For our first project, we built a box. It sounds easy enough, but it was more complicated than I expected.

I went into the wood shop without a plan. I used the table saw to cut my MDF into 5 pieces, which was fine until I decided to over complicate things and cut at a 45 degree angle so that the faces would look more uniform. I got through 4 faces before I messed up and cut my last piece at the wrong 45, making the wrong shape.

In my next attempt, I decided not to cut at an angle because it wastes more wood and takes up more space. After I decided to take the easier route, it took a lot less time to cut the wood.

The next challenge was attaching the pieces so that the screws wouldn’t show. I wanted to use the Kreg jig for every attachment, but the interior of the box was too small to fit a drill, so it was impossible to put the screws in some of the faces. Instead, I countersunk screws to attach the last 2 faces.

When I use the router the smooth the edges, everything generally went pretty well. I did nick one of the screws a bit, but I’m pretty happy with the outcome of the box. The router wasn’t perfect so I did some sanding on my own, and the box was done!

All in all, the whole process took me about 2-3 hours, including the time I took cutting the pieces I didn’t end up using. If I pay myself $10 an hour, $20 for the MDF that I used (and wasted), $2 for the screws I used, $10 for each of the tools (CNC router, belt sander, table saw) and the lab-tech’s time, then the total cost would come out to about $102.