So I was looking for jars. We're coming up short this year, what with the garden and all. Such a blessing. I started canning with 6 doz pt jars thinking that it was a crazy number and that I'd never use that many. [Many, many jars later, I'm still searching for dozens more.] Well, I found someone who posted "several dozen" on CL for 2 $/doz. And these were qts, too. Normal price around here is 9 $ for 6 jars, which is 1.50 $ each. I guess I paid 0.17 $ each. Score!
But they didn't come with boxes, so I went home with 100 or so jars clinking around in my trunk. Had some blankets and light jackets for padding but I wasn't really prepared for it. Then I brought the jars in and covered the kitchen table. After moving the jars around for a while, I decided to make some boxes for them.
I had previously made several wood boxes out of 3/4" stock and 1/4" plywood. They were heavy and I wasn't inspired to make more. Then I remembered that the boxes my grandfather used to organize his closet lasted longer than he did. So I made a box for 6 qt jars, took it apart, and called it a template. The box is small enough to easily lift 6 jars, even when full. There is a slab of cardboard on the bottom, which seems to avoid the bottom blowing out.
Here's the template:
So I bought cardboard from Home Depot and made 18 boxes! Took a couple of hours. I've refined the template a bit. You can see that the top edge of the boxes are folded over. I learned to crease the cardboard 1/4" apart for those edges, which makes the folding easier and edge neater. There are other adjustments that are too subtle to describe but it's satisfying to refine the process. Here's the results:
The lady who sold the jars to me included a bunch of regular jars and charged me only 1 $/doz for those. I haven't used this type of jar much before but haven't had any problems on the occasion that I have. If regular jars are used for canning and do not break on their first use, how likely is it that they will break in the future.
But they didn't come with boxes, so I went home with 100 or so jars clinking around in my trunk. Had some blankets and light jackets for padding but I wasn't really prepared for it. Then I brought the jars in and covered the kitchen table. After moving the jars around for a while, I decided to make some boxes for them.
I had previously made several wood boxes out of 3/4" stock and 1/4" plywood. They were heavy and I wasn't inspired to make more. Then I remembered that the boxes my grandfather used to organize his closet lasted longer than he did. So I made a box for 6 qt jars, took it apart, and called it a template. The box is small enough to easily lift 6 jars, even when full. There is a slab of cardboard on the bottom, which seems to avoid the bottom blowing out.
Here's the template:
So I bought cardboard from Home Depot and made 18 boxes! Took a couple of hours. I've refined the template a bit. You can see that the top edge of the boxes are folded over. I learned to crease the cardboard 1/4" apart for those edges, which makes the folding easier and edge neater. There are other adjustments that are too subtle to describe but it's satisfying to refine the process. Here's the results:
The lady who sold the jars to me included a bunch of regular jars and charged me only 1 $/doz for those. I haven't used this type of jar much before but haven't had any problems on the occasion that I have. If regular jars are used for canning and do not break on their first use, how likely is it that they will break in the future.
