How to Build an Indy Style Ammo Crate

The story so far, our hero (me) was surrounded! Nerf rifles to the left of me, BuzzBee shot guns to right of me, a zillion foam darts all around me and a kid’s birthday rapidly in front of me! My impossible mission (other than to mix metaphors in a food processor) was to find a good storage solution for Nerf weapons that looked cool and could be a birthday present for my Nerf War Maniac son. Time was running out. What would Indiana Jones do?... Wait. What Indiana Jones fan (including my son) wouldn’t want a crate in Raiders? Time to do some brainstorming, watching movies for reference material, making sawdust and to go where this Maker has never gone before. (Yeah, ok, Trek fan too, but my fiber glassing skills aren’t up for a Mark VI Photon Torpedo casing yet.)

Materials List:

5 – 1”x6”x6’ cedar fence pickets (get the ones about 5/8” thick)

2 – 1”x2”x8 pine boards

100 - 1”dry wall screws (you’ll have a few extra just in case)

Lettering Stencils (See section below)

Red and black paint

150 grit Sandpaper

Tools List:

Table saw (or track saw, or radial arm saw or something that can cut straight for 30 inches)

Trim router with ½ straight bit & round over bit

Router table for trim router (or edge guide for trim router)

Drill with Philips hex bit and 3/32” bit for pilot holes

Philips screw driver Carpenter’s Square (or speed square)

Palm sander (or sanding block)

Paint brushes

After watching Raiders and reviewing more google searches than I care to count, I found out 3 things. 1) As much as I love the crate from Raiders, it would work better for hiding kids in than storing Nerf guns. 2) Repurposing an existing crate was cost and time prohibitive (birthday in 2 weeks from when I got the mission). 3) Most simple rifle/ammo crates are well within range for my skills and tools. (Let’s face it, crates are simply not fine furniture. FUN furniture, but definitely not FINE furniture.) Since I couldn’t predict where it would be left (inside or outside) or how it would be used, I decided on a combo of cedar for the bigger panels and pine for the structural bits and handles. A crate pretty easily breaks down into 6 panels; 4 long top/bottom/side panels and 2 short end panels. Here are my sketches for figuring out the wood for building the box. At this point, it would just be a box, so I asked a crafter friend, Jessica Hess, if she could cut some stencils for me.

"Stencils?", I asked.

"Custom stencils.", she said.

"Muh AH-hahahahah!", I replied!

More on that later.

Cutting the Wood

This can be done on your favorite saw that can do cross cutting. I used a radial arm saw.

Cut List:

• 4 - 1x2 x 12” pine
• 4 - 1x2 x 11” pine
• 4 - 1x2 x 10” pine
• 4 – 1x2 x 9” pine
• 4 – 1x2 x 7 pine
• 8 – 1x6 x30 cedar
• 4 – 1x6 x 9 cedar

Cutting the Shiplap (Arrr matey! There be shiplap ahead.)

Shiplap. I just love that word. Yeah, it's just a great nautical term for "ya got a lap on either side of a long edge board". Anyhow, the shiplap is to reduce the gaps for Nerf darts to drop through as the crate ages. (And because I’d just build a router table by reverse engineering the Rockler Trim Router table and couldn’t wait to try it out!)

1. Cut the cedar pieces to a uniform 5 1/8” width. I found out the hard way that cedar pickets are kinda sorta 5.5” wide, so you’ll need to cut these down using a table saw, track saw, or some cool saw of your choice that can cut a straight edge for 30”. I used a radial arm saw. . I chose 5 1/8” wide since it makes a nice dimension for the box after cutting the shiplap.
2. On a router table, set up a ½” bit for ¼” cut from the fence. I used ¼” set up blocks to figure this out. I eyeballed the depth to be ½ the thickest cedar plank. Yeah, I learned the thickness of these varies too! (Mostly, they’re kinda, sorta, 5/8” thick-ish.)
3. Cut only one long edge of each cedar part.
4. While you still have the router table set up, cut a lap in one long edge of each of the 1x2x10 pine boards. AND cut a lap in each end of the 4 1x2x7 pine boards.
   
