From cutting out planks, to drilling pieces together, to sanding and finishing the crate, this project has been the most “handy.” And although my finished product could have been much cleaner and neater, I feel much more confident working with the tools in the woodshop.
The crate originally began as long planks of wood. After precisely measuring one plank of the desired length, it was cut using the circular saw and used as a template for future planks. From this, all the desired pieces of wood for the crate had been measured and cut out for the assembly of the box.
I thought that most of the cut pieces had smooth enough edges to get away with sanding them after assembling portions of the box, so I began screwing edges together. Without recalling the training we had had in class the week prior, I drilled the first screw without using a drill bit first. This split the wood, but did not have any impact on the final crate. From this initial “screw” up, the rest of the screws were secured without much damage to the wood. The assembly of the crate was paused after constructing the three frames of the box.
I then ran into another issue, the fitted planks for the bottom of the crate were slightly longer than planned and had trouble fitting within the frames. To correct this, I used the rasp to shave off about 1/16 inch from the ends of the planks to better fit within the frames. After sanding the edges of the bottom planks to have a smoother end, they were able to fit within the frame. Using a pair of scissors and a ruler to evenly space the planks within the frame, I drilled the final screws of the bottom of the crate.
At this point in the project, I thought it would be best to sand down the frames and bottom of the crate before securing the frames to the bottom. I first began with 60 grit sandpaper to get rid of any large chippings that occurred while cutting or drilling. I then incrementally increased the sandpaper to 150 grit, and finished sanding with the orbital sander at 220 grit. Additionally, because the router had not been functional at the time of the construction of the crate, I used the rasp and file to smoothen out the edges and corners of the frames of the crate.
From here, I screwed the vertical 2×2 planks into the corners of the bottom of the crate and then fitted the remaining frames onto the pillars.
Using clamps to hold the frames at the desired heights, I secured the frames to the inside 2×2 pillars of the crate. I then sanded down both the insides and outsides of the crate to give it a smoother feel.
To finish the box, I initially only wanted to place a final wood stain to give it a glossier look. I decided to use the Varathane Classic Penetrating Wood Stain and applied a light coat on it using a brush. Although I had loved how the look of the crate was after the first coat, unfortunately, I noticed that in the process of coating the crate, some smidgens of leftover paint from earlier in the day had gotten onto the crate, leaving it with a dirty, disordered look on some areas of the box.
To rectify this, I needed a darker color to completely coat the crate to hide the unintended colors. Using a blue color fast-drying wood stain, I coated the crate again and left it out to dry. After the stain had dried, the coat had not provided a dark enough color to cover the color marks, so I applied another coating of the same blue wood stain to give it a darker color. The finished product now is so blue, it could pass off as the fourth member of the famous Blue Man Group.
Overall, the crate is functional, sturdy enough to carry things and be stacked on by other boxes. With better planning and more time to invest into the box, it could have been a much better final product (I will try to delegate more time planning and working on future projects).
If I could redo this project, things I could improve upon:
- Spending more time sanding down certain areas of the box
- Planning out where all the screws will be used
- Filling in previous drill holes with wood shavings and wood glue
- Applying a more even coat of wood stain, maybe even apply another coating to fill in some areas
Cost Estimate:
Materials (all costs from Home Depot):
- $6 – 2x 1×4 strip lumber
- $3 – 1x 2×2 strip lumber
- $4 – ~40 1.5” screws ($9/100 ct)
- $2 – ~20 2” screws ($10/100 ct)
- $2 – 1 coat of Varathane Classic Wood Stain ($13/can)
- $3 – 2 coats of North Sea Wood Stain ($10/can)
Time:
- 12 hours*$9/hr (price based on minimum wage in Texas and cost of operating tools and machinery used) = $108
Total Cost:~$128
