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grfrazee

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This past weekend my brother urbanmyth and I made a few beer crates since we're running out of horizontal real estate in the basement. All are made out of scrap dimensional lumber. The Grolsch one was made from a ~4' section of 4x4 and the rest from 2x4s. The individual pieces are 1/2"x1-3/8" by however long.

Tools used were a band saw, planer, table saw, brad nailer, and Titebond III wood glue. Sandpaper too, to take away the rough edges.

The Grolsch crate (holds 24):
IMG_4828.jpg


Stack of the (24)-12oz crates:
IMG_4829.jpg


Same crates:
IMG_4831.jpg


One of the (24)-12oz crates in detail:
IMG_4833.jpg


Top view:
IMG_4835.jpg


The 12oz crates are sized to accommodate the fatter 12oz bottles as well as the regular tall neck bottles. I have two of these crates in my closet right now with (8) six-packs of homebrew conditioning away.

If anyone's interested in plans, here they are:

I've made a SketchUp file containing all of the crate designs I've made so far:
SketchUp Model

As far as materials list, here goes (all members are 1/2" x 1-3/8"):

(24) Grolsch Crate

(4) @ 10-1/4"
(12) @ 12-3/4"
(6) @ 21"
This can be made from a single 8ft 2x4


(24) 12oz Bottles

(4) @ 10-1/4"
(12) @ 10-3/4"
(6) @ 18-1/4"
This can be made from a single 8ft 2x4


(12) 22oz Bombers

(4) @ 11-3/4"
(6) @ 9-5/8"
(6) @ 14-3/4"
(3) @ 12-3/4"
This can be made from a single 6ft 2x4

The members can be replaced by 1x2 furring strips (they have an actual dimension of 3/4" x 1-1/2"). Menard's, Home Depot, and Lowes all have 1x2s at around $0.69 for an 8ft section.
 
+1! This thread is bringing out the High School wood shop geek in me. Time to put all those tools sitting in my garage to good use!
 
Nice looking crates! Some of the ones I've seen posted look a little heavy, but these look nice and light while still plenty strong. I'm looking to build some for 22oz. bombers, and I might modify this design for that.
 
the only potential issue i see is your crates do not block out the light, that might be important with the green grolsh bottles... but of course, if you store in a dark room it's fine... nice build!
 
Nice looking crates! Some of the ones I've seen posted look a little heavy, but these look nice and light while still plenty strong. I'm looking to build some for 22oz. bombers, and I might modify this design for that.

I built one that holds (12) 22oz bombers but didn't take a picture of it. I can include the plans for that as well.
 
the only potential issue i see is your crates do not block out the light, that might be important with the green grolsh bottles... but of course, if you store in a dark room it's fine... nice build!

That's one downfall of this design, but since we keep our beer in the basement under a blanket or in a closet, I wasn't too worried.

Luckily, I managed to score a dozen of the amber Grolsch bottles at an antique store for $18, so those will provide a little better light protection than the greens.
 
I built one that holds (12) 22oz bombers but didn't take a picture of it. I can include the plans for that as well.


That would be great, please do! The only modification I would think about is making them stackable, with something that "locks" them together. Not sure that made sense...but just mean something to keep the one(s) on top from sliding off.
 
That would be great, please do! The only modification I would think about is making them stackable, with something that "locks" them together. Not sure that made sense...but just mean something to keep the one(s) on top from sliding off.

Unfortunately I thought about making them "lockable" after I had finished making them. They're fine if you only have a couple stacked in a relatively undisturbed area, but higher stacks I'd want something to keep them all in line. For the plans I'll share here I will make that correction, but I'll have to do that after work tonight.
 
Model file and dimensions have been added to the original post so that people don't have to search through the thread.
 
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