Shipping fragile holiday gifts to friends and family can become expensive very quickly. Anyone who has contacted a freight company will know that shipping a crated item is not cheap. However, there is a way to save money by making your own shipping crates from home! For tips on what needs to be crated and the supplies needed to make your own crate this holiday season, keep on reading. 

Did you ever try the egg drop challenge where you use paper, tape, and straws to create a protective package around an egg that would then be dropped from a height to see if it cracked? If you fail, your egg goes splat. Now imagine being asked to create a protective package around a 200-pound, $5,000 sofa that could potentially fall off a truck or warehouse rack. If you fail, you’re accountable for a lot more than a scrambled egg. Crating is an art form. Here are 5 tricks to help you build crates that can handle their journey.

Crates have been used for centuries to ship valuables from shore to shore, doorstep to doorstep. They have remained the steadfast choice when shipping items of value because of their durability, and the protection they offer. Crates protect their contents from damage during travel due to the crate box’s framework. The wood composition provides strength in conjunction with the strength of the fasteners that hold it together. All that is for nothing though if the contents inside are able to move and shift during delivery, causing potential damage in transport.

Known for durability, crating is the preferred method for shipping overseas or for any journey that requires extra protection. To ensure the contents arrive in the same shape they departed in, there are plenty of materials that can be used. Since these materials only have the job of protection, and aesthetics are irrelevant, this is a great place to use eco-friendly materials. Check out these tips for making your crating a little greener.

Imagine you’re moving across the country to start a new job, stress surrounding the new opportunity and move begin to consume you. You’ve arrived to your new home and open your cardboard boxes to find some of your most prized posessions shattered and destroyed from the journey. Or imagine you’re a craftsman who has just sent out a product for a client after months of creating and refining the piece. The client calls days later to tell you the piece arrived broken, all your hard work crumbled. Or maybe you’re a shipping company that is struggling to make a profit because more often than not you’re having to pay for the cost of broken items. In a majority of these cases, crisis could’ve been avoided if wooden crates were considered for the job. In this article we will review when and why wooden crates are your best bet.

Shipping crates have been used for centuries to ship valuables over land and sea. Wooden crates offer consumers superior protection when compared to cardboard or plastic alternatives. Crates have been gaining popularity since their existence, but what materials are the most popular when making shipping crates?

Crates and pallets are designed to protect valuable cargo in transit. When they’re built using quality fasteners, like SCRAIL®, it seems a shame to just destroy them after they’ve reached their destination. Finding new life in traditionally discarded items is extremely popular these days. Here are seven ideas on how to repurpose crating and shipping materials instead of throwing them away.

In February of 1964, the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service published an extensive design manual for Wood Crates. The detailed publication sold for $.70 a copy, and was written by engineers at the University of Wisconsin's Forest Products Laboratory. The researchers identified that "the most important materials used in constructing crates are wood in its various forms and the fasteners used for fabrication and assembly. Sound crate design criteria and proper use of materials will result in a crate that combines maximum strength with minimum materials." Fifty-three years later, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Where to start, where to start?  So many business books, lecture series, and online seminars exist offering secrets and takeaways to surviving in competitive markets.  This could easily turn into a bullet list of suggestions, but we would rather offer a secret that your competitors may not even know about just yet!

Humans feel an innate desire to be out in nature, especially after a long winter hiding indoors. Warm weather brings with it the chance to be outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Like all creatures and plants, the sun gives us energy and lifts our spirits. But we also have grown accustomed to the amenities of modern living. We don’t just want to sit in the yard so we developed a way to bring the inside to the outside with decks!