This handy carrying tote is at home just about anywhere. Whether you fill it with gardening tools or bath products, it is a strong, lightweight and classy way to get stuff from one place to another.
A relative I like got married recently. I wanted to make a wedding gift, but knew nothing about their home, their décor, or their needs. I knew they share my passion for coffee, so I assembled a gift of coffee gear. Still wanting to give something personal and hand-made, I settled on making a tote to hold and present the coffee equipment. I hope this tote will find many other uses. I envision a handy tote like this working as a picnic basket, or full of garden tools, or even in the guest bath as a towel basket. Heck, I can easily imagine one of those Whole Foods hippies using a tote like this as a shopping basket.
I faced a couple design challenges. I wanted this project to be sort of primitive, like a peach crate, but I felt that as a wedding gift it needed to be somewhat refined. I stuck with the crate concept and invested time in the joinery to give it some polish. If I’m honest, I also wanted the joinery to show that I have skills.
Had I the time and experience, I would have steam bent the handle for strength and for a traditional look. Alas, I don’t know how to steam bend yet and I don’t have the equipment, so I used what I know and you see the results.
A project like this needs to be light weight. It’s a holder of things, and the user’s effort should be invested in carrying the things, not the holder. Strength is important too, and the larger you make a tote, the stronger it should be (because it can hold more stuff!). High strength and light weight are best achieved by distributing stress thoughtfully and employing joinery effectively. For example, a carefully placed and oriented dovetail can out-hold a lag bolt without adding a single gram of weight.
Choose a light weight wood that is suitable for whatever use you envision. If your tote is going to sit outside in the weather, cedar or cypress or redwood make sense. I chose radiata pine for its balance of strength, weight, stability and workability. I had a nice, clear board on hand that was just the right size to yield all of the parts for this project.
For my needs, I made this about 18 X 12, with sides about 7 1/2″ tall, and about 16″ tall at the top of the handle. This was just big enough to hold the gift and it is a versatile size for re-purposing.
I began by milling the slats for the sides and bottom. I needed about 18 altogether, so of course I made 20, each about 5/16” thick and 2” wide. Lengths varied based on the most efficient use of my board. I was able to resaw my ¾” S4S board from the Big Box store in half, yielding a lot of slat material from a fairly small board.
Next I milled my four corner stiles and the vertical supports for the tote handle. These are all from ¾” material. The corners are ¾” square. The handle supports and the handle itself are ¾” X about 1 ¼”.
Cut the four corner stiles and vertical handle supports to final length in preparation for joinery. The side slats will be let into the six vertical members for strength. The side slats will be mitered for finished, elegant corners. It is critical that all the stock removal for joinery from all six vertical components be aligned.
I kept my joinery aligned by cutting all the components at the table saw, using a crosscut sled and a pair of stop blocks. Nibble out most of the material, then sneak up on a snug fit for a slat by tapping the appropriate stop block until the fit is just right. Tighten the clamps and mill all six components. Note that the corner stiles get milled on two adjacent sides. Stay focused and make sure you mill the correct side! Adjust your stop block setup for each slat, cutting all six vertical components using the same setup.
With the side joinery done, and your components looking like rejected Lincoln logs, you can turn your attention to cutting the slats to final size and mitering the ends. The only tricky part about this is making sure all the slats are the same length for the sides and ends. I shot all my miters by hand on a custom shooting board to achieve razor sharp, square ends. I cut all my components to the same length using a crosscut sled and stop block, then blackened one edge with a carpenter’s pencil so I could see it clearly at the shooting board. If you prefer, you can rough out the miters at the table saw, leaving only a bit to be sweetened with the plane. I hand planed the whole miter. With the pencil line as a visual guide, I was able to miter all my slats to within a micron or two of one another without having to start over!
With my side slats at final length, I was able to determine the final length of the handle. The handle and the slats both extend to the full length of the tote, so it is a simple matter to cut the handle exactly the same length as the side slats.
Next I cut the joinery connecting the handle to the handle supports. This is obviously a stress point, vulnerable to both pulling and racking. I opted for a double dovetail, mostly for the strength and a little bit to show off. I oriented the pins so that the handle would have to split out the supports to fail. I think this joint is overkill, but if you are nervous about your supports splitting you might add a cross-grain spline. Had I opted for a single dovetail, I may have added a spline.
The last bit of joinery is for a slat across the bottom. I was a little insecure about the length of the bottom slats. They had a lot of flex. I added a cross member made from the same material as the slats, jointed into the bottom side slats the same way the joints were cut in the vertical supports and corner stiles.
I finish sanded the inside faces of all my components before assembly, taking great care not to mess up any joinery.
Glue up occurs in stages, starting with the ends. Use whatever combination of clamps and cauls you need to get the six components comprising each end unit fully seated, flat and square. I like to clamp as much as I can directly to my bench. I was careful about shop rash, as pine is very soft and easily dented. It is easy to attach clamping blocks with painter’s tape to save the project from clamp marks.
With the end assemblies cured, you can add the handle and side slats. Start with the handle and get the dovetails pulled together, then begin adding slats. I worked my way up from the bottom, allowing each slat to cure before moving up to the next. This takes time but affords access for clamps in all necessary directions. It is a simple matter to pull the miters together because each joint has a flat section on the back against which you can clamp without fouling the miter.
There are a number of ways to handle the bottom. One would have been to cut a traditional groove in the bottom slats, but I felt like this material was too thin for that. Also, as a slatted bottom, there is little point in giving the two slats along the sides different support than the middle slats. I opted to support all my slats at each end and across the middle. I glued a 5/16” X 5/16” ledger along the bottom edge of the bottom slat at both ends. Simple and effective.
Installing the bottom is straight-forward except for notching in around the corner stiles and handle supports. Depending on how you laid out your ledger strips, you may want to glue up a bottom slat wide enough to span around the handle support, catching the ledger on both sides.
I used rasps and sandpaper to round the bottom of the handle for a comfortable grip, and rounded off the jointed ends which resulted in some extra pizazz on the dovetail pins.
I finish sanded the outside faces and used a burnishing tool to close up any gaps in my corner miters before giving the whole project a quick coat of wipe-on varnish. I kept the finish light to preserve the peach crate feel, while also adding some contrast to the dovetails.
This tote should provide years and years of use doing who-knows-what. It is a versatile project that I hope will provide the happy couple with lots of uses. Maybe they’ll even be sighted at the Whole Foods!