Step 3 - Plywood Walls

• 1 piece 4' by 8' 3/4" plywood
• 1 piece 8' 2x4

If you plan to keep this box outside, use treated plywood, if not untreated is fine.

First cut the 2x4 to get 6 pieces that are 10.5". With this cut length your box will be 1' wide (you add 1.5" for the two plywood walls). An advantage to the box being 1' wide is that you can build it with only one sheet of plywood (which is expensive), the box will still be strong if you make it wider, i'd guess with these plans you can go up to 1.5', wider if you add more support. Take the pieces and use them to connect the two sides. Put two on each end then two in the middle.

Now you are ready to put the plywood walls on. I could put the measurements of the plywood pieces you need to cut, but it depends on the rails you are using, plus I found it much easier to just measure it out before cutting each piece. Due to slight imperfections, most the cuts were about 1/4" away from being rectangular so you will probably want to measure anyway (unless all of your cuts are swift and confident). I forgot to take step by step pictures of putting the plywood on, but it isn't that hard to figure out. You end up with three stips of plywood that are about 1' by 8', three that are about 1' by 2', then two that are 1' by 1', if you do the math you can do this with one sheet of plywood. Make sure to keep in mind which pieces will go on the outside when measuring. Also, for the plywood that goes on the pipe rail side, try to wedge it under the rail as best you can to give the rail more support.

Once all the plywood is on, screw the corner rail in place. Like with the pipe rail, drill a hole every so often (I just made three) to put a screw though. If you have caulk lying around or some metal to wood adhesive you know of that might work too.

Here is a shot of the final resting place for the pipe coping side, you can see how the side pieces have been arranged. It slipped my mind that I should have made the box 1.5" shorter so that the rail spans the full box (not short 3/4" on each side), but I wasn't too upset with my mistake, you can make yours how you want.

Here it is, the final box, it is easy to lift with two people, decent to slide and rotate with one. If you didn't use treated wood you will want to keep it inside or at least out of rain. It is quite sturdy, when you jump on the rail the box does not shift, which is nice. I will probably add some more box plans next summer, make sure to send me pics of your box after making it.

Grind Box Plans Home