Box dividers

[Rob Luter]

I’m making my kiddo a couple serving trays for shuttling stuff from the kitchen to the patio. They’re designed to nest and the smaller of the two will feature an “egg crate” insert to help keep beverages stable. I’m planning on using interlocking slats inside a frame. Think jewelry box dividers only scaled up. Can anyone suggest a source for a primer on making something like this? I just want to get my head wrapped around it prior to diving in.

[steven c newman]

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Something like this?

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Or this? Notches are the width of the stock's thickness. Depth is usually 1/2.
Handle for the thinner tray...
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Fit over the rest of the dividers....handle is attached at the ends to the sides of the tray...
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Does that help any?

[Jim Matthews]

Two ways to skin a cat - rub joints of uniform blocks in the shorter run dividing the longer run or a set of interlocking half laps (my preference).

Half laps are easiest if the pieces are the same thickness and width. You would need four notches to manage the tote pictured.

https://www.rockler.com/learn/how-to-cut-cross-lap-joints

https://www.bigsandwoodworking.com/kumiko-table-saw-sled/

[Jim Koepke]

How many beverage holder cells do you want or need?

Something similar to one of my projects might do the trick:

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The dividers for various remotes are a separate piece from the rest of the box.

They are made in the same way as dividers used for my drawer to hold files:

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The build for that is here > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?274913 < Change the spacing and run a dowel through the center, put it in a box and call it done.

Otherwise it is really easy to cut lap joints to put together a set of dividers. With care you could gang up four pieces and cut them together. That would make nine cells. Many more than that might get heavy.

jtk

[David Eisenhauer]

1. Fab up the box or tray. Decide on divider material thickness (lots of times it is 1/4").

2. Design the egg crate pattern for the divider locations, mark inside of box/tray sides and ends where dados for dividers go.

3. Dado ends/sides at designed egg crate pattern dado locations.

4. Cut all dividers to length, including full seating in the side/end dados.

5. Insert either long or short dividers (temporarily), mark for crossing divider locations where crossing pieces will interlock after notching. I like to insert the long sides for this.

6. Cut 1/2 width (or height of dividers) length notches at divider material thickness on cooresponding pieces of divider material. Sneak up on depth of cut measurement. Make same depth of cut on both pieces. Neat interlock depends on exact depth of cut and correct width of cut to match divider material thickness.

7. Insert divider pieces with notch cut up first. Fit in crossing divider pieces with notch cut down.

[Rob Luter]

Thanks for the input.

The trays are variations on the one pictured below. Instead of solid wood bottoms I've used 1/8 birch plywood and will top with cork sheet to make them non skid. These will be going from humid Indiana to arid Colorado and I didn't want to deal with wood movement any more than necessary. There are two in the set, with the smaller nesting inside the larger and the "egg crate" nesting inside the smaller. The goal is to be able to lift the egg crate out to accommodate other containers if need be.

My basic plan was what Steven and David outlined. I was going to use 1/4" thick stock around the perimeter and 1/8 stock for the dividers. I'll finger joint the corners on the perimeter and drop the dividers into shallow dados.


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[Rob Luter]

I wound up dovetailing at the corners and created shallow dados to drop the slats into. In the name of accuracy I used my table saw and a purpose build sled to mark the shallow dados and to cut the intersecting slots. It turned out well enough. I did learn a few lessons and will produce much more accurate results next time.

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[Jim Koepke]

Looking good.

jtk

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice, clean, tight work Rob. If you don't mind expanding, what lessons can you pass on to us. I have done this "egg crate' stuff a few times before and have found it to require lots of fiddly setups and test cuts to get right. If you have any ideas on making it go easier/quicker, I'm all ears.

[Rob Luter]

Nice, clean, tight work Rob. If you don't mind expanding, what lessons can you pass on to us. I have done this "egg crate' stuff a few times before and have found it to require lots of fiddly setups and test cuts to get right. If you have any ideas on making it go easier/quicker, I'm all ears.

It's like real estate. Location, location, location. I marked the location of the grooves and slots with what I felt was a great deal of precision. In reality, not so much. It doesn't take much error to throw the works off. I thought I was plenty close enough to center (within about .020") but forgot that the slats are reversible, as is the long center part. They also varied in length about .010" across the set. A little shooting board work on the cross slat lengths got everything dialed in right When I tried to assemble it the first time it fought back. A few minutes of root cause analysis got me on the right track. I didn't have everything oriented the same way I'd marked it. Once fixed and assembled in the right order I labeled the bottoms on the parts accordingly. Next time I'll use some sort of location jig (think box joint jig) to establish exactly the same distance between slots so everything will register properly. I'll also take greater pains to insure the grooves and slots run down the exact center of the short cross slats.

[steven c newman]

Maybe a "stack & cut" method? Blade set to the correct height, run everything through to cut all the slots at once. Assemble as a dry fit, and mark where all the shallow dados will go.....remember to cut on the waste side of the lines...

[David Eisenhauer]

Thanks Rob. I do like the egg crate effect for storing certain things, but it takes an effort to actually get started with a build.