Building a box calculator?

[Gaogier]

Hello

Please note, I am autistic and things that seem simple never are for my brain. Where my knowledge, especially maths, sciences, technology, history, geography etc is questioned by my brain into either overthinking or convincing myself that the answer is wrong, even if it is correct.

I need to build a simple wooden box, that I will get the store to cut down for me, I can do it but if it saves me a couple of days (I am also disabled and would need to wait for a good day with mobility and pain, where I won’t take any morphine is not predictable.

Anyway, a simple box I fully understand but what about the thickness of the wood, that will need to be calculated into correct?

Example.

A box with that is 200mm x 400mm x 600mm. I would need 2, 200mm x 400mm, 2 200mm x 600mm and 2 400mm x 600mm however if the thickness of wood is calculated into the same box, with 18mm thick, wouldn’t I need 2 200mm x 382mm 2 200mm x 582mm and 2 382mm x 582mm

Could someone please just confirm my thinking here, and if so, do you know of a simple way to calculate all of this? Even an online free calculator would be helpful.

Thank you.

 

[Alec_t]

It rather depends on how you want to assemble the pieces. Your second set of figures is correct if you assemble the pieces as in Figre A below, but would differ if you assembled them as in Figure B.

 

[foxhole]

Buy a box .

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

It rather depends on how you want to assemble the pieces. Your second set of figures is correct if you assemble the pieces as in Figre A below, but would differ if you assembled them as in Figure B.

It might differ again depending if the box measurements are intended to be internal, or external.

 

[big-all]

Simplest way to do it is 2 sides and the base identical widths so one pass 3 components
plan the sides to be full height and screwed sideways into the base
you now take the height from the sides to cut off
you can actually do it from only 3 moves off the fence on a table saw

first action ,,,,,,,move fence too width two ends and base cut to width
second action..........move fence .....to required height ,,,ends cut off the base section both ends iff cut as one ...and 2 sides cut to height
assemble base and ends...... measure outer size ..... this is the third fence set up and cuts the sides to length

you can cut the components a bit oversized and individual iff easier then just pass 3 though first pass [ends and base ]
then 4 through second pass [all sides] then 3rd pass 2 through last pass[ 2 sides to length]

much much easier to cut at home than trying to get accurate in store cutting assuming your table saw has the inside width capacity [blade to fence]

 

[Dereekoo]

Buy a box .

Younger generation, something wants making/repairing/doing get a man in to sort it

 

[stevie888]

Fair play to you for wanting to have a go.

The first thing is to do is obviously to decide on the size and as said above is this internal or external. Also important is how accurate it needs to be: a box wants to be strong and good square edges to the pieces are an important part of this. The bigger the box the more strength it is likely to need and the thicker the wood you use the easier itis to form simple joints, I would suggest that 18mm ply is a cheap strong and easy material to use and can be sanded and varnished or painted to look nice if required. The point about accuarcy is that some 18mm material is a bit thin si if you want to cut tight rebates then you have to have physical measurements but most of the time it doesn't matter.

Start with a picture of what you want to make it clear in your mind: Alec drew 2 options and B is the easier one to use and I think looks better but their is another option which I think is easier still, and that is for the end pieces to fix on the ends of the side pieces rather than between them. This allows the joints to be tight even if there is some inaccuracy in the cuts

Lets assume you want you box to be 600 long and 300 wide internally and 250 deep.

The base piece we'll make 600x300

The sides need to be 600 long and 250 plus 18 high so they will fix to the edges of your base piece. (I would rip a piece to 600 and then rip that down to the widths I wanted so they are all exactly the same length) These pieces can now be assembled into a U shape by laying the base on your bench and sliding the sides up.

For the ends we need pieces 300 plus 2 lots of 18mm wide and 250 plus 18mm high. This just goes straight on the end so if it's a fraction big or small it doesn't matter.

A timber yard or even one of the sheds will give you far cleaner squarer edges than you'll get diy unless you've got a really good saw and as I set out above, the pieces will work even if they were a few mm out from your request

Good luck.