   

You can make great handles from 1x2 so long as you round over the sharp bits where your hands grip. Using one of the leftover bits of cedar, I screwed the 2 – 1x2x9 handles to the plank and used a roundover bit with my trim router. After doing one side, unscrew them, flip them over, screw them back down and round over the other sides. It’s a fun detail that small hands or maybe your own hands will greatly appreciate later.

Take some time and sand the faces of the cedar boards and end handles with either a palm sander or sanding block. (I used 150 grit.) Splinters are annoying at best. Besides, everything looks so much better when sanded.

For this, you’ll need:

• 4 - 1x2x10 pine (the ones with 1 lap on a long edge)
• 4 - 1x2x7 pine (the ones with the laps on both ends)
• 2 - 1x2x9 pine (handles you shaped earlier)
• 4 - 1x 5 ⅛ x 9 cedar picket (the short shiplap piece, me bucko)

Here’s how it looks from the outside, and inside. After you’ve screwed in the 10 inch sides and the 7 inch top and bottom parts (in that order), you need to screw in the handle at a comfortable place for your hand. Above the middle, but so there’s a gap at the top for your fingers.

The Sides, Bottom, and Top.

The tricky part is to get the supports to all line up. The supports are the 4-1x2x12 and 4-1x2x11 boards. I did this by measuring one panel VERY carefully, then using it as a measuring tool to align the other parts. Oh, and I ordered the panels that way since the top has extra parts that will get in the way early on.

On all the cedar boards, mark a line 8-3/4” from each end perpendicular to the long edge of the board. Mark and drill 2 pilot holes on the line about 1-1/4” in from the edges of the cedar board. (8 boards x 4holes each…).

The Left & Right Sides

Parts for each side:

• 2 - 1x2x11 pine (outside brace)
• 2 - 1x5 ⅛ x 30 cedar picket
• 8 – 1” drywall screws

In this step, you’re building one of the identical sides, Lefty, as a tool to align and build all the other sides, so you want to be really careful how you set up and align the boards. Thread 2 screws into the pilot holes until the points just barely poke through the cedar board. Lay one pine brace on the build surface. (Ok, I used my concrete patio.) Lay the cedar board with the screws point down on the pine brace. You should have about a ½ inch of brace to the non-lap straight edge of the board. You want your screws to hit about center of the brace. Gently push the screws into the brace. Using the drill with the Philips hex bit, screw in the drywall screw on the non-lap edge of the board. Back out the other screw so your brace can pivot the brace. Using your carpenter’s square, square up the brace with the board. Sink the other screw to lock it in place. Add the other cedar board to the brace making sure the full width across the two boards is about 10 inches. (I pushed mine a little closer than that since I had a little slop in my lap joint.) Remember to check the square before fully committing the screws. Now you have a tool for doing this process again, only faster.

Position the boards with Lefty on the bottom. You can put the brace for Righty at the end of Lefty and put the cedar boards on top. This will space your cedar boards and braces the same for Lefty and Righty. Space the brace for Righty from the long edge by about ½”. Repeat the procedure for sinking the screws, aligning the brace, and adding the second board to Righty. Now, you have 2 tools for spacing and aligning.

Here’s the cool part. Spin Righty around so the brace is still down and screw in the second brace using Lefty to align the brace. Remember to center the brace on the 2 boards and the width of the cedar should be the same at both ends (about 10 inches). Repeat this with Lefty using Righty as the tool. Now you have the side panels ready.

The Bottom

Parts:

• 2 - 1x2x12 pine (outside brace)
• 2 - 1x5 ⅛ x 30 cedar picket
• 8 – 1” drywall screws

At this point, you’re a pro on setting up the braces using Lefty. You know what to do. The only difference is the gap at the edge will be wider, so remember to center the brace. The gap on the side should be the thickness of the 1” direction of the 1x2 brace.

