Shop update #10 (1-17-18) Pinewood Derby Storage Boxes

As always, it was another busy weekend. My younger son had baseball tryouts for Little League on Saturday morning. After that I picked up 4 sheets of 1/2″ plywood and a bunch of hardware to build 2 storage boxes for Pinewood Derby tracks for my son’s old Cub Scout pack. It is a simple project but the boxes are huge. I had Lowes cut the sheets at 25″ lengthwise so that I could fit them in my car. That night we picked up a new 2017 Chevrolet Trax to replace my 2005 Scion xB that I have been driving for 13 years and 224,000 miles. It’s a little bigger than the Scion but most importantly it has a fold flat passenger seat so that I can easily fit 8′ 2×4’s into it.

On Sunday I pretty much worked on the storage boxes all afternoon. I cut down the rest of the plywood on the table saw into 11″ strips for the sides. I’ve never cut full length plywood on my tablesaw before and that first cut got a little dicey when I started it so I stopped and built a quick/makeshift stand to support the back end while I made the cuts. I am happy to report that I still have all my fingers. I also ripped some 2×4’s to make supports for the inside of the box. While doing that I made some inserts to fill the clamp slots on half of the workbench. This way the right side is solid and the left side still has the slots. My older son and I worked on the boxes until it got dark and I realized that I bought the wrong style hinges for the lid. We will be camping next weekend but I should have time on Sunday afternoon to finish the lids and get them delivered.