Square bushel

[Wlmedley]

Does anyone know what would be the size of a square bushel crate.Bushel baskets have gotten expensive and I thought I might build some square ones out of thin white oak strips and solid wood ends.Also thinking about a air brad nailer to attach strips to ends.I have a compressor but have never owned or used an air nailer.Garden is looking good so far and I might have some extra potatoes to sell this fall.If not maybe sell some empty bushel crates  :laugh:

[GAB]

According to my dictionary a bushel is 2150.42 cubic inches.
If you build with inside dimensions of 12" wide x 18" long it only needs to be 9.956" tall.
If you build with inside dimensions of 12" wide x 15" long it only needs to be 11.947" tall.
Hope this helps.
GAB

[beenthere]

Plastic milk crates are often found cheap. They are 12 x 12 x 10.5 inches = 1550 cu.in

About ¾ bushel. 

Or might calculate cu.in of 5 gal plastic pails and sell that way. 

[Wlmedley]

Thanks a lot.You guys are a lot better mathematicians than I am.Internet wasn't much help.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

I make these to fit a dozen fruit jars. I use a 12" wide 1X8 for the ends for quarts and I think it is a 10" wide 1X6 for pints. As I remember my outside strips for quarts are 18" long and 16" for pints. I think the inside dimensions for quarts are 12" X 16" X 8". If I plane the end boards a little the pint crate perfectly nests inside the quart crate. My strips a 2" wide edgings salvaged off my 2" framing. I stand them up and cut/edge them in 1/2" drops which leaves a 3/8" X2" wide lath strip that I then sticker and air dry and cut to length. I use poplar and being that thin it dries real quick. I use a drill press to predrill the ends of the strips and I use ringed dry wall nails to help them old better. You can cut and predrill the strips in stacks of 4-5 at a time and knock out a bunch of crates pretty quickly. Good luck.

BTW - if you do want a square bushel I'd start with a standard size end board like a 1X10 or 1X12 then just set the width to an easy standard like 12", 14" or 16" and adjust the length from that to get the desired cubic inches for volume.

[Wlmedley]

Howard,that's what I was thinking about.They look good.Now that I know the size of a square bushel I'll make them slightly bigger so as not to short anyone.I was thinking a brad nailer might not split the wood but not sure.Would make it faster and they don't cost a lot.Might try one.

[Texas Ranger]

Air Nailers (pneumatic Nailers) come in different gauge nails.  It seems smaller is better for your application, cheaper in pawn shops., 

[Tom King]

I would use a medium crown (7/16") air stapler.  I use them for putting on wooden shingles, but they were first used for this type of thing.

[Don P]

That's what i use on the hard service crates. I wouldn't mind having a narrow crown for the lighter ones. Staples hold much better for this.

We have some marked wax boxes that might help with how they broke up the dimensions.
This is a 3/4 Bu box. It's about 15-1/2" long x 11" wide x 9" deep


 

This is 1/2 Bu. It's 10-3/4" x 14-1/2" x 7" deep


 

This is a 1-1/9 Bu. Its 15-1/2" x 11-1/2" x 13-1/2" deep

[beenthere]

This 18 ga stapler works very good.. 20v

20V MAX* XR® 18 GA Cordless Narrow Crown Stapler (Tool Only) | DEWALT

[Wlmedley]

Thanks DonP.Think I'll use the 1 1/9 size to be safe. Thanks beenthere. I'll check it out.Maybe they make a 14V as this is what my Dewalt tools are.If not I have a pretty big stationary compressor in the garage that doesn't get much use and I might get an air one.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Just remember when you nail into the end of the boards the fasteners don't hold as well so I'd avoid straight fasteners like brads or such. That is why I use the ringed dry wall nails. Screws are probably best but to reduce time and cost I tried the ringed nails. 

[kantuckid]

My thought was same as above. Having worked produce section in a grocery they are full of various boxes marked in lbs or volume. A bushel is not a consistent target as I recall as it varies with the veggie or fruit involved as I recall? Weight is a better choice if retails involved unless you growing or buying bulk then want to cash in on little peck or half peck baskets, etc. 
Built what suits you need bushel sized or not is my thought.
 In the garden we use plastic buckets & tubs or grocery sacks on an arm for beans & okra 100% of the time. 

Small, ringed shank box nails come to mind. 

[Tom King]

If you use Senco brand medium crown staples, that come in lengths up to 2-1/2", they not only won't split anything, but they have glue on the legs that heats up on the way in, and sets up so hard that you can't get much apart without tearing something up.

You can find the old MII guns, like one of mine I bought new in 1975 and still works fine, for 40 bucks used.  They're easy to fix if they don't work.  This model shoots up to a 2" length of 16 ga. staples.

They have a couple of small holes on a flange on the bottom.   Those were for pallet manufacturers to gang them in automated setups.

