Granted, my packing needs and constraints may be different from yours. I have to be able to fit everything that I want to take into the back seat of a small sedan. Rather than using one big crate, I use a bunch of smaller boxes so that the stack can conform to the contours of the space better. If I had a van or pick-up, using a crate would make more sense and would probably be more efficient for me.
Most of my current fleet is composed of scratch-built clones of vintage OOP designs. Several are in the 30"+ range in length, and currently, my longest rocket is 43" long. The largest diameter of what I have built so far is 2.6". Most of my rockets are in the 1" to 1.6" range in diameter. My micros are a little bit smaller.
Most of my boxes range from 12" square up to 36" x 6" x 8" at the largest. I have several that are 18" and 22" long. I use shoebox-sized containers for my micros. I separate longer rockets at their separation points and then pack each half individually in the same box. I do the same with the individual stages of my larger multi-stagers. I place the booster stages into the boxes standing up, because they are usually not as tall as they are wide. I have a few rockets that are just a bit longer than the boxes; removing the nose cones and packing them in alongside solves that problem. I don't use any special padding, other than wrapping the painted rockets with bubble wrap. I will throw in a bit of plain paper (saved from the shipping box packing material) if there are a lot of unprotected rockets in it, just to keep them from banging into each other too much. None of my rockets have been damaged from being packed this way. They are light enough in weight that they don't impact each other with any significant force, and they rarely shift inside the boxes anyway. Because the boxes are stacked well to fit the space, they don't shift during transport either.
My boxes don't have to be moisture-proof or impact-resistant, because the automobile body and frame that contains them takes care of that. I would need to use something that was quite a bit more substantial if I were carrying them in an open truck.
Whatever packing method you use should be tailored to fit the mode of transport. I wasn't criticizing your crate design; I was just presenting a different approach, designed to fit into and take advantage of a different space. My method won't work for very large rockets, of course. If I had them, I would need to look into getting a van or at least a trailer. Your crate is well-suited for carrying a large amount of rockets (or a few large rockets) in the box of a pick-up truck or in the back of a utility van.
MarkII
