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Thread: Waterproof Pruning Tool Storage for Pickup bed

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    3

    Waterproof Pruning Tool Storage for Pickup bed

    I have a commission to build a custom box for a professional pruner who has a short bed Toyota pickup. Essentially I am building a three sided slatted box with the open end toward the tailgate. I plan on using teak and half-lapping the verticals and the horizontals. Across the top I will set removable Rhino bars for his three orchard ladders. The whole thing has to be easy to disassemble, which isn't a problem. He now wants three stackable box trays to haul specific things and sit on the tailgate at the site. The bottom would be a canvas bag of tools, the middle for the blower and small chain saw, and the top for buckets. I am in Seattle and it rains a lot. Is it possible to build the lower two to be waterproof with the bottom of each box being the lid for the next yet seal?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Atlanta, GA
    Posts
    6,390
    Don't see why not.

    Not the sequence you would take but for visualizing:

    Build the boxes. Stach middle on top of bottom, getting it exactly in line. Take some 1 x material, the width of the box. Handplane or route a shallow [1/8" deep] rabbet along one side, the full length - the width of the rabbet should be half of the 1x [so 1" rabbet on a 1" x 2"]. Take this stick, and attach it - fat part on top - to the upper box in the stack.

    Now you have an overhanging lip. THen, get some good-quality weather strip and attach to the top edge of the lower box - or the bottom edge of the top box. The purpose of the rabbet is to give you some wiggle room when stacking the boxes - without that, you would have to be dead-on each time. The overhang lip keeps them aligned int eh stack, gets the weatehrstrip lined up, and is a shield against water infiltration.

    The only problem wit this approach is: Let's say the boxes are 16" deep x 30" wide. YOu now have a strip running around them for overhang/seal, and the total OD will be 18" x 32".
    When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    10,304
    Have you priced teak lately? Around here, it goes for $35-$40 per board foot. That's pretty spendy to go in the back of a pickup. You might consider redwood or western red cedar. They're about one tenth the cost of teak. They're also native to your area, which'd be a nice tie-in for a professional tree guy. Or if you need hardwood, consider white oak. It is reasonably durable outside, and still only $5 per bdft or so.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    3
    Quote Originally Posted by Jamie Buxton View Post
    Have you priced teak lately? Around here, it goes for $35-$40 per board foot. .
    I know it will be pricey and subject to sustainabilty issues, but for this person money is no object. I thought I would develop my cut-list visit Crosscut Hardwoods, and then decide. I appreciate the wisdom in what you say.

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