.5” 4” .25”
Long Divider (E) 3 12.75” 4” .25”
Top (F) 1 13.5” 10” .25”


Cage and Cork Case – Divider Key = 3.25”

Part Pieces Width Height Thickness
Side (A) 2 14.75” 14” .5”
End (B) 2 10.75” 14” .5”
Bottom (C) 1 14.25” 10.75” .25”
Short Divider (D) 5 10.25” 4” .25”
Long Divider (E) 3 13.75” 4” .25”
Top (F) 1 14.5” 10.75” .25”



I will have pics of these new sizes sometime later this week. Will be assembling them on Thursday night. I made up a jig for the divider keys. Two to be exact. I didn't really like how I had done it the first go round. So, I used a taller/wider piece of the .5" scrap, made my dado cut and then glued in the key this time. I didn't do that last time. It worked, but the key would slide out fairly often. Once it was secure, I then marked 2.5" space for the divider, and then clamped it to my miter gauge. Marked the holes on my gauge, drilled and countersunk the front so I could then bolt it to my gauge. This made it much more secure. Now that the key was glued securely in place, I could then stack two pieces at a time against the key and make the cuts. This was nice, and made it move pretty quickly. After doing the 2.5" cuts, I slid it down to 3.25" marked it and then drilled/counter sunk the holes. One fence takes care of the two sizes. Then I made one more fence for the 3" pieces.

For the 16oz returnables, they will also fit what I assume are the new grolsch bottles? The older ones are slightly larger in diameter. I was hoping that they all would have fit, but that didn't happen. So we could have either re-cut everything and made the larger in order to make new dividers spaced at something like 3 3/16". Personally, I don't have any grolsch bottles, so I didn't care. But, we decided that those that wanted them for the grolsch bottles, could just remove the wooden dividers, and insert the cardboard divider in from their cardboard case. This solved the problem and everyone seemed agreeable to that.
 
Thanks for all the posts everyone. They've helped me design three sizes:

OLD Grolsch & swing-cap Virgil's Root Beer bottles
Hacker/Optimator type pint+ &
22 oz. bombers (double deuce to some)

I hope to post progress or finished photos eventually. I'm using as much scrap as I can, but am thinking once I get my final design, I might give away the prototypes & make some reallly nice crates out of furniture grade, baltic birch 1/2" plywood, w/ 1/8" walnut edge strips.

I'll likely use 1/8" ply for dividers, w/ 1/8" of play for variations & my own errors.

I love the rope handle idea for looks, less work cutting/finishing the (very nicely done) slotted versions posted, but also because they don't allow any LIGHT inside.

I plan on using 3/8" or larger box joints (aka "finger joints") on the sides; slots for fixed 1/8" to 1/4" bottom & 1/8" sliding lid w/ finger hole.

I think it's great to recycle any wood, but as said w/ PALLETS, stones, nails etc. might lie within, so just use an OLD saw blade - I have several 10" blades I don't care about - & safety goggles!

Any thoughts on how high the dividers need to be minimally?
Other design changes folks would make?

Mark :tank:
 
I'm not really concerned about the light. Anything that is going to age, and you're worried about the light, is going to be in a basement/crawlspace where you're not going to be getting any light anyway. If you're that concerned about it, you can always take a piece of cloth on the inside of the handle (at the top) so it drapes over the handle hole.

Personally, the box joint is going to be overkill, unless looking for pure aesthetics/display piece (at which point a rope handle wouldn't be my choice for a display piece either). There is plenty of glue strength in the joint to begin with. And the dimensions listed above will work for your sizes if you go with .125" stock (for the 16oz case, but you'll have to figure out your "key" dimension, as it'll be off). I went with the .25" as I was using it for the bottom and top anyway. No point in ordering multiple sizes. Also allows you to get more out of the sheet/keep the cost down.

