This stone planter presented an interesting set of challenges. It needed to be crated. Fine. It weighs 132lb. Cool. Here’s the catch– it needs to ship with FedEx Ground and they won’t accept any package over 150lb. I do the math–18lb. I think I can make a crate for it that weighs less than 18lb. I confidently tell the customer I’m in and that it will ship the next day. So I get to work.
After cutting all of the wood pieces and before I assembled the crate, I decide to put the pieces on my scale just in case. Bad news– 33lb. Fifteen pounds over. After looking online and finding that the difference in shipping prices would be the difference between earning a good day’s wage or spending a days wages to make up the difference to the customer, I walk back to the crate. Channeling Richard Simmons, I let the crate know it’s time to get moving and slim down. Long story short: after taking my scale inside home depot and finding the lightest materials I could find to do the job, in the end the planter made it safely to the customer.
And a funny note, the customer found her cat and a litter of kittens in the garage nested in that comfy lightweight crate…..no, I made that part up.