PLY box

The world before PLY

Our scout and guide centre, one of the first joint centres in the UK, had some plywood boxes about 30" by 18" by 20" high with single handles at each end and a flap lid. They worked great for years - so many, I've lost count - and they're still going strong today. These boxes would take loads of tins - too many, in fact, for a pair of scouts to lift - and were generally great. All of us have spent hours using them as seats in the mess tent, sharing yarns over a mug of tea or something stronger in the evening. All in all, absolutely fine.

So why change?

Tidying the store one evening after troop night, we came to realise that the boxes were rather in the way - either we could fill them with stuff and have to empty them before each camp or they used up lots of shelf space in the store. Could we find something better? Perhaps something which folded up? We started sketching out some plans over another brew. Perhaps hinges and a removable lid? Hinge-strain seemed a problem. Or maybe removeable hinge-pins, to allow the box to collapse completely? Fine until the pins get lost on camp.

Interlocking ideas.

A previous project for Tom had involved designing furniture with panels which interlocked to provide structural strength. This suggestion got the brain cells buzzing: could we come up with a design using this? Maybe a little smaller? And with more handles so that it could be carried by one scout, two or four for the heavy stuff.

We brainstormed and sketched for a couple of hours until we'd come up with something a bit more concrete - perhaps wooden would be a better word. Jon, usually tasked with the job of camp quartermaster, suggested that it would be great to have boxes which could be put down on a side and have a shelf in, like a kitchen cupboard.

Our brainstorming session came up with this 'shopping list':

tool-free assembly / disassembly
removable shelf
hand-holes each end for light-work
holes for broom-handles to carry a heavy load, like a sedan chair.
lift-off lid
each component must be flat to minimise storage space.
marine ply to be waterproof
solid enough to take the weight of a tired scouter in need of a sit-down
strong enough to take as many tins of beans as fits in

Our design covered these points - rather well, we think. We discussed whether we could make these for other people - we can do, but we reckon they're simple enough to make. As a result, we release this design as "open documentation": you're free to make these boxes as you see fit, you're free to make any changes you like, you don't have to pay us any royalties to use the design. We'd ask you to credit the 11^th/9^th Cambridge Scout Troop with the original design in any changed designs you publish - and if you publish them online, let us have the link and we'll list it below. You may make these boxes commercially but you must provide the plans to your customers for the boxes you supply.

Plans?

We're happy to provide plans for other people to use - in scouting, in guiding, in their own camping, or commercially. There are a few variables in the design - how big a space you need within the box, the thinkness of the material, the diameter of the broom-handles you'd like to use. Happily, we can generate all of these plans - online, in real time, for you to download in PDF format.

Use this form - the default values are what we've used for a sensible sized box in 12mm ply. The middle shelf is optional, so remove the tick if you like. You may also prefer not to have hand holes on the ends or to omit the holes for poles to carry the box like a sedan chair.

Whatever you use the PLY box for, we hope that it serves you well. If you have comments, criticism or suggestions to make, please contact us at ply@newnhamscouts.org.uk.

Tom Pinnock, Frank Lee, Jonathan Yates. Designers of the PLY box.