Our first assignment was to construct a box. So I did.

The first thing I did was go into the wood-shop to cut my wood. I decided to go with 3/4 inch thick plywood so that I would have an adequate thickness so my 2 inch long screws would not split the wood. I cut 4 pieces that were 7″ squares for the sides as well as one 7.25″ inch square for the bottom.

Then it was time to go to the basement. I used the corner clamps to put the first two sides together, this process went smoothly as I countersunk my screws for aesthetic purposes. Then I put the 2 attached pieces into one side of the corner clamp and one of the side pieces into the other.

Then catastrophe #1 occurred. I put the two-piece upside down, so there was an unnecessary hole in the bottom. Then after flipping it I put in the screw a little bit angled so I had my second catastrophe where a screw went straight through a side.

Now I had to use a total of 4 clamps to put together the final side. I held two sides the last side that was being screwed in, using 2 clamps. Then I used the other two clamps to hold the box down for screws. But hey, if it works it works.

Then I screwed the bottom onto the four sides. And it looked like this:

Then I routed the open edges. And I had another mini catastrophe as some of my screws were too high up and caught the bit from the router.

That is how it looked routed. :). So what I did next was create a putty by mixing sawdust and wood glue to plug catastrophe #1. After completing the putty I filled the hole with it and once it dried gave it a little love with the orbital sander.

 

This whole process took me about 2 hours. Not including time waiting for the putty to dry. I am disregarding the cost of 16 screws because an entire box of screws cost a few dollars and comes with hundreds of them. I found a piece of the plywood that cost $15. Adding 20$ for 2 hours of labor at 10$/hr and the total cost would be just over 35$ for this box.