Card Tray Built!

I managed to make my way into town the other day and buy some supplies for the project I mentioned in my previous post. I picked up a 24x48x1/2 inch MDF sheet and a pack of 6 x 1″ flathead robertson woodscrews.

I made quick work of drawing out the parts to be cut.
The base plate and 4 walls cut out!
After all the the dividers are installed and everything is screwed in. You’ll notice some problems have arose.

Results

As you probably noticed I had some pretty substantial splitting issues this was due to 2 errors on my part. Initially my pilot holes were too small putting too much stress on the wood. Additionally my chosen screws were a bit too wide. I suspect I should have been using around a #3 or #4 screw rather than a #6. At first I was a little disappointed but have decided to treat this first run as a proof of concept. My chosen size and dimensions seem to be perfect for what I have in mind.


All in all I am pleased with the experience even if the quality is lacking, for the next trays I build I am expecting the quality to be much higher.

Mistakes are never a bad thing if you learn from them!

Quarantine Creativity

After weeks stuck in the house I needed some sort of creative outlet so I decided to begin planning a long needed project….. A storage solution for my MTG card collection.

They’ve been stuck in a box for years now. >.>

The Idea I had in mind was a set of around 4 drawers in one unit. So as a start I began designing the tray portion which I hope in the end I can make removable from the unit.

My goal was to make it fairly minimal and easy to build while still having a large capacity. This design uses exclusively 1/2″ MDF and will hold approximately 8,162 cards. Each tray is made up of 11 pieces in only 4 sizes.

  • 1x Bottom Plate: 25″ x 15″
  • 2x Sidewalls: 15″ x 2.5″
  • 2x Front & Back walls: 24″ x 2.5″
  • 6x Dividers: 14″ x 2.5″

Total: 780 sq in

As shown in the side view the cards will extend up to one inch above the sides of the tray. This allows you to be able to file through your cards easily.


It may be impractical for me to make it out to buy the materials for a while but I will be sure to post updates when I make progress!

Stay healthy everyone!