This homework assignment was a trial-and-error exercise that shouldn’t have had so many errors in the first place. I’m pretty sure that if I wasn’t so scatter-brained about planning ahead and being more meticulous, this project would have gone a lot faster and smoother.
I picked up two slabs of MDF and had a Lab Tech help me cut the wood into four 15.5″x12″ pieces. I then went to the basement to assemble the sides together, using pilot holes, screws, and a drill.
At this point, this is when I kept on running into trouble. For one corner, I had drilled in screws too close to the top of the wood pieces, which ended up splitting the wood, so I unscrewed the pieces. At the time I didn’t think this was an easily fixed issue, so I had a Lab Tech cut me 2 more pieces to replace the (slightly, in hindsight) split wood). Still, the assembled sides still didn’t seem right. After assembling and reassembling the pieces again to make sure the pattern was right, I unscrewed all of the sides and saw where my problem lied: there were two sides that were too long. There were 4 pieces of the 6 I had that would make all the sides the same (two of which were unfortunately the slightly split pieces), so I clamped everything back together, added new pilot holes where needed, and drilled the screws back in.
You can see that two pieces are a little longer than the rest
After routing the top of the box, I realized that I forgot to countersink the holes, so I went back, unscrewed the screws, added countersinks, and drilled the screws back in. I think you’re beginning to see a frustrating pattern I inflicted on myself.
The wood shop ran out of MDF and didn’t have a piece of 1/2″ plywood big enough to make a 16″x16″ piece, so I improvised and cut two pieces of 16″x16″ 1/2″ plywood to stack on each other for the bottom. I routed one piece, drilled the unrouted plywood onto the bottom, then drilled the routed plywood directly on the unrouted piece. I mixed some filler with wood glue and applied that mixture into holes and cracks from one of the wood splits, then used an orbital sander to sand out the plywoods, routed edges, and extra filler spots (I didn’t sand the sides of the box much because the MDF was smooth as is). I then applied some gel stain to the outside of the box.
I’m happy with my final product, but I definitely learned my lesson not to rush — it ended up costing me more time than if I just slowed down.
Cost analysis
– Labor: 8 hours (could have been a lot less if I was patient, not careless, and planned everything ahead) x $15/hour = $120
– Wood: $15 for 4 pieces of 1/2″ MDF + $10 for 2 pieces of 1/4″ plywood = ~$25
– Sandpaper: $5
– Gel stain: ~$5
– Tools (Miter Saw, Table Saw, Router table, Planer, Jointer, Orbital Sander, Band Saw) = $50 (TX/RX maker space membership)
– Other materials: paper towels, screws, brushes, popsicle sticks, etc. = ~$1
Total: $206 (a very expensive lesson)
