For a long time, like many of you, I have had a love / hate relationship with plastic storage containers. I know, I know ... how petty, but we all have our pet peeves and that is one of mine. I love they are easy to find, inexpensive, come in many sizes (most of which are not the one I need) and the work (mostly). What I hate, they get brittle over time, chip crack and break (some deform) they stack vertical ok, but not horizontal. When ever I put things with vertical sides, hand planes, boxes of screws etc. the slanted sides take up WAY too much wasted space. Yeah they are OK for cloths, cables and rope but vertical edged, they are not.
Summer means I have wee bit more time on my hands, time to make some “real woodworker” storage boxes, and for me, a chance to show that the affiliate sites I hand pick are done because I USE their products and want to help them stay in business so we can all benefit from their offerings.
After I decided on an ideal size, of 5” high, 10” long and 6”wide, and the design, I made myself a “prototype box” to see how much work it was and just how suitable it was. Most boxes and drawers should NOT be to DEEP, the reason behind this, unless they are purpose built, boxes and drawers always get filled up, and if they have smaller items they can get lost in bottom of deep boxes and drawers.
Turns out I loved the size, shape and, with NO hinges, I can easily just lift the top of the box, get what I need, without having to always pull it out from the shelf because the hinged lid will not open fully because it bumps against an upper shelf, so you have to pull it out, lift the lid, where other wise you could easily lift lid with one hand, take out what you need and quickly replace the lid ... easy peazy.
Below are the all the components, and they have all been marked with my Tooley Park, 4 in 1 Marking Gauge.
Next was of course the assembly ... not pictures, all on video, but I did want to show you a picture of the results of the plywood planner from MaxCut, I don't use a lot of sheet good, but sometimes Baltic Birch like this partial sheet, and it's expensive plywood so I want to get the best results from it ... you can see at the bottom of the sheet, 2 smaller pieces, those are the "waste" cuts ... very impressive. MaxCut is FREE to download AND USE ... if you need more features, you can upgrade to the Pro version as needed.
Below is a quick look at the listings of parts I used, with all their dimensions .... also notice the little "Optimize" icon in on middle of the MaxCut page ...
.... and here is what happens when you click the Optimize Button, is shows you what the best cuts would be.
And here are my "Woodworkers" utility storage boxes ... they are super strong, will not chip, break or crack (unless you run over them with a truck .. and they may even withstand that) they are perfectly stackable vertical and horizonal, not too deep for smaller items to get lost in the bottom and I'm not even going to finish them ... for me, they are fine the way they are.
Now the real proof as I put these boxes to work, my expectation is that I did not make enough of them, but, I do have more Baltic Birch available for now ....
Thanks for watching, thanks for subscribing
Colin Knecht