[Don P]

That glue takes about a year to grow out of you  :D
Actually most of them have some form of hot melt on them. It's funny, the best fasteners are not in construction, they are in pallet and crate manufacture. Depending in how the points on a staple are shaped for instance. They can make them want to cross, punch in straight, or splay. You'll never see an option at the building supply. In the 90's Bostitch came out with a nail they called the hurriquake, higher strength, ring shanked in such a way there was pretty much no pulling them. At a couple of bucks a box more, they bombed. It was a hopped up pallet nail.

[low_48]

I guess I was just too young when I first started dragging a metal bushel basket to feed hogs. It felt way bigger than the numbers given here! 

[kantuckid]

My first job was picking red potatoes in a Kansas field late summer. Was after the 5th grade and a buddies uncle owned the farm. Burlap bags filled got ya ten cents each. Bags were light until they were full. ;D Old guys stole my bags by dragging a few over to their rows for pay I lost.
 I made around $5 that day. 

[Wlmedley]

I always like to see how many bushel of potatoes I get out of the garden each year.Usually fill up a basket and then dump that in the back of the truck.The best year I ever had I planted 100 pounds and dug 30 bushels.That has never happened since.This looks like it might be a pretty good year so I figured some nice baskets full of potatoes might be pretty popular this fall either to sell or give to friends.I'd rather barter than sell.I've got a neighbor who gives me eggs and I try to repay him by doing small repair and welding jobs.I think in this kind of trading works out better for everybody.

[beenthere]

The best year I ever had I planted 100 pounds and dug 30 bushels. That has never happened since.

:D :D  Because you don't plant 100 pounds any more.  Learned your lesson.  ;) ;)

[Wlmedley]

You're right :laugh: I don't plant 100 pounds anymore but I did on a yearly basis back when I was younger.I really don't know why.Potatoes were pretty cheap and I always had a steady job.I guess it was a family tradition.My grandpa always had a big garden and it always made my mother feel a little more secure but they lived through a lot harder times than I have.I really don't know why I do it now.Nobody around here plants anything except maybe a few tomatoes. I guess old habits are hard to break.

[kantuckid]

Our old garden plot became infested with the Late Blight-AKA the Irish Potato Blight. It came in via what I thought was a real deal- a trailer load of free composted dairy manure. We got weeds I had to look up and the blight which is sort of like spent uranium as it's there for longer than I'll be around! 
We've moved the garden this year as potatoes and tomatoes both die off from that blight and there no real cure. We still have squash and pumpkins there in the old plot and hundreds of green maters coming on, so far, so good. Beans, okra, cukes, corn don't get bothered by that blight. 
Copper spray can squelch it but only so many times can it be used on stuff you eat and eventually the blight wins and you've blown time and money. 
As for cute containers for produce, up in VT/ME, etc., they make baskets from thick veneer cuts and one of the neat items is the bucket shaped ones made with heavier wood than a typical peach basket and nailed with copper nails. Wife collects baskets and we have one. I suppose they steam the wood, bend around a wooden form shape as it's built. Crafty but also serviceable. 
In grocery produce work, years ago, I (me an art trained guy) always got a kick out of the labels on wooden crate ends as many were very catchy. 
  

[thecfarm]

I can remember having a potato garden. I forgot when we stopped that, maybe when I was 12-13.
 But we still had a row or two of potatoes in the vegie garden.

[kantuckid]

A guy I worked with who carpentered in ID for some years, they could go into large potato fields after the harvest and pick the leftovers up for free. 
I can buy them here for less than the effort to grow them, but they are fun to grow. next county over the ext agents office has an adjoining farm produce auction that potatoes sell cheap plus seller tables with lots of Amish and other locals items.  

[Wlmedley]

kantuckid,Does this look like blight you were talking about.Hit my potatoes 2 years in a row about first of July.Plants looked perfect and then died all at once.A guy at farmers market said might be to much fertilizer so this year I didn't use any.So far they still look good.

 

[Don P]

Late blight turns them black. If it happens again cut a stem and look at the vascular system, if its an oozy mess it is probably a bacterial wilt.

Here's an ID page;
Identifying the Pathogen :: USABlight | A National Project on Tomato & Potato Late Blight

Umm, their breakout map is light, I've had a better one online before, I could watch the blight coming, for whatever that is worth  :-\. At the time I was hauling stuff from local farms to go down to the cities. One weekly trip, I had been burning blighted tomato plants all morning, hopped in the box truck and started doing pickups. My first couple are at stores and corners, then I'm driving on to Joe and Sally's tomato farm and the thought hit me. I cracked the window and told Joe what I had been doing and that i was "contagious". He busted out laughing, "It's on the wind and everywhere, I doubt you are any worse than the breeze". So much for getting out of loading 'maters  :D.