Change of use, what was old shall be new-old

The other day I decided it was time to get ready for the great move. The shed I work out of is to be demolished and recycled into a new position in my tiny back yard, also it might grow a few feet, but don't tell the Mrs. 
Before this can happen I need to collate all my accumulated tools and junk into some kind of moveable storage. I have a few plastic totes but, lets be honest, it's all about the wood really, so a wooden tote was in order.
I decided to use some old wood I reclaimed from an old pallet and set to work. I also wanted a quick build so went for some easy dimensioning for the box from the wood I had in stock. The pallet strips where 47" long, so I chopped them in half to give the long side lengths of 23.5". I figured I needed 3 each for the front and back, 3 for the base, maybe 4, and 3 more to each be cut in half for the sides. I dully cut the wood into the required lengths and was all set for the assembly.
I decided on a simple rebate on each end of the front and rear panel, it was only going to be a simple functional build after all, but how to cut them.
I do own a router, and I'd made a router table, so it seemed logical and quicker to use this to cut out the rebate.

 Or was it? First I had to set the height of the cutter, I had the right one fitted so that was a task saved. Then I had to adjust the fence back and forth a few times to get the length right.  I then realised the size of the cut would require a couple of passes. As it turned out, each cut needed several passes. It was noisy, with both shop vacuum AND router running, it was taking a dogs age and the resulting cut was, to be honest, a mess. I remembered seeing an episode of the Woodwrights Shop called Peter and the Box where the visiting Woodworker, Peter Farnsby, demonstrated how to cut rebates with a simple cut with a tennon saw, then dropping a wide chisel into the scribe line on the end grain. Bish, bang bosh, finished.

 
 All that was needed was a quick clean up of the face with the same chisel and I was done. It took under a minute to complete compaired with 5 or so noisy minutes using the router. So maybe simple is best. Here is a shot of the routered and hand cut rebates, click on for a larger image, and you decide which was better.

Next it was time to put the box together, or was it? Had I thought the build through? Was this box going to hold? I'd seen loads of old crates on my travels, but something was bugging me, something wasn't right?

Can you spot it? If I tried to build this crate up in layers like this, what would hold the layers together? I searched through the fog of my memory for images of crates and realised I needed to stagger sides in relation to the fronts to provide overlapping surfaces. I figured the best way to do this was to rip the short sides in half, but I don't own a decent rip saw, only some general purpose saw's. I began to cut, but was getting nowhere fast. I needed to think outside the box. I needed, the AXE. My axe, my favourite tool in the shed. It split the would length wise in a trice, a quick tidy of the edge with my trusty block plane and we were ready to rock. With some 5 minute PVA, some nails and the newly staggered joints I had a super strong box.

Now I just needed some super strong handles. I drilled to 19mm holes in each side and used a rubber curve to create a nice consistent sweep.

I used a jigsaw with a sharp blade to cut the holes, then finished them with a rasp and some rough grit sand paper to add a little age and wear. And all was done. 
What was once a modern storage device had been transformed into a traditional old style storage device.
What was old, had become new, and old.

Now that's a Sabby Chic storage box.