Creates For The Garden

[Hickory]

Last year I showed some pictures of what I was doing in the garden and the farmers market, and a few people asked about the crates in the back of my truck with the vegetables in them.

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I will show those of you who asked how I made the crates.
First I will show how I made the fixture I used to make the crates.
This helps to keep everything square so that it doesn't get too far out of shape.

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First you need lath. You can pick this up at almost any lumber yard.
Next 2 or three 2"x6"x8' the fewer knots the better.
Then you will need a piece of plywood 1/2"x14"x 22"
Use a square to draw a line 2" from edge on the 14" end.

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Next draw another line at the opposite end 17 7/8" apart keeping it nice and square.
Now you will need to attach a fence for the fixture. It should be 3/4"2 1/4"x22".
After the fence is in place, (I glued and stapled it in place) the 2 triangles or corners (for lack of a better word to describe them) can be glued and shot into place.
The end result should be so that a third triangle that will serve as the corners of the creates will fit int place like the picture on the right.


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Check with your square before shooting it into place, the do like wise on the opposite end making sure that the corners will face each other. The extreme triangles need to be 17 7/8" from each other and the one in the center should be 8 5/8" apart. these will be the bases for building 2 different crates.

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Next you will need to cut the corners for the crates. These will be cut from the 2x6's mentioned above.
Cur them 7 3/4" long. this will get you a crate with 4 slats high. I you want to make it 6 slats high cut them 12 1/8" long.
Set the blade of you table saw at 45 degree angle to cut the corners off of each side of all the blocks. After you've done this, right the blade to 90 degrees and cut the other corners off.

Now you need to do the same with the same amount of 2x6's 14 1/2" long. when all the corners are cut off you should end up with a rectangle block 1 1/2"x2 1/4"x14 1/2" save these for later.

Disregard this last picture I mess the jig up and had to re do it.
But am unable to remove this picture.

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[Hickory]

We are going to do a small box first.
Take 2 of the corners and place them in the jig, so making sure that the corners are snug against the fence, place a 8 5/8" precut lath up against the in the picture and shoot in place. Using a 1/2" piece of plywood 18" long and 2" wide for a spacer shoot the rest of the lath in place.
When the last piece of lath will have a little bit more gap then the rest, this will be so that you can get your fingers between the lath and are used as handles when complete. So, remember this when assembling the 4 sides.
This is the only slat that I put glue on just because it is used as a handle.

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Now the sides need to go on, these are 15" long and keep in mind that if you are going to make the larger crates you will need twice as many of the 15"ers.
when the 4 - 15" slats are attached the other end can be attaches also. Shoot on the remaining 4 slats to form athe box. Put a mark on the inside and top of the corner block for reference.

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Now you need to attach the base corners. Untill they look like the third picture.

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The bottom slats go on now much the same as the sides went together.

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We're not done yet it's time to add the skids.
Remember that block of wood that was left over from cutting out the corners? it's now time to put it to work.

this piece of wood will need to be cut so that it will end up as 2- 3/4"x1 1/2"x14 1/2" with a 45 degree angle cut on both ends. This is so that all the creates will fit inside each other.

[Hickory]

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These stack nicely when they are all done
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[nekshot]

I have been thinking of making these also because we only have 1 wood crate left and its half broke and the egg crates we use allow too much to fall thru them!

[Hickory]

After several attempts to repost the pictures in the original post, I'll retry it here. It will be pictures only.

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[Outer Rondacker]

Looks great. I cant use egg crates as I find it damages the veggies that sit on the bottom. I may just have to make a few of these. Thanks for the pics.

[farmerjim]

I use plastic folding Georgia Pacific vegetable crates that I bought from a vegetable stand years ago. They are starting to fall apart after 15 years. These look like a good replacement.
Thanks for the post.

[w5pv]

I would make some if I was still in the big garden but it has been so wet here that there is little chance of an early garden this year maybe a fall garden.

[Hickory]

These are a hot item in craft stores and places where craft thing are sold.
I've had people wanting to buy them, and one shop owner ask me to make a 100 so she could sale them, but I'm too busy to fool around making them for anyone but myself.