Project 2 is to build a box for to store out future projects. I worked with Tony to build a box.
First we started with a layout plan with all the dimensions of the pieces.
Our original plan
In the draft you can see that one thing special we wanted to do is to make 45˚ at the ends of the side pieces so the connections at the corner would look cleaner. This brought a few problems as we were building the box. The first problem came forth when we realized that our dimensions were incorrect. Both of us are international students and are unfamiliar with the imperial units, so we didn’t question the thickness of the plank and just assumed it was an inch. However, the thickness was way off from being an inch, so we had to recut most of the planks. Instead of measuring the thickness of the plank and having inaccuracies from rounding, we measured the total length of the bottom plus two standing planks (see photo below). Because the radial arm saw in the wood shop could be adjusted to angles, we adjusted it to 45˚ to cut out the sides.
This photo shows our first attempt at finding the width, but this wasn’t the final measurement we used because we added another piece to the bottom later on so the dimensions matched the given dimensions better.
Then we used the router to get rounder and cleaner edges on the planks.
This photo shows a comparison between the routed and non-routed edges.
Then we worked together to sand down the planks with sanders and sandpaper.
Tony sanding the plank with a sander.
As I was sanding, Tony went and cut out a hole for the handle.
We decided on the size of the cut out based on my hand. Considering that my hand is smaller than average, we made sure the cut out it slightly bigger (but not too big since it’ll be bigger once we sand it down)
Next step was to screw everything together. This is where we encountered out second issue (not exactly an issue, just something we had to do differently from the assignment). We wanted to avoid drilling and screwing into a 45˚ surface, so instead of building the frames, we decided to screw the side planks directly into the vertical wood strips. Since we’re not building the frames first, we thought it would make the most sense to start building from the bottom.
Drilling and screwing between the first bottom plank and the bottom side plank.
Screwing in the last few screws into the bottom frame.
Then we fastened the 4 legs (vertical pieces).
The photo shows that we screwed in the vertical legs first. The box at this stage was really stable and we actually sat on it like a stool.
Then we decided to screw on the top layer first (as seen in the photo above). This was to ensure that the top of the box is flat. This also allowed us to find the centre easier for our middle planks.
As Tony was drilling in the last (middle) pieces of plank, I sanded down the corners.
After sanding down the corners of the box with about 400 grain sand paper, we started thinking of the design. Our original design was actually to build a sylveon (a Pokemon), but we couldn’t find the right shade of pink, so instead we decided to build a pikachu. Once we made this decision we went on to build the tail and the ears.
Tony sanding down the ears. We then sanded it with the sander and 1000 grain sand paper.
We then screwed the tail onto the box.
We also drew a quick sketch on the box with crayon before screwing on the ears.
The box once everything was screwed on.
The next step was to spray paint the box. Since pikachu is all yellow, the spray painting job was pretty simple. We just had to make sure we adjusted the tail and ears to make sure we get every corner of the box.
Us spraying painting the whole box yellow.
We left the box upside down overnight to dry.
The next day, Tony brought in acrylic paint to paint the face and details on the tail and ears.
Tony painting the eye
Since the eyes are sometimes difficult to get right, we checked the place of the eye with a piece of paper before we started painting. The right eye in the photo is actually just a piece of paper.
Finishing up the details on the back of pikachu.
The last steps was to do some light sanding and a protective layer over the box.
Last step was to spray a clear protective layer onto the box.
Finally we did some light sanding especially around the area where the user would hold the box.
Then we had our final box:
Our final box!!
Cost Estimation:
4 by 1 planks:
~252 inches = $31.5
Spray Paint:
~half a can =$3.5
Protective coating:
~half a can = $3.5
Acrylic paint/screws:
negligible
Labor:
The 2 of us spent a solid 10 hours at the OEDK. Using the minimum wage of $7.25 (since we’re both fairly unexperienced and not working at max efficiency), we get around 2*10*7.25 = $145 for labor.
Total Cost Estimate
~$185
