Wooden Bottle Crate for 22oz Bottles

Got a little inspired looking at some bottle crates and decided to make one. I like the idea of having a good solid box to take some bottles camping or to a friends house. The box is nice because you can sit on it, or play cards on it. I'm pretty broke at the moment so I decided to make it out of a pallet. I ran the boards through a thickness planer to smooth them down a bit and thin them up and started cutting and screwing it together. The box is coated in exterior siding stain/waterproofer. I planned it out so that I could fit 12 22oz anchor steam bottles, guiness bottles and the standard 22oz bomber bottle. The standard bottles require the spacer and for the guiness and anchor steam bottles you simply remove it. Just need to find some hinges and a latch now. Thinking about put a wall mounted bottle opener on the front of it. If anyone is interested in the dimensions I can draw them up. Cheers.

Nice work!

I'm across the river in the Couve.

I'll come up mine tomorrow.

$10 each, right?

lol

Thanks. If I had more pallets and a way to stream line the process I could probably make a few to sell.

mobilecabinworks said:

Thanks. If I had more pallets and a way to stream line the process I could probably make a few to sell.

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Stop in at your local lumber yard and talk to the head yard guy.
My local LY puts pallets in a pile for the public to come and get for free.
I have about 2 dozen in my shop for a project I am getting ready to start, and now I am going to get a few more for beer crates.

I see pallets all the time for free on Craigslist. If you were truly interested, this could be a nice income stream for you.

I'll take one that holds 4 growlers please!

EDIT: Oh, and can you waterproof the inside so I can dump a bag of ice in there?

Wow, that looks like alot of pricey brass screws for such a little box. Also, what did you make the dividers out of, luan?

The brass screws I already had from another house project, had just enough too! I'd probably use coated deck screws for others. The dividers are made out of an old piece of interior paneling that is 1/8" thick. Just happened to have it in the shop.
Man pallets suck to disassemble! Luckily my longest dimensions were just about 13" so I just ran a saw along all the 2x4 runners and took out the 1x's. Way better than trying to pull all of those glue/spiral shank nails and splitting the wood in the process.

Id love to see the measurements on this build. Very nice.

I'll try to get them drawn up so they are legible.

HOLY SH*T! I can believe I didn't think of this. This is effin genius!

Those look great... Nice work!

What I'm really proud of is the bottle opener on the front. This morning a neighbor saw the box and I told him a bottle opener on the front would be handy, and 5 mins later he came back with one.

Here are some pretty fuzzy pictures of the basic measurments I drew up. They are not to any scale. Hopefully you guys can read it. The measurements are all for the inside of the crate as those are the important figures. Your overall dimensions will be dependent on your material thickness. but the interior dimensions are 12 1/2"L x 9 3/8"W x 11 1/4"T. These measurements are based on a set of dividers being made from 1/8" material. For the floor I used 3/16" material. When I made my cuts I kinda fudged them about a 1/32" over my mark for a tiny bit of room. Don't think I needed to though. Any questions just ask. Now I just want to get some beer brewed to put in it! Cheers.

Thanks buddy. Ill be making mine this week

I've got a steady supply of pallets, some are oak.

Perhaps a trade? I'll throw in some homebrew too

cheers

Crombrew, I want to see a pic when you get it built.

Sickbrew, send me a PM. I think might be able to work something out, maybe for a couple of them.

very nice. I thought of something very similar but I don't have the tools.

Here is my take at it mobilecabinworks. I am still going to add a nice hinge and a latch on the front. Thanks for the idea.

Stupid question; what is the thickness of your boards? I made some boxes with some 1.5" thick boards and the boxes are HEAVY! kinda defeats the purpose.

Mine are 1" so actually 3/4". It's not too heavy at all.

these look really nice. For those beginning woodworkers, keep in mind there can be other nails/metal and what not in the pallets. BE SURE to check them over for this before running through a thickness planer or table saw. Quick way to ruin a set of blades!

Those look great, I'd really like to see dimensions/plans.

Jeepninja, the dimensions are in this thread somewhere.

Crombrew, thats a nice looking box, I like the color.

I have a few sheets of 3/4" Maple plywood and I think I am going to make a few case crates. I'll post pics when done.

Looking forward to seeing it.

Well, I had an hour to kill so I cut up a sheet and built (5) 12oz case crates.
I still need to do sanding/staining/sealing, but here they are so far.
Yes, they are simple screw together crates, nothing special.
I need to rip down some maple for the corners and tops.
I'll post an update when they are done.

Looking good!

OK, this is all I have time for today.
Just messing around with stenciling.

Needs another coat of stain and a couple coats of poly this weekend, along with the (4) others.

For those that made crates with inserts - how did you go about making those? They seem more time consuming than the crate itself, but for my application the most important.

Thanks.

smpow said:

For those that made crates with inserts - how did you go about making those? They seem more time consuming than the crate itself, but for my application the most important.

Thanks.

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The inserts only take a few minutes once you have the crate built. You just cut the sections and divide them into the necessary number of spaces and run a chop saw half way through the boards. So 2 long ones and 3 short ones. Divide the long ones into quarters and the short ones into thirds. 3 cuts on the longs. 2 cuts on the shorts. The overall dimensions of the crate are partially based on the thickness of the material used for dividers. Forgot example I used 1/8" material for my dividers.

mobilecabinworks said:

What I'm really proud of is the bottle opener on the front. This morning a neighbor saw the box and I told him a bottle opener on the front would be handy, and 5 mins later he came back with one.

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You've got a good neighbor!