Boxes

Three boxes, same lineage: a finger-jointed carcass around a captured bottom, with a stacking crown on the end walls so one nests onto the next.

Project Box (project_box)

The glued box. Four walls box-jointed at the corners, a bottom captured on tabs through the walls, an optional handle in the end walls, and an optional lid.

Choose it when the box will be assembled once and stay that way. It has the fewest parts and the simplest cut.

Key parameters: L, W, H (external), handle on/off, lid style, finger pitch.

Pinned Project Box (pinned_box)

The same box, knock-down. Each corner carries a hooked tenon plus a plain registration tenon, and a separate flat hook pin scissors the hook to draw the joint tight. The captured bottom hooks the same way.

Choose it when the box has to ship flat or come apart. The cost is parts: one pin per hook — four corners plus the bottom's hooks — and a slightly busier sheet.

Key parameters: as the Project Box, plus hook angle, the ramp angle the pin rides. Shallower self-locks harder but makes a taller hook; the default is a sensible middle.

A caution worth stating: on a very shallow box the hook has little room to ramp into, and Tenon shortens it to fit rather than letting the geometry cross itself. A box under about four times the material thickness in height will hold less well than a taller one.

Produce Box (produce_box)

The glued box with every face turned into a honeycomb grille, and no lid — a ventilated crate. Same carcass, stacking crown, handle and captured bottom; the vents are the only addition.

Choose it for anything that needs airflow. Expect a longer cut: the grille is a lot of internal geometry.

Lids

Where a box offers a lid, the options are none, cover slots (the walls are notched to receive a sliding cover) or a full cover.

A lid consumes the top of each wall for its notch, which is why a wall too short or too thick for both the notch and its corner tenon is rejected outright rather than built wrong.

Stacking

The end walls carry a crown: a bump on top, a congruent indent underneath. A stacked box self-centres on the one below, and the indent exposes the captured bottom's edge as a lip for the bump to seat against. Boxes of the same footprint stack whether they are glued or pinned.