Apple boxes are a staple on film and video sets, and for good reason. They are indispensable pieces of grip equipment - from adjusting the height of gear and actors to providing a seat for crew - they are one of the more versatile and useful pieces of equipment you can have in your kit. A set consists of 4 different sizes - a full, a half, a quarter, and a pancake - and a set of these usually retails for over $100 - but today we’re making an entire set of our own, for around $30. [Watch the video tutorial on making these down below!]
MATERIALS (you should be able to get everything from your local big box home improvement store):
4’ x 8’ ½” sheet of plywood
Wood glue
Saw (circular, jig)
Drill (small drill bit, spade bits)
Coarse thread screws (I’ve been told drywall screws like what I used are not the best option FYI)
All the clamps ever
CUT LIST:
8 - 20" x 12" (tops and bottoms for all apple boxes)
2 - 20" x 7" (sides for full apple box)
2 - 20" x 3" (sides for half apple box)
2 - 20" x 1" (sides for quarter apple box)
3 - 11" x 7" (ends and middle support for full apple box)
2 - 11" x 3" (ends for half apple box)
2 - 11" x 1" (ends for quarter apple box)
Note: You should have enough leftover wood to make 2 more half, quarter, or pancake size apple boxes! Woot!
Download the cut lists!
Board 01 cut list: https://bit.ly/board01cutlist
Board 02 cut list: https://bit.ly/board02cutlist
Don't want to build? Buy some instead:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Bs6rZ6
BUILDING THE BOXES:
This tutorial is based around just one 4’ x 8’ ½” sheet of plywood, but to make it manageable you'll want to cut it in into two 4' x '4 pieces. So the first thing you’ll want to do is cut it exactly in half so you have TWO 4’ x 4’ squares. It will be way easier to manage these two smaller sections (a lot of big box stores will cut these down for you, and you can even buy 4’x4’ squares of plywood at most of those stores as well, although they tend to be a little pricier when purchased that way).
Grab one square and throw it up on your sawhorses or workbench.
Mark 20” in across an entire side, I measured and made marks every few inches and then used the straight edge of a level to mark my cut line all the way across. If you only have two sawhorses or supports you’ll want to make sure they are both under the larger section, and the 20” wide piece we just measured will fall off when we cut it. You can make all these cuts with a handsaw or jigsaw, but it’s easiest with a table saw, or a circular saw, which I’m using here. Go slowly and follow your line all the way across. You should have a large 20” x 48” rectangle. Use the larger piece of plywood still left as an impromptu work surface if you need, and set the piece we just cut up on top of it. Now we want to cut this into 4 12” x 20” rectangles that will be used as the tops and bottoms of our boxes. Measure 12” in from one end, I measured and made marks in a few different spots and then drew a line across just like I did earlier. Cut this 12” x 20” piece out. Move your board out a little more so you don’t cut the other piece below, and repeat 2 more times.
A quick note, because your saw blade is likely ⅛” wide your last piece will be like 11 ⅝” NOT an exact 12” - BUT, that’s OK because we’ll have an identically sized piece later on that we can match with it.
Grab the other piece of plywood, and now we’re going to repeat these exact same steps we just did on this one. Measure and mark at 20” all the way across, and cut that piece off. Set the thin extra strip aside for now, and then on the 20” x 48” piece measure and cut out 4 12” wide pieces again. You should have a total of EIGHT 12” x 20” pieces - these will be the tops and bottoms of our apple boxes.
Grab the other 4’ x 4’ piece and throw it up on your sawhorses. We’re going to cut another 4 tops and bottoms off first, a full set is only FOUR boxes, but there should be enough leftover to make another 2 halves, quarters, or pancakes if you want, OR, you can set these aside and use them if you mess a cut up or something. Cut out 4 more tops and bottoms like we did just a moment ago.
