Wooden Grolsch Bottle Cases, Ten Years in the Making...

[vonZwicky]

The folks at Northern Brewer would probably measure these for you ...they are helpful folks.

I really like these bottles, especially for their smooth surface. If I ever decide to dabble in labeling, these would be ideal. I just have so many other brew priorities now, it would be a while before I purchased them. If It turns out that they didn't fit, I could always build new boxes.

 

[ajwillys]

Very nice! With a decent drawing, a water jet or a cnc machine could cut out these pieces for pennies (literally). Someone could have decent business opportunity here.

 

[vonZwicky]

Very nice! With a decent drawing, a water jet or a cnc machine could cut out these pieces for pennies (literally). Someone could have decent business opportunity here.

Ajwyllis, you don't know how right you are. If I ever build some more of these boxes, I'm definitely going to contract out the fabrication of the dividers. The wooden ones I made will work well enough, but they have been a major PITA every step of the way: A pain to cut out, a pain to sand, and they will be a pain to polyurethane (the one chore that's still ahead of me). Next time, I'll build some nice boxes, but the idea of having someone with a cnc machine cut out some plastic dividers for me is VERY appealing.

That said, I've made a lot of progress in the months since I last posted here. My apologies for my laziness in not bringing this build to a close sooner.

 

[vonZwicky]

Bear with me folks, I'm trying to post some new pics I uploaded to the gallery, but I'm having trouble accessing them at the moment. The HBT server may still be trying to digest them.

 

[vonZwicky]

Here we go:

 

[vonZwicky]

 

[vonZwicky]

After building the boxes, then the lids, and then routing out for the handles, it was time for the sanding and finish work. I opted for a couple of coats of some minwax sedona red stain followed up by two coats of helmsman spar urethane:

and then the installation of the handles:

 

[vonZwicky]

Alright I'm taking a deep breath. I now have two custom boxes that will each hold 20 sixteen ounce grolsch bottles. They stack well and are easy to carry (I love the speaker case handles!). They should be relatively light proof and be able to stand up to a fair amount of abuse, all the while not being too hard on the eyes.

 

[deprecated]

Those look great!

I keeping adding more things to the to-do list than I'm marking off when I read posts like this.

 

[vonZwicky]

One last step: I still need to slap some poly on all of the divider pieces and give it all time to dry . Then I can post some pics with the boxes full of bottles.

 

[vonZwicky]

Appreciated, Depreciatied. I feel your pain. If I were unaware of the awesome work that others have shared on this site, my to-do-list would be much simpler.

 

[DeepSea]

Where did you get the handles?

Nice work.

 

[vonZwicky]

Thanks, DeepSea! I ordered the handles from reliablehardware.com. Here's the link to the specific item:

http://www.reliablehardware.com/mediumrecessedhandleblack.aspx

The handles were 5 bucks apiece, and the set of 50 screws (only needed 40) were also 5... so 25 bucks plus shipping for the hardware. I was a little afraid that the handles would be flimsier than they look... not so! Very sturdy hardware that should give years of service.

I routed the rectangle about 3/8" deep, then came back and routed about half of that area 5/8" deep to accommodate the deepest part of the hardware. Never had to punch all the way through the 3/4" wall of the boxes.

 

[Yambor44]

Those are gorgeous! Well done.

 

[vonZwicky]

Thank you, Yambor44.

 

[starsailor]

Ajwyllis, you don't know how right you are. If I ever build some more of these boxes, I'm definitely going to contract out the fabrication of the dividers. The wooden ones I made will work well enough, but they have been a major PITA every step of the way: A pain to cut out, a pain to sand, and they will be a pain to polyurethane (the one chore that's still ahead of me). Next time, I'll build some nice boxes, but the idea of having someone with a cnc machine cut out some plastic dividers for me is VERY appealing.

That said, I've made a lot of progress in the months since I last posted here. My apologies for my laziness in not bringing this build to a close sooner.

Just an idea, but why not make the dividers out of that white FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) paneling used for bathroom and shower walls. They sell it at HD and Lowe's. It's not much more expensive than a decent 1/4" plywood and is already water proof. It cuts and mills just like plywood, except please wear a dust mask to avoid the fiberglass dust.

 

[vonZwicky]

Wow, thanks for giving my old thread a bump! The FRP board is a very good suggestion. I've worked with the stuff before.

Believe it or not, I've yet to use my cases or Grolsch bottles. They are on standby for when I get into bottling. So far all of my homebrew has been kegged.

 

[vonZwicky]

I just realized that I never posted pics of the finished product... I'll try to do that when I get home.

 

[MaltMonster]

Cool project...can't wait to see pics of the final product.

 

[vonZwicky]

Here's a pic of the finished cases.

 

[vonZwicky]

A couple of pics of the innards:

 

[vonZwicky]

And one of them stacked up:

 

[vonZwicky]

I should also include a some pics of the flush mounted handles. I ordered these from... ? ... I know I posted the link earlier in this thread. They are intended for music gear (speakers, amps, etc.), but they are also great for beer boxes! They're quite sturdy and I'm pleased with how they fit into the design.

 

[joshb_]

This is a great idea. I think I just found a weekend project to get all of my Grolsch bottles out of my old beat up cardboard wine boxes.

 

[vonZwicky]

Yea, it was a fun project to work on. So far all my brew has been kegged, but I'm looking forward to using these for bottling at some point.