Anyone know where I can find any large wooden shipping crates cheap?

Hey all. Does anyone know where I can find any large wooden shipping crates? I'm going to use them to make a tiki bar at my new place. I'm looking for one or two crates, about 3 to 4 ft tall. I can always cut down the depth of them to make them more shallow.

I've got some cool frosted aqua glass, that was originally used as shelving at a Bally's shoe store that went out of business at Stanford Mall - I traded the manager there some concert tickets for the glass. I'm going to use the glass as the bar top - it's heavy and thick!

Anyone have any wooden shipping crates laying around at their work that I could pick up for cheap, or for free? It's going to have to be on the cheap side, because I'm pretty broke right now after my recent move, and with the holidays here as well. I have a truck that I can use to pick the crates up. Oh, and I live in the Bay Area, in Alameda, but anywhere in or near the Bay Area will work for me. Thanks in advance, everyone!

[ Edited by: Mai Tai on 2004-12-02 04:15 ]

There's some shipping companies on Alameda that might be able to give you a hand. Movers Pak-Man is one that might have some leftover crates.

Hey Mai Tai I've been juggling stuff this week and thought I sent this info to you this morning, but I must have slipped up, and not spelled my name or some such.

I've seen them at Pacific Blue Traders in San Jose. 408-993-9300

When they get shipments of stone carvings in they come in wooden crates.

The only get the shipments periodically, but they are fairly close.

The owners name is Doug, if you tell him what you're doing, (for a higher purpose) he may have some stuff around which can be of use.

(This may be tru for all shiped stone, so check with stone artists, and grave yards maybe?)

Good luck!

If you can't find crates, you might try pallets covered over with something.

Pallets are dirt cheap; if you drive around industrial areas you can find them gratis. They can also be purchased by refab places for a few dollars each.

On another note, I've aquired some very good crates et al behind grocery stores. (What am I doing lurking behind grocery stores? Picking up a few good crates, of course!)

Also try stacking old fruit crates. They're the perfect size for most liquor bottles!

On 2004-12-02 19:30, Gigantalope wrote:
Hey Mai Tai I've been juggling stuff this week and thought I sent this info to you this morning, but I must have slipped up, and not spelled my name or some such...

...so check with stone artists, and grave yards maybe?)

Gigantalope,
Nope, your mind's not playing tricks on you, you did respond. I posted a thread like this over in the Creating Tiki forum as well. Thanks for the tip on the stone carvers angle - I'll check out Pacific Blue Traders, and maybe some other stone suppliers. Maybe a tile supply store like Walker Zanger would have some as well, or even Home Depot come to think of it.

As for checking with graveyards, I don't think I need a pine box that bad, but if I do I can always bring my shovel! :) (note to the powers that be on Tiki Central - that last comment was a joke! A joke I tell you!).

Much thanks for everyone's interest and advice. I'm still looking for a crate, so keep those ideas and potential crate sources coming!

On 2004-12-03 01:45, FreakBear wrote:
Also try stacking old fruit crates. They're the perfect size for most liquor bottles!

Yeah, I've been thinking about that too. I might use old fruit crates for the back bar area. In fact, one of the reasons I got on this whole kick of using one or two large crates for the front part of the bar was when I looked through that "Show me your mugs & I'll show you mine..." thread in the Collecting Tiki forum. I saw a picture of Swanky's back bar, and he is using three small wooden crates to store all of his alcohol and mixers, and I immedietly thought "How about something like that except larger for the front bar section, with heavy aqua glass for a bar top?" Here is a picture of Swanky's back bar from that thread:

[ Edited by: Mai Tai on 2004-12-04 03:14 ]