My wife and I are flying down to Cali tomorrow and I'd been thinking about "flying with beer" all week. I want to pick up some beers that aren't available locally. I flew with some a few months ago by packing them in cardboard with newspaper; all the bottles survived but I was paranoid they were going to break and leak all over our clothes.
To give me a little more piece of mind this time, I decided to build a little crate that fits inside our suitcase. It holds eight 22oz bottles (four on each side of the middle divider), so I can't bring a ton back with me, but I should be able to bring back a nice little selection without having to worry about paying for an overweight bag.
I made it out of 1x8 poplar and 1/4" plywood for the middle divider and side covers. I ran a dado down the middle of the 1x8 and the middle divider is glued in so the thing is really solid. The side covers are held in place with six screws each. There's enough room for bubble wrap and ziplocks on each bottle. I'll let ya know next week how it worked.
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