This is my variation on the picket fence beer bottle crate.
There are quite a few threads with variations on this idea, but none of them were exactly what I wanted. I wanted something cheap, light protected, usable with a variety of bottle sizes, and stackable. Additionally, I wanted to be able to use, reuse, and / or replace the dividers at will. My wife receives a lot of cardboard boxes for her business and we have a child in diapers, so cardboard is readily available.
This is the mess I started with:
Here is the a 2D model of my solution:
I dadoed the base into the lower section then used glue and 1 1/8" screws for strength and stability.
I cut a pattern out of 1/8" plywood to create the dividers:
Here is a box with the plywood patterns and a pre-cutout divider replacement pack:
Here is a look into the top of a box filled with 12oz bottles, stored upside down to keep dirt and dust out of them:
Here is a look into a box with flip top bottles and no divider (yes the cardboard came from a diaper box
):
And this is the final result of my efforts:
Overall, I am very happy with the results. I have 30 crates that will hold 24 12 oz bottles, 13-14 flip top or 24 oz bottles, and they are protected and stack securely. I can slip a hand truck under each stack of six crates and move them as a unit if I need to.
30 crates required:
30 72" pickets @ $1.64
1.5 4'x8' sheet @ $13.97
2 1"x12"x6' boards @ $33.58
Misn glue and screws $15.00
Total: approximately $155.00 or $5.20 per box
I had the 1"x12" boards from several previous jobs, so that part was free to me. This made my cost a little less than $90.00, with some glue and screws, or about $3.00 per box.
If I needed to buy the 1"x12" boards, I might have purchased a 4'x8'x3/4" plywood sheet instead and cut my corner pieces out of the sheet. A sheet of 23/32 plywood is $24.58 at Lowes, so the total would have been $110.00 or $3.67 per box.
There are quite a few threads with variations on this idea, but none of them were exactly what I wanted. I wanted something cheap, light protected, usable with a variety of bottle sizes, and stackable. Additionally, I wanted to be able to use, reuse, and / or replace the dividers at will. My wife receives a lot of cardboard boxes for her business and we have a child in diapers, so cardboard is readily available.
This is the mess I started with:
Here is the a 2D model of my solution:
I dadoed the base into the lower section then used glue and 1 1/8" screws for strength and stability.
I cut a pattern out of 1/8" plywood to create the dividers:
Here is a box with the plywood patterns and a pre-cutout divider replacement pack:
Here is a look into the top of a box filled with 12oz bottles, stored upside down to keep dirt and dust out of them:
Here is a look into a box with flip top bottles and no divider (yes the cardboard came from a diaper box
):
And this is the final result of my efforts:
Overall, I am very happy with the results. I have 30 crates that will hold 24 12 oz bottles, 13-14 flip top or 24 oz bottles, and they are protected and stack securely. I can slip a hand truck under each stack of six crates and move them as a unit if I need to.
30 crates required:
30 72" pickets @ $1.64
1.5 4'x8' sheet @ $13.97
2 1"x12"x6' boards @ $33.58
Misn glue and screws $15.00
Total: approximately $155.00 or $5.20 per box
I had the 1"x12" boards from several previous jobs, so that part was free to me. This made my cost a little less than $90.00, with some glue and screws, or about $3.00 per box.
If I needed to buy the 1"x12" boards, I might have purchased a 4'x8'x3/4" plywood sheet instead and cut my corner pieces out of the sheet. A sheet of 23/32 plywood is $24.58 at Lowes, so the total would have been $110.00 or $3.67 per box.
