How to make a decorative wooden vegetable crate

I made this decorative piece from pre cut spruce lumber and a piece of 12mm MDF.

First of all I rough cut my material to length using a handsaw and my miter box.

I then taped all the pieces of the same length together. Using a crosscut sled on my table saw, I cut all the pieces to size with one cut.

Those kind of crates, are designed to be stacked one on top of another. To do that all four of their corners have an arrow with 45 degree bevels on each side. To create those triangular shapes, I tilted the blade of the table saw at 45 degrees. I then used a stop block on my cross cut sled. With one pass I created one bevel. I flipped the piece around and created the other bevel. To create an inner triangle, I simply moved the stop block on the other side of the blade. Of course to set up the stop block, I made a few tests on a scrap piece of wood.

I then predrilled, counter sinked and screwed the pieces with the triangles to place. For extra strength I also added a drop of wood glue. The screws I had were a bit longer than I needed, so I used my rotary tool with a cutting disc to trim the screws flush.

I then moved again on my table saw, and cut the rest of the pieces to size.

I connected all the sides together, using glue and nails.

I then cut the bottom of the piece from a piece of MDF on the table saw. I made a few cuts until the bottom fitted snuggly.

I secured the bottom in place with wood glue and nails.

I gave the whole piece a nice sanding with 100grit.

I applied a coat of water based white wood stain following the grain of the wood. After that coat was dry, I light sanded everything with 240grit and applied another coat of stain.

To protect the piece a little bit more, I added a coat of clear satin water based varnish.

My little crate was now ready. You can use it to store books or magazines. You can even add casters on it!