I need to do better next time.
Page through the 4 images, and then I'll go on. The cardboard box had three saws in it. The wood crate was a checked bag coming home from my recent vacation, 15 saws in it, $25 checked bag fee. The plane for scale is a #4 Bailey.
Ok, so there you go, 4000 words.
For my next vacation I want to use a tool shipping crate as a piece of outbound luggage, that I can build at leisure with ideal materials and all y'alls input, rather than throwing something together under time and materials pressure in a friend's garage the night before I fly home.
I really think I want to use plywood for the next build, with internal battens and screws on the long seams.
Box joint or dovetails for the end caps do you think?
Glue probably?
The pine crate with the 15 saws weighed 20.4 pounds.
I had another (vintage, hard side, $12) checked suitcase loaded with axe heads and auger bits and chisels that weighed 46.4 pounds and came through unscathed.
I did not find a suitcase (I bought three monsters) big enough to swallow a 26" saw with handle even diagonally in 3D. FWIW a 26" plate with a post 1944 handle and a "Warranted Superior" medallion is 29 1/8 inches on the long diagonal.
A pretty typical limit for US domestic carriers is 61 lineal inches (l + h + w) and 50 pounds. My retiring saw crate was 9 by 10 by 32 inches, so 51 inches and 20.x pounds, no moron could refuse to check it. Lufthansa uses 62 inches h+w+l as well, so my "next" trip[ to Europe would be covered as Lufthansa flies polar route from Seattle to Frankfurt. https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/baggage-and-other-fees
So what would you do? If you were checking two bags anyway, what crate would you build for home bound tools, and what tool would be in the second checked bag to open/close the tool crate?
I used butt joints, battens, pine and drywall screws with #2 Phillips the first time. Stepping up for the next go round.