Now we’ll work on the sides and ends. Grab the remaining piece of plywood and on a thin side, measure and mark at 20” - and then cut this piece off. Measure and mark one of the thinner ends so that you have a 7” x 20” rectangle. Cut that out, and then repeat. These two pieces will be the sides of our full apple box. We’ll now repeat these steps but we’ll mark and cut two 3” x 20” pieces. These will be the sides for our half apple boxes. And repeat this one last time for our quarter apple box sides - these will be 1” x 20”. You should now have 2 1” pieces, 2 3” pieces, and 2 7” pieces.
Now let’s work on the ends - all of these will be 11” wide, so we’ll need to cut our wood down into a few 11” wide segments. Measure, mark, and cut an 11” wide strip. From there we’ll be making THREE 11” by 7” pieces - so measure in 7”, mark, and cut. Repeat this two more times. You should have three 11” x 7” pieces. These will be the ends, and a middle support, of our full apple box.
Let’s cut another 11” wide strip. From this we’ll be cutting out ends for our half and quarter apple boxes. Start by measuring and marking a 3” x 11” piece, and then repeat this. You should have TWO 11” x 3” pieces. Now measure, mark, and cut a 1” strip. This is a great time to remind you to double check your measurements, and definitely double check your cuts. Repeat this step so you have TWO 11” x 1” pieces.
Double check that you have all your pieces - EIGHT 12” x 20” pieces, TWO 7” x 20” pieces, TWO 3” x 20” pieces, TWO 1” x 20” pieces, THREE 7” x 11 pieces, TWO 3” x 11” pieces, and TWO 1” x 11” pieces.
We now need to cut holes in our ends so that we can easily pick our apple boxes up and move them around. Grab the ends and support for your full apple boxes - the 7” x 11” pieces. We want to drill 4 1” holes in each of these pieces, and then we’ll cut out the middle so we have those nice long areas to reach into and hold. Measure in 1 ½” from each longer end, and then measure 3” in from each of the shorter ends. This should give you 4 intersections where we’ll cut our holes. We want the holes on these ones to be 1” in diameter, and the easiest way to get this is by using a 1” spade drill bit. Drill your four holes, and then repeat this for all three of these pieces. Next we need to cut out the section between the two holes, so use a ruler or something straight to mark this area off, and then using a jigsaw cut these pieces out. Mine were looking pretty ugly at this point so I touched them up a bit, just be careful if you’re using a jigsaw because they’re great at making curved cuts and you can easily go overboard when trying to even things out.
Now get your 3” x 11” pieces, and we want to drill two holes in each of these, in similar spots to what we did on the larger pieces. Measure 3 inches in from the thin side and 1 ½” in from the long edges - this should give you two intersections along the middle of the piece. Drill 1” holes here, and repeat for the other segment. Like with the larger pieces we want to cut the section between the two holes out - so use a ruler or square and give yourself some guidelines to cut, and using your jigsaw cut out these pieces. I am an idiot and forgot to do that during this point so I had to do it after my boxes were already put together.
Grab the ends to our quarter apple boxes - those thin little ones - and we want to drill two holes on these as well. Measure in ½” from the long sides and 3” from each end, you’ll want to use a smaller drill bit - I went with a ⅝” bit for these. Be really careful here because there’s not a lot of room for error.
At the end of the day if they aren’t perfect who gives a shit, we’re making functional film gear not running an apple box beauty pageant.
Once you have all the hand grip holes cut out you’ll want to use a router to round off the edges - since you’ll be using these to hold and carry the boxes around be sure to do both sides. If you don’t have a router you can easily use a dremel with a sanding attachment or even just some spare sandpaper. Regardless you’ll want everything smooth to the touch before we move on to the next step.
Now that we have everything cut and prepped it’s time to assemble our apple boxes. Grab your tops and bottoms, and find two that are pretty close in size - for my pancake I like to use those pieces that were a little smaller than the rest, the 11 and ⅝” wide ones. Because we won’t have any screws in this one you can be pretty liberal with the wood glue. Spread some glue on both sides and press the boards together. Clamp them in a few spots to make sure they are held tight together, and then set that box aside to dry.
