Tag: wire

This DIY Wire Basket is a neat project, which makes a useful basket – which you can use to organize or meet some

metalworking requirements on a scouting merit badge.

I like them for gardening, as I can easily wash my fruit and vegetables off with the hose before I bring them in the house.

My wife likes it because I use it to wash vegetables before I bring them into the house.

Either way, it is an easy project that is very useful and a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Material:

• 2’x10’ Hardware cloth
• 26 Gauge Floral wire
• Metal Coat hanger (Optional)
• Rubber hose (Optional)

Tools:

• Tin Snips
• Needle nose pliers

Procedure:

1. When designing your basket you need to allow for the sides. We are going to make a 5 inch deep 8 by 8 inch basket to carry in our vegetables. Since the sides will fold up we will need to cut out a piece of wire that is 18 inches square.

2. Using tin snips cut this into a cross shape with 5 inch squares taken out of each corner. This will make eight inch “wings” that stick out on each of the 4 sides.

3. Make your creases/folds along the “wings”

   

4. Cut the floral wire 1.5x the size of the side you’re going to connect. This means for a 5 inch seam, cut the wire 7.5 inches (or 8 if you want extra).

5. Start at one end, and pull the wire almost all the way through leaving about 1″ of slack to wrap around that first corner several times before weaving up the side.
   • Hitting every square looks better, and make a stronger basket, but you can save time by only weaving every other square if you desire.
6. Lastly, trim the ends of your wire, and tidy up the basket.
7. If you desire you can make handles by cutting up a metal coat hanger and using needle nose pliers to create loops on each end
8. You can make the handle fit your hand better by sliding a rubber hose (like an aquarium hose) over the coat hanger before attaching it to the basket.