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Thread: Strong light weight wooden box for shipping?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Location
    Fairbanks AK
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    Strong light weight wooden box for shipping?

    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.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    549
    I'd find an old golf club bag at a yard sale--do they have those in Europe??--and load it up. They check skiis and snowboard sized bags too.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Peoria, IL
    Posts
    4,412
    I've always built with oriented strand board with internal cleats. When the size makes it cumbersome to handle, I add another cleat on the outside for handles. I've always thought that if they have to bear hug it to handle it, they probably just throw and slide it around. But I always plan on them throwing it anyway.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,301
    It is a crate. The faces are thin plywood or OSB, screwed to 1x2 at the edges. The box is built up from the panel by screws which go through the 1x2. No fancy joinery like dovetails. Inexpensive, not heavy.

    But don't airline security rules require that they be able to open checked bags? So you need a way to close the box that can be opened without tools like screwdrivers. A hinged lid secured by trunk latches.

  5. #5
    You could buy a gun case or two for rifles/shotguns and remove the foam. Stuff your clothes in it for the trip over and when there buy a cheap duffle bag or suitcase for you clothes when you come home. Get good luggage locks so the security can do their job. You should be able to stuff a lot of saws, planes and chisels in the gun case if you wrap them in foam, bubblewrap or news papers obtained locally.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Location
    Modesto, CA, USA
    Posts
    9,811
    Amtrak will ship a fill size kayak for $5.00 oversize bag fee. Met a couple on the train who had bought two used plastic kayaks near Chicago and they were headed to Seattle. Sure enough I looked in the baggage car and they were on top of the bags. Buy a metal shipping coffin and take it with you.
    Bill D.

    https://picclick.com/Military-Surplu...602152447.html
    Last edited by Bill Dufour; 02-16-2019 at 12:12 PM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Longview WA
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    With so many professional grade shipping containers for musical instruments, golf clubs and so many other items why build your own?

    Luggage handlers will likely show more respect to items that were made to be handled in their system of transport.

    jtk
    "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
    - Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Sebastopol, California
    Posts
    2,319
    If you decide on a wood crate in spite of the suggestions made here, think about making the corner cleats triangular to save weight.

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