:mug:
 
Re: box joints, I would be doing it for appearance too, along w/ the contrasting 1/8" walnut strip to cover the birch plywood's edges --though I find the multi-layer, no-void Baltic birchply edges rather attractive, so I might just use a roundover router bit (1/8-1/4" radius).

Re: joint strength, solid wood END grain butt jointed is very poor for gluing (well documented in every woodworking journal), and should be reinforced with keys, splines, or nails, etc., but PLY has half its layers going laterally, so you will get some edge grain surface. You can easily reinforce a miter or butt joint with a simple corner-splining jig for the tablesaw.

Fun topic/beautiful projects - I hope others post their photos & that I get a chance to make sawdust soon.
 
I'm really not going to debate the strength of the joint used here. It is plenty strong enough (not just a simple butt joint), there is enough glue surface, and the three brads tacked in will make this thing last longer than I, or anyone else that would like to build these, really need to worry about it.

Tonight, we're going to be assembling quite a bit:

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This will all make:

Fifteen 12 oz crates
Eight 16 oz crates
Four 22 oz crates
Four Cage and Cork crates

Pictures of these assembled to follow.
 
Re: joint strength, solid wood END grain butt jointed is very poor for gluing (well documented in every woodworking journal)

Good thing that's not the joint used for these. A rabbet has a larger glue surface area and has plenty of stength for a case of beer. A butt joint has enough. Finger joints are overkill and purely aesthetic.
 
So we got started around 4:30pm yesterday. People trickled in/out/back in as work stopped/started/stopped, etc. Finished up assembling by 9:30, and enjoyed some damn good libations until midnight.

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Apparently, as evident in this picture, there's a wee bit of sawdust on the camera lens. ;)

From Left to Right:

16 oz returnables
22 oz
Cage and Cork
12 oz
 
Awesome! I'm jealous.

I wasn't criticizing any methods, just pointing out end grain butt joints alone (w/o rabbets or nails) are not considered nearly as strong by prof. cabinetmakers or glue companies, esp. for normal PVA glues. Half of the veneers in plywood ends are LONG grain.

Box making is a separate hobby of mine for years. If I do try box joints, I might kick myself & be in the shop for a week straight! Miters w/ Birchply would be challenging. These boxes look super - wish I were done.

Good point about making top & bottom same .25" dimensions/thickness; the added durability of .25" & convenience of same width grooves (in lids & bottoms) outweighs the weight saved by making lids 1/8" (.125").

Has anyone else discovered VIRGIL's rootbeer swingcap bottles? 3.2" width (close enough to combine w/ old Grolsch 3.05" at base), and I like them much better.

Mark
 
Take note that I've updated the dimensions for the 22oz parts. They were originally short by .25" in length. So, you could only fit 9 bottles in using the dimensioned lumber I have in the cut list. If you have already cut this using the old dimensions, just use the cardboard dividers from your current case, then all 12 will fit until you're able to make them up again. Sorry about that.
 
This has been a most interesting thread, I look forward to seeing what else you come up with!
 
We have a few in our club that are also into wine. They've asked for some crates to hold wine on its side. We'll get to those after the new year. And possibly some 6 pack holders.
 
This looks fantastic. I need to remember this to see if I can trick a woodworking friend into making some for me!
 
I built a few wooden crates for my bottles.

I sized them so that (4) cardboard six pack holders would fit in them for the bottles instead of making the dividers. That way I can grab a sixxer out of the crate and go if I want to.
 
I've made a few changes to the design with most the credit to a buddy of mine (thanks Mike). This is a crate for my dad for christmas. It's not finished yet but here it is for right now, I'll post the finished project later.

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I wanted to do a similar box, the only addition I would do would drill 12 holes in the bottom so I can dry my bottles after sanitisation. Thanks for the cut list and instructions. How much is a sheet of the birch? I was going to use osb and paint it, but if birch is cheap enough I might use that.
 
Finally finished (got off my rear). Just got to figure out how to put my label on the lid.

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