The Top

Parts:

• 2 - 1x2x12 pine (outside brace)
• 2 - 1x2x9 pine (inside alignment brace)
• 2 - 1x5 ⅛ x 30 cedar picket 12 – 1” drywall screws

And finally, the top. Start off by doing what you did for the Bottom. Remember the gap, perpendicular brace, etc. BUT, you need to add the inside alignment brace. SO, I would set the inside alignment brace about the thickness of an end +1/8 inch in from the edge. This will be slightly loose when it’s fully assembled which is fine.

I STRONGLY believe in pilot holes. Not only do they save you from splitting the wood, but if you thread the screws (or tap the nails) so the points are just showing, they will grip your joint before you’ve done any real damage with the fasteners.

For the Bottom and Sides, measure in ½ the distance of the thin side of your 1x2 board. Mark a line on all 6 ends of the Bottom and sides. Mark and drill 4 equally spaced pilot holes so the first and last ones are about an inch in from the long edge. From the brace side of the panels, thread in the screws (8 per panel) so the points are just visible on the opposite (inside) side.

Assembling the Bottom to the First End

Line up the end of the Bottom Panel so that the end is flush and centered to the lower edge of one of the ends. When you’re ready, push the points of the screws into the end panel. Use your drill and screw in one of the drywall screws. If you need additional support (I did!), get a friend to hold the other end panel temporarily in place while you screw in this panel. If you got help, keep it through the next step!

Assembling the Bottom to the Second End
Pretty much, you’re doing the last step a second time using the Second End. Notice that the panels may be bowing a little at this point. We’ll take care of that on the next step.

Assembling Lefty to the Bottom and Sides
This is one of those projects that builds skills along the way. First, turn your slightly assembled box on it’s side. Place Lefty on it so that the sides align with the bottom and the end. At one end, make sure Lefty is flush with the end and perpendicular to the bottom. You may need to fiddle with it. Gently press this end of Lefty into the end. Repeat for the other end of the panel. NOW, you will sink one of the dry wall screws in Lefty into the end panel. Check your alignment and sink the other 7.

Assembling Righty to the Box
By now, you know what I’m going to tell you. Turn your partial box over, place Righty on the other side, and repeat the previous step. When you’re done, your lid should fit loosely on top of the box.
Fastening the Bottom to Lefty and Righty

I know you’re thinking that the bottom and sides are fastened to the ends but not to each other. You’re completely right. With the lid on, turn the box onto the lid with the Bottom facing up. Drill 4 pilot holes through the bottom braces and into the side braces. Sink 4 screws in to tighten the Bottom to Lefty and Righty. At this point, the box is assembled.

You’ve got a nice looking crate, but it’s missing something, right? For me, I designed stencils in Inkscape (using the Stencil Font) and had an awesome friend cut them out. Jessica is awesome. She used her stencil cutter on my crazy patterns and made them into something spectacular. Unfortunately, I gave her too thick of plastic for the stencils and had to recut the fiddly bits out by hand. If I were to do it again, I’d probably go with thick paper and seal the paper with a spray poly spar varnish.

Painting the Stencils
After you’ve prepped your stencils (see above), use painter’s tape to affix them to your box. Take a dry brush with bristles and just get the tips wet with paint. Tap the stencil openings straight down until the shape is filled in. Carefully peel the stencil off the surface, wipe any excess paint off the stencil and repeat as often as you like. As you see from my pictures, I learned by doing. Don’t use sponges, not enough control. Make sure you have a dry brush or you get a really cool weathered weeping effect. (Yeah, I meant to do that!)

I gave this box to my son as a 7th birthday present (see pictures). Since then, it’s spent a few years outside, a couple inside and has even been temporary furniture in the man cave… er, um aka the family room when Mom was out of town.