Now grab two more of the top and bottom pieces, and your 4 1” pieces so we can make the quarter apple box. I made my boxes in smaller steps, I tried putting entire boxes together all at once the last time I made these and it was really difficult, so I recommend that you do it incrementally like I am here. And, there’s no rules on what order to do it in, you could glue the sides together first and then the tops and bottoms, whatever you want, that’s the best part of DIY projects. Back to the boxes. I grabbed a bottom piece, and one of the side pieces, and using some wood glue first I attached the side, and then I used some clamps to hold it tight while it dried. If you notice any spots bowing in or out use additional clamps to hold it in place where you want. And, be sure to wipe off any excess wood glue that you see on the outside of the box. We don’t have to wait long for any of our pieces to dry, maybe 20-30 minutes, we just want the glue dry enough to hold this first piece together while we assemble everything else. Once this has dried a little, glue and attach your other side, and then glue and attach the end pieces, clamping down as you go, and wiping any excess glue off the outsides. Once the sides have dried just a little you can glue and attach the top. Once the top is on you’ll really want to clamp the shit out of this to hold everything together. Let this dry for at least a couple hours with the clamps on.
Grab two more bottom pieces, and the 3” sides and ends. We’re going to do the exact same thing here for our half apple box that we did with the quarter box. Start by gluing one side down to the bottom, clamp it, and let it dry for just a little bit. Then glue and attach the other side and both ends. Clamp these and let dry for a little bit, and then glue, attach, and clamp down the top. As you’re assembling your boxes be sure everything is lining up and squared off, use clamps as needed to hold things in place, and let pieces dry for longer if you need to so that your boxes come out nice and even. And, be sure you’re wiping any excess glue off as you’re clamping these together. Once everything is clamped down set it aside to dry.
Repeat this process for the full apple box - the ONLY difference here is that the full apple box will get a support in the middle, so you’ll need to glue that in about 10” from each end. But otherwise the steps are all the same. As always, take your time, wipe off any excess glue on the outside of the box, and be sure to clamp everything down real tight.
You should now have 4 apple boxes, and these are almost finished. For added stability, and so no one dies if they try and stand on one, I like to put a few screws in mine.
Another note: my dad (who worked in construction his entire career) said that the coarse thread drywall screws would be fine since the box should be super sturdy as-is with the glue, BUT, I’ve been told by multiple people online that these are not the sturdiest option. Regardless, I don’t trust ONLY having glue, and I had some drywall screws, so I used them.
Since we’re working with ½” plywood we’ll need to drill some thin pilot holes first - grab a small drill bit, I think I was using a 1/16” bit. On the tops and bottoms of each box you’ll drill 8 holes - 2 along each edge. And then on both sides of the box you’ll drill one hole along the ends. For the full apple box you’ll want to drill a few additional holes along the middle support. Repeat this for the half, and quarter boxes. The pancake does not need any screws.
The last step is just a precautionary one, and you could be done now if you wanted. Since other people will be using these I want to make them as safe and comfortable to handle as possible, so you’ll want to use a router or sander to smooth over all the edges and corners so that there isn’t anything sharp or any loose pieces that could give someone a splinter. Once you have that done I would recommend going over each box with a sander and some medium grit sandpaper, like a 100 or 120 grit. This will allow you to even out any minor imperfections. I even went over all the boxes with a 220 grit sandpaper to make everything really smooth to the touch.
You should now have your very own set of apple boxes!
A few last notes on this project: you should have enough wood leftover to make one more quarter and one more half apple box, so instead of paying over $100 for 4 boxes, you will have made 6 boxes for around $30 and a few hours of time.
Watch the video tutorial:
What did you think of this tutorial? Are you going to make some of your own apple boxes or have you already made some of your own? Let us know in the comments section below! If you have any questions about this project or video leave those in the comments section below as well.