Stackable (Apple) Crates From Used Pallet Wood

Over the last year I built a shed for our garden. I also incorporated a little basement storage to keep things cool in summer and above zero in winter. Last autumn we harvested a lot of apples, more then we could immediately use, so we put them into buckets for storage.

A while after I saw a set of stackable apple crates in a local garden shop. I really liked the look and style, but not the price (around 80 € per crate). So I decided to build a set myself to fit into the storage compartment and use the pallet wood I had left from my shed build.

From my shed build I had several nice pallets left, so I dismantled three of them. Two would probably have been enough, but I did one more just to be on the save side. And I allways have use for some pallet wood for my other projects going on in the garden.

As tools I used the following:

• circular saw
• jigsaw
• router
• drill with large (30mm) drillbit
• cordless drill
• wood screws

Pallet wood (from EU pallets) comes in three standard sizes: 120x14,5(5x), 120x10(2x) and 80x14 cm(3x). The planks from the bottom mostly have chamfered edges.

I used the wider (top) ones for the sides and the back and the narrower planks for the front. To create the smaller slats for the bottom I sawed down several of the wider planks into strips of around 3 cm.

I started off with the sides and cut three of the 80x14 planks in half.

Then I drilled the holes for the grips and connected them with the jigsaw to form a good grip hole. The edges were then rounded on both sides with the router.

For the rest of the frame I used wider planks for the back and narrower planks for the front. I cut them about in half so that the fit into my storage. The size you need/use may vary here. Then I just screwed them together.

As you can see in the pictures I used some of the bottom slats at the left and right edge of the bottom (here the chamfered edges dont't bother) and then spreaded out 8 of the smaller strips evenly inbetween.

After checking that the frame was square, I screwed everything down.

The above steps were repeated three times to give me three crates. To make them stackable I added two small strips of leftover wood to the bottom. This kind of locks the crates when stacked and the bottom crate is lifted a bit from the floor. Like this the air in the compartment is able to circulate a bit better.

As you can see the crates are a perfect fit for my storage and I even got a bit of storage left in the front. More on that later...

With the crates done I could finally empty the buckets. After I got rid of some of the bad apples I was able to fill two of the crates, the third remained empty for now.

With the crates finished it was time to think about what to do with the extra space in front. The space was about 16 cm wide, so I came up with this (bottle) carrier. It is (obviously) inspired by those old fashioned wooden tool crates. 

The bottom and uprights are from the wider planks (14,5cm), the handle is some random leftover slat and the plexi on the front and back comes from the old shed that stood on the plot when we got it.

On the bottom left it is high enough to accommodate several standard size 0,33l (beer)bottles, the right is for higher 1-1,5l bottles. With the handle you can lift it out of and back into the storage very easy and carry it around.