Recycled Coroplast Storage Box

This instructable will show you how to make a storage box that is extremely strong and durable. I've seen the post office use coroplast boxes with a wire frame but I thought I'd try my hand at a smaller frameless option. This cost me a grand total of nothing! Free.99! Nada! Zilch!

Materials:

- Coroplast, I use a 2'x2' piece but this process can be adapted to pretty much any size piece. My city has a art competition every year and the coordinators were happy to give me the signs after they were used. I'm always on the look out for spare coroplast pieces.

- Bolts, I have several boxes of miscellaneous bolts. If you don't have this luxury it should cost a couple of bucks.

Tools:

- Marker

- Straightedge/T-square

- Drill and drilling bits

- A wooden cooking spoon

1. Decide what size box you are going to make. For my box I decided the most efficient use of the 2'x2' area would be to have 6'' sides all around with a 1'x1' area.

2. Take the T-square and mark the vertical and horizontal lines.

3. Be careful with marking the diagonals as shown in the second piece, if they are off by too much the box will fold poorly.

The one weird trick to working with coroplast, use a wooden spatula. I've tried many different tools but these seem to work the best for creasing since the long handle allows you to put your weight into it.

1. Prepare the lines for folding by creasing them with a wooden spoon. When creasing perpendicular to the corrugations it may be easier to heat it up with a hair dryer, this will soften the plastic.

2. Carefully fold the newly creased piece until it has a nice flexible hinge.

1. Fold the corners and make sure everything is lined up will

2. Drill 4 holes about 3/4 of an inch down from the top on each side, space them out so two holes are in every triangle at the corner.

3. Below the holes make a handle buy cutting out 3 sides of it and folding the fourth side up towards the top.

4. Fold the freshly cut handle completely over and use the previous hole as a guide for drilling it out.

This last step is pretty self explanatory but here we go.

1. Put bolts throughout the wholes and tighten them down snug. They don't need to be as tight as possible, just a couple of turns past finger tight is plenty.

2. Fill with your stuff and get organized!

I tested my box out by immediately filling it with the heavy stuff I could find on my workbench. I got 48.6 pounds of wrenches, hammers, and hatchets in there and it held up wonderfully.