Beer Totes

It's been a while since I've posted because I pretty much stayed out of the shop the week of Christmas. I have been working on some projects and I can't wait any longer so I'm gonna show them. I got bored and needed a fun project to work on whilst waiting for stain and poly to dry on other projects. It's been kinda cold lately but mostly still sunny so I'm able to do one coat of stain or poly a day because it takes the whole day pretty much to dry. So I thought I'd try making one of The Drunken Woodworker's beer totes. My dad makes his own beer and I thought he could use it if he wanted to take them anywhere for people to try. He doesn't know about it, well he does now if he reads this, because I had to order a bottle opener for the side of the tote. I couldn't find one anywhere in town so I ordered some from Hobby Lobby. I wasn't gonna show him until I installed the bottle opener but I have no idea how long it's going to take for them to come in. Here is the link to The Drunken Woodworker's video about making beer totes. He has a link to the plans there as well. The Drunken Woodworker -beer totes and here's my dad's beer tote minus the bottle opener.

It came out pretty good. I finished it with some clear spray and then put some paste wax on it because I figured it would fill in the grain of the plywood and it'll be around beverages so the wax will help if anything gets spilled on it. My husband saw this and his birthday is coming up so he asked if I could make one for a twelve pack. I didn't really wanna make another one because I usually get bored if I make the same thing twice but he really wanted it and I figured it would be a little bit of a challenge to change the plan into a twelve pack holder. I ran out of dowel for the handle so I used a piece of wood from some bed slats that had broken and gave the handle a little curve. I really like the new handle and I wish I had put one on my dad's tote as well. My husband's tote isn't finished yet but here's a shot of the dry fit. Please excuse the messy workbench.

I'm probably going to have to make more little toolboxes as well because my niece saw my son's toolbox and asked for one. Then I definitely have to make my nephew one for his birthday too because he loves to shadow me when I'm working in the shop. I have time though because their birthdays aren't until April. All this practice making similar items is really helping me learn better ways of building the next one and improving my skills which is always a good thing.