This page documents the real-world testing, failures, improvements, and engineering decisions behind Armor Core, Battle Guard, and the structural design of our wooden ammo & range boxes. If a box makes it into a Freedom Crate product line, it’s because it survived the abuse here first.
Freedom Crate Co. isn’t just about making boxes that look cool. The goal is to build real working equipment that can live in garages, trucks, sheds, and ranges for years — not just sit on a shelf. This page is where we:
If you’re a customer, a fellow maker, or a contracting officer evaluating Freedom Crate Co., this is where you see the thought process behind the products — not just the marketing.
When people see a rugged storage box, they usually think metal or injection-molded plastic. Freedom Crate Co. deliberately chose wood as the primary structural material and then engineered coatings and reinforcements around it. This section explains why.
Metal requires furnaces, presses, welders, and a lot of power. Plastic requires expensive molds and high-energy injection machines. Wood is different: it’s a natural material that can be shaped with simple tools, scaled up in a small shop, and produced with minimal energy input.
In a world of supply chain shocks and power-hungry manufacturing, wood is the only structural material that can still be turned into real equipment with basic tools if it ever had to be.
Raw wood is porous, but once we flood the interior with penetrating epoxy and add optional liners, the box behaves more like a composite structure than plain lumber. The epoxy soaks into the fibers, stiffens the panels, and creates a continuous bead in the interior corners of the box.
Steel and aluminum can dent and deform. Many plastics crack, especially in cold weather or after UV exposure. A properly built wooden panel has thousands of fibers sharing the load, and the epoxy + liner system adds both stiffness and controlled flex.
Metal wants to rust. Plastics can turn brittle in the cold or soften in extreme heat. A sealed wooden box avoids both problems.
A dented metal case is hard to fix. A cracked plastic case usually gets thrown away. Wood has a built-in repair path:
Injection-molded plastic cases require expensive tooling before the first usable part is made. Metal cases require industrial equipment and higher material cost. Wood delivers one of the best strength-per-dollar ratios for field gear.
It’s also renewable, doesn’t create microplastics, and doesn’t require smelting, melting, or high-temperature processing.
Modern plastics and 3D printing are impressive. You can print almost any geometry, swap in carbon-filled filaments, and even print in metals. But for rugged storage crates, there are some realities that matter more than hype.
3D printing and advanced plastics absolutely have their place, especially for complex parts. But for a field-ready ammo or range box, the philosophy here is simple: if you can build it from wood, you should. It’s repairable, renewable, and can be built without depending on a high-tech factory or a constant stream of electricity.
Bottom line: with the right joinery, fasteners, and coatings, wood becomes a lightweight, repairable, high-strength platform. That’s why Freedom Crate Co. starts with wood and then builds Armor Core, Battle Guard, and all future coating systems around it.
Armor Core is our interior protection system. The idea is simple: seal the wood fibers from the inside out using a penetrating epoxy, then (where appropriate) back it up with a tough liner like a truck-bed–style coating.
In normal conditions (indoor storage or garage use), a fully sealed Armor Core interior should dramatically extend the life of the box compared to raw or unsealed wood.
Battle Guard focuses on the outside of the box — where impacts, scrapes, and weather hit first. Think of it as a tactical “armor plate” for wood, based on bed-liner style coatings.
Solid wood is the backbone of Freedom Crate Co., but the long-term goal is to push into advanced composite construction using high-grade plywood systems such as phenolic-faced panels. When you combine engineered plywood with penetrating epoxy and a polyelastomer liner, you get something closer to a small composite structure than a traditional wood box.
Even with a tough phenolic skin, we still want the interior fully sealed:
On the exterior, a polyelastomer coating like Battle Guard locks the structure in:
Put together, phenolic plywood + Armor Core + Battle Guard represents the “ultimate” evolution of the Freedom Crate design language: lightweight, heavily sealed, and built to shrug off hard use.
Below are real test clips from the shop and range — epoxy flood tests, water soak tests, impact tests, and anything else we throw at these boxes. All videos are hosted on the Freedom Crate Co. YouTube channel and embedded here.
Armor Core Epoxy Flood Test (Example)
Placeholder description — replace this with what you actually did in the test (soak time, observations, failures, and what you changed afterward).
Want to see every clip we post? Visit the Freedom Crate Co. YouTube channel .
A closer look at real boxes on the bench — raw wood, epoxy-flooded interiors, and full Battle Guard shells. Click any image to expand.
These are quick snapshots of what we’re testing and changing over time — thicknesses, fastener choices, coatings, and structural tweaks. Think of it as a running notebook that explains why a later version of a box looks or behaves differently than an earlier one.
Side-by-side test of two identical boxes: one interior fully flooded with penetrating epoxy, one left raw. Stored in a non-climate-controlled garage. Tracking any swelling, seam movement, and surface checking over time.
Coated exterior with bed-liner style product, then dragged the loaded box over concrete and gravel. Documenting where the coating scuffs, chips, or fails and whether corners or edges need extra buildup.
If you’re evaluating Freedom Crate Co. for a purchase order, contract, or just want more detail on a specific test, you can reach out directly and request additional information, photos, or raw test notes.
Questions about materials, coatings, or test methods?
Email: steven@freedomcrateco.com
(or use the contact form on the site).
