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Shipping crate plywood projects

Gash

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I'm curious to know what you guys are doing with the plywood from the crates. Any cool projects in mind? For now, mine will probably go to the "might need this someday" wood stack in the garage.
 
I'm planning on making wing racks from the wing kit crating. (Well, at least seeing if there's anything useable towards such a project.)
 
There is never enough horizontal surface area to put stuff, expecially final assembly in the hangar. I use some HF saw horses with plywood on top for table. If needed, more than one layer of plywood.

Carl
 
I'm curious to know what you guys are doing with the plywood from the crates. Any cool projects in mind? For now, mine will probably go to the "might need this someday" wood stack in the garage.
Made a puppet theater for my kids way back in the day. They played with that thing for several years.
 
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I made shelves for the hangar. Sadly it was a city hangar and rained inside more than out. They got ruined. Always loved that 1/4" ply with the smooth surface. It was great for all sorts of projects. Pulling the staples wasn't the easiest thing.
 
Same as Larry, I stood mine up vertically and installed shelves for part storage in my basement. They slid perfectly between the main floor joists where I secured them to keep them from tipping over.
 
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My last kit (-14 fuse.) came in a cardboard box, which made me kind of sad. I'm constantly slicing a piece of that plywood from the first two kits off to make something. My fuse has plywood seats in it at the moment for example. I built my wing stand out of the wooden sides and plywood of the wing crate.

I was a little surprised to see van's doing wooden crates for the 15s, but that probably makes sense with the pre-built fuel tanks and heavy spars. I'm sure enough foam to protect those parts in a cardboard box would cost more than the plywood.
 
Whatever you do don’t do this cutting them up!

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Cutting fine 1/4 ply or even lighter ply is fine if you use the correct blade. I was a contractor for years doing Reno’s and built all kinds of things. There’s a proper procedure for cutting ply. Table saw is best though with fine tooth blade, good side up. . Skil saw is good also, good side down as blade is cutting up. but use a straight edge for guide and cut slow. Again fine tooth blade made for ply. A bit of rubbing with sandpaper cleans edge. Another trick is score ply fist with xacto blade. Then cut on the edge of the line. blade score will stop ply from tearing up or down. Hope this helps any of you.
 
Cutting fine 1/4 ply or even lighter ply is fine if you use the correct blade. I was a contractor for years doing Reno’s and built all kinds of things. There’s a proper procedure for cutting ply. Table saw is best though with fine tooth blade, good side up. . Skil saw is good also, good side down as blade is cutting up. but use a straight edge for guide and cut slow. Again fine tooth blade made for ply. A bit of rubbing with sandpaper cleans edge. Another trick is score ply fist with xacto blade. Then cut on the edge of the line. blade score will stop ply from tearing up or down. Hope this helps any of you.
I don't think cutting the plywood was the problem...
 
I used them to board up my windows before hurricane Milton. They are on the thin side but I have small windows and I figured it was better than nothing. The eye passed right over head and they all survived.
 
I used them to board up my windows before hurricane Milton. They are on the thin side but I have small windows and I figured it was better than nothing. The eye passed right over head and they all survived.

My crates were made from 7/16” plywood…
 
I made this rolling cart out of my wing crate. Cut both ends off, attached them back to back, then put rollers on the bottom, a shelf on each side and a top on it.

The back side that you cant see is a mirror of the front side.
 

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I made my wing storage stands out of the wing crate. I went very simple (lazy?) and just left the crate as-is so I could use it for storage of parts under the wings. I used plywood from the top of the crate to extend the ends vertically and create the cradle for the wings (pool noodles for padding). I have limited shop space, so I also added wheels to move it all around. Later I added blocking at the spar support end to cradle the spar so it wouldn't slip off.

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