I'm working on 3 milk crates for storing random stuff around the house. They’re not terribly complicated, more tedious than anything, but they’re super sturdy.
Here’s the raw materials cut to size. 6 end pieces and 30 slats.
The first thing I did was cut out the handles. Two big circles with a drill press…
…and then connect them using a jig saw.
Next I had to drill holes in all the slats. 30 boards x 4 holes per board = tedium. I set up some stop blocks on the drill press so I didn’t have to measure every time.
Next I used my drill to match up the holes in the slats to the plywood ends and glued in dowels to hold everything together.
Here’s the first one I finished.
After sanding, I stained it with some blue stain that looked good at Home Depot. The color looked better on the display. I think I need to let the stain sit longer and soak in better, though there’s tons of spots where stain won’t soak in at all because there’s wood glue already there. It’s been a messy project.
Right now I’ve got the second one ready for sanding, and the third one has 5-6 more boards to be attached before it’s done.