The assignment for this week was to build a box through the use of wood of our choice and fasteners. Through looking at the assignment guide, I decided to use plywood to create a box with 16” x 16” x 12” dimensions.
The first step in the build process was cutting out the sides of wood that would make up the box using the 3/4 inch plywood provided. Using sharpie and the table saw in the woodshop, I was able to cut 4 pieces of wood which were 15.25” x 11.25”. These dimensions were chosen to account for the thickness of the wood when aligning the pieces. Additionally, a 16” x 16” base was also cut using the same process. 
When trying to align the 4 sides of the box with the base, I noticed that the base was protruding on two sides by 1/8th of an inch. As such, I used the jointer in two runs with a blade height of 1/16” to cut down on the two sides of the base. Now that the alignment was fixed, the edges of the wood could be routed/sanded. All visible edges excluding those pointing inside the box were either routed using a rounding router bit and 100 grit sandpaper for the shorter edges. After the edges were properly routed, it was time to fasten the pieces together.
Using a mix of C-clamps and a corner clamp, I first fastened two sides of the box at a time and then moved on to fastening the two sets of sides together to end up with a four-sided structure with no roof or bottom. The base was then fastened using the same process. The fastening process consisted of using a drill bit with a cordless drill to make pilot holes into the wood and then using a wood screw with a driver bit to drill the screws into the wood. The rough version of the box was completed at this point and it was time to post-process.
The post-processing consisted of only sanding and was done through 100 grit, 220 grit, and 400 grit sandpaper along with an orbital sander with 120 grit sandpaper attached to it. After the fastening process was complete, some edges were protruding slightly all across the box and the edges/sides had a rough feel to them. To fix these issues, the protruding edges were removed through the use of the 100 grit sandpaper, and the orbital sander was used to even out the surrounding surface. After that was completed for each protrusion, the orbital sander was used to flatten the sides of the box and give them a smoother finish. This was followed by manually using the 220 grit and 400 grit in that order on each side and edge of the box to give it an extremely smooth finish and complete the simple but high-quality box.
It’s also important to note that although the intended dimensions of the box were 16” x 16” x 12”, the final piece was 15.75” x 15.875” x 11.875” due to the post-processing after fastening the pieces.
Cost Analysis
- Material Cost: $25.83
- The total area of 3/4” plywood used sums to 942.25 square inches.
- Using an estimate of $31.58 per 1152 square inches of 3/4” plywood, the cost of wood is: ($31.58 * ((942.25/1152) square inches/dollar)) = $25.83
- Time Cost: $35
- Approximating a time cost of $10/hour for the time spent on this assignment along with the actual time spent of 3.5 hours, the time cost = $10/hour * 3.5 hours = $35
- Total Cost: $25.83 + $35 = $60.83
