85 degrees in the shop today

Last week we sold a fairly large piece of furniture to someone in California.  I was tasked with building a shipping crate for the long journey and went to You Tube to get some pointers on how to make one.  Unfortunately, there was not a lot of good information and how to's on building a good shipping crate so I designed one myself.  This post is for anyone encountering the same problem looking for a good crate build.

The Three objectives of this crate were:

1. Cost- If I spent over 50.00 on lumber and hardware I would be paying shipping costs out of pocket
2. Weight - The trunk itself was already heavy so I wanted to build something extremely light weight so my shipping costs didn't rise to much with the added weight.
3.  Strength - With how light I wanted to make the crate I still wanted it to be durable enough to withstand a cross-country journey at the hands of a stranger.

One trip to Lowe's later I started to work:

Materials for the crate (ended up being 4 ft x 25 in. x 25in.)

4 - 2x2x8- Furring Strips (only ended up using 2)
6 - 1x3x8 Furring Strips
2 - 2x3x8 (used only 1)
1/4 inch 4ftx x 8ft hardwood ply.
60 ft. of bubble wrap (used about 1/4 of the roll)
box of 1-1/4 screws (used less than half the box)

The design for the crate revolved around a human rib cage.  I figured copying our bodies design of having ribs form around our delicate organs would work with this crate so I started with 5 Square boxes made by the 1x3's

Once I had the square I reinforced their bottoms with 2x3's in case they used a forklift, set the box down roughly, or on something wet the extra elevation would protect the furniture.  This was the only step that I would consider omitting if I did this again just because the box was strong enough without them.

Lining up all my boxes (ribs)

Dry fitting the 1/4 ply on the inside of the box

Adding strips of 1x2 for extra stability and as an easy spot to grab when moving the crate

Nice tight fit, surrounded with bubble wrap

Finished crate ready for pick-up

When all was said and done I spent around 30.00 on materials and have plenty of leftover lumber, screws, and bubble wrap to us on the next one.  The crate only weights about 30 lbs. so my shipping cost rose very little.  Plus if it fell off the back of the Fed-Ex van I would bet my life it would stay in one piece, it's solid as a rock.