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Made these crates so I had some more storage capability. Added cleats to the underside to make these stackable and it works like a dream. Precisely placed and sized the cleats to prevent any side to side or front to back movement. For the ends I use some 3/4" birch plywood from HD. Drilled a few holes to define the ends of the hand holds and made a pattern for the hand cutout and used router equipped with a bearing guided flush cut bit to cut to final size. Side slats are 1×4 pine firring strips from HD cut to length and attached with glue and brads. No finish was applied since these are just for the shop. I used these when I moved and they worked great, held quite a few tools and misc. shop clutter. Dimensions are 13" wide x 13" tall x 19" long

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Nice crates. You can also lay them on their sides for easy access without unstacking them!
thanks for sharing…..........Jim
 

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Awesome, so much nicer than those plastic bins you see everywhere
 

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Beautiful crates… very useful, added to favorites.
Thanks for sharing.
 

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Cody;
Very nice! I need some of these. The plastic ones I buy are crap and I'm tired of throwing them out when they break. Question; I cannot see how these lock into each other when stacked?
I was thinking that if you extended the sides (with the cutout for the handle) about 1/2" and recessed the bottom they would lock, but you have figured out another way.
Thanks for sharing your work with us.
 

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I feel so inadequate- all I have are a bunch of milk cartons I stole in college.

good job!
 

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This is a great idea. Probably cheaper than buying those plastic bins for $8 at Costco. Thank you for sharing.
 

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thank you :)
will be a usefull tip in the future when moving
but I better have to start now …. since three wont be enoff …. LOL

Dennis
 

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gustaria tener unas 10. Formato rustico pero bien fuertes y duraderas. Gracias por tu idea
 

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Thanks for all the comments everyone!
Ratchet - If you look at picture #4 which shows the bottom of the crate, you will see one piece which is placed perpendicular to the three pieces which run the length of the crate. There are two perpendicular pieces per crate which are the cleats I spoke of in the post. These pieces fit tightly into the crate which it is stacked on, preventing any movement.
Jonathan B. - If you cut the plywood ends just shy of 12" x 12", one $40 4' x 8' sheet of plywood will give you enough to make 16 crates. I cant remember exactly but I believe when I figured it out each crate cost around $4.50 each.
 

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and if you only make them 40cm long they will fit nicely on a europepallet
they are 80cm X 120cm in sice :)
stack them the other way for each layer and they interlock too

Dennis
 

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Nice work on the storage crates, CodyM, and I like the way you made them stack. I had the thought about stacking them on their sides to use them as rustic vertical storage, even maybe attaching them on a wall to use as a wall unit. I am going to build a few of them in the next few days and see how to do that sturdily. I am thinking I'll just use smaller slats (like 1-1/2" wide) and alternate them to allow them to interlock when they are turned on their sides. That way, they can stack in both directions, on their bottoms or on their sides.
 

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Great idea, and making them stackable was nice thinking, I might need to steal this design, LOL.
 
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