i saved you a file with only a few of your planks in there so you could keep working.
Have you thought about using a sculpting method similar to the one Kent painted in the stream on tuesday. You could sculpt a big plane for your crate-planks. and then wrap it like a christmaspresent.
I thought that could work and you have way less hp objects in your file making trouble.
I hope the new file WIP_acc_crate_williamatics_tmp.blend will help you staying part of the project
