Plywood Box Plans for Dummies

Simple Plywood Box

Some of the more snicker-worthy posts our staffers turn up while searching for DotD nominees involve plans for small-scale woodworking projects. Many of these authors reveal their ignorance of building things through their inability to transcribe someone else's plans or, even worse, fake their own. Want an example? No problem: take a look at what Amma Marfo had to say about "How to Make Your Own Heavy-Duty Plywood Storage Box" for GardenGuides.com.

Marfo seems to have penned this one back in the days she called herself Margaret Telsch-Williams (we have to be honest: we can't figure that one out...). Unlike her post about making a plank-style table, Amma/Margaret almost got this one right. We'd really have liked to have seen the source of her plans, though, because it sure looks like she faked it (her alleged references are both books, neither of which is likely to contain plans for a "heavy-duty plywood storage box").
Starting at the top, Amma pretends that the plans are for a box to hold a "variety of hand tools, bags of soil or fertilizer, or planters." Sounds like a plan. Were we to build one, we'd want it to be light enough to move yet still of sturdy construction. Marfo's plans will (allegedly) make a box that's 18" x 18" x 24" in size. The plywood sides, top, and bottom are framed with 1 x 3s.

Amma's lack of familiarity with dimensional lumber crops up right away, for after she has her readers build a box with two 18 x 18 and two 24 x 18 pieces, she wants them to,

"Place a 20-inch 1-by-3 board along the top and bottom edges of both of the side pieces. Make the boards flush and screw two screws into each end of the boards. Put a 13-inch 1-by-3 board vertically along each side of the plywood sides to complete a frame."

We think she meant the ends, but she never specified thickness of her plywood. Apparently, she thinks people are going to shell out for 1-inch plywood – if they can even find any. Given that Marfo wants people to frame all the corners of her box, it makes no sense even to use ¾" plywood, except for the bottom and maybe the top. Oh, and when it comes to the front and back of the box, Amma says to,

"Use 26-inch 1-by-3 boards to form the top and bottom of frames on the front and back of the box..."

Oops: her frame piece will be half an inch longer than the box with its framed ends: 24" + ¾" + ¾" is 25½", not 26". Weird that she someone knew the width of a 1-by-3 but didn't know the thickness. This ignorance continues throughout...
Finally, Amma/Margaret wants the builder to attach a lid (which is also half an inch too large in both dimensions) using a pair of 4-inch hinges. Is she kidding? Those hinges are for doors! A pair of 1½" or 2" hinges would work just fine.

To sum up: no mention of the thickness of the plywood, over-engineered hardware, and incorrect allowances for the thickness of dimensional lumber. See what we meant about ignorance? Here's Dumbass of the Day award number two for Amma...

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