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.
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.
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.
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.
It was nice to get a uniform size for the handles.
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.
Here's a closer pic of said cuts.
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.
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.
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.
We had to make a ton of them.
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.
So how many did we make? 15! But they went pretty quickly/easily. Was able to get them all done in one day.
Finished inside shot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It was nice to get a uniform size for the handles.
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.
Here's a closer pic of said cuts.
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.
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.
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.
We had to make a ton of them.
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.
So how many did we make? 15! But they went pretty quickly/easily. Was able to get them all done in one day.
Finished inside shot.
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.