Working with hand tools and machinery to build my first box was exciting, but also took more time and was harder than I expected it to be. All the steps seemed simple at first, but actually applying them was another story. I worked with my classmate, Niyah, and we created one box together over a couple work sessions. The final product was beginner level, and we followed the steps outlined in the document.
– Cool photos Niyah’s friend took of us working on the box
Process
We started in the machine shop, cutting the wood we needed for our box using the industrial sized radial arm saw in the OEDK wood shop. This included (Image 1):
- 9 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber
- 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber
- & 4 x 10-11” long pieces of 2×2 lumber
We made sure to account for the kerf of the cut by cutting and measuring one-by-one, rather than all at once.
From here, we moved to the downstairs area and began using an orbital sander to remove any excess splinters and smooth the wood. After this was finished, we put together the three sides of the box by assembling the 1×4 lumber. We did this using a corner clamp, making sure the butt of the 14.5″ piece was against the 12″ piece. We used two screws on each of the sides, making all the screws even by measuring and marking the spots before drilling. In this step of the process, we also used a countersink drill bit to align the screws with the surface of the wood and to prevent splintering.
Image 1: Our cut wood Image 2: Adding the bottom
The router was unfortunately broken when we were building our project, so the edges of our boxes are not as uniformly rounded as they could be. However, we sanded the edges and curves of box so it was smooth and no splinters were present.
From here, we assembled the bottom of the box using the method shown above (Image 2). We used 3 of the 14.5 pieces, and used the belt sander to sand some down that did not fit into the proportions they needed to. We drilled these in, again using a countersinking method, and moved on to working on drilling the vertical supports of the box. We used extra 1×4 pieces to ensure that the spacing between the pieces were uniform. We again marked before drilling for uniform screws, but some of the drills ran into screws we’d already placed in, making some of them slightly off center. We used the belt sander to make some finishing touches, and moved on to staining our box (Image 3).
For our staining, we used a cedar stain color and did one layer, following the instructions on the can. We stained both the interior and exterior of the box, and after letting it sit, we had our finished product (Images 4-6)!
Image 3: Finished box without staining
Images 4-6: Finished box with staining
Successes & Failures
One success that we had is that our wood is generally smooth and doesn’t have any splinters, which we ensured by sanding it with both the orbital sander and using sandpaper to get into the screw holes and corners. Our staining worked as we intended it to, and our screws generally look very cohesive and align with the wood.
One failure of ours was cutting too much wood off the top of the box when using a belt sander (Image 7), which created a slightly uneven top layer. We decided to sand it down slightly and leave it, since it wasn’t very noticeable and it probably would have caused more harm that good trying to fix it. Another mistake we made is that we noticed, after we had finished the box and stained it, that the middle layer was slightly misaligned. To fix mistakes like this in the future, it would be helpful to visually make sure the layers align before drilling, and to measure the pieces of 1×4 that we use to align the layers.
Image 7: Misaligned center piece Image 8: Uneven top layer
Cost
- 1×4 Wood: 3 pieces = $26.19 (Home Depot)
- 2×2 Wood: 1/2 a piece = $1.49 (Home Depot)
- Screws: 1/2 a box = $3.99 (Home Depot)
- Stain: $5.48 (Home Depot)
- Brush for staining: $1.57 (Home Depot)
- Cost of Labor: $10 x 8 hours = $80
- Total = $118.72
