For homework 2, I partnered with Kyle to create a wooden crate using various assembly and post-processing techniques. We chose the beginner difficulty. I have good experience working with wood but because Kyle was a beginner we decided to go with the easiest difficulty for learning purposes.

The first step was obtaining the wood. Luckily the teaching team gracefully gave us pre-cut wood which saved us some time. We gathered the tools and materials as listed on the assignment. We also used the orbital sander and higher grit sandpaper.

PPE:

Safety glasses

Apron

Nitrile gloves

Facemask

Tools:
corner clamp
table clamp
drill
⅛” drill bit (for pilot hole)
Philips head driver
60, 120, 320, and 400 grit sandpaper
wood stain/spray paint
router

orbital sander

Materials:
Screws (1.25” long)

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

 

Assembly:

The first step of the process was to create three rectangular frames from the pieces of lumber to frame the overall crate according to the instructions. This was done by driving a countersink hole, a pilot hole, and then finally the screw into the holes while the wood was clamped to the table and corner clamps. This was pretty straightforward, but a bit of difficulty arose since the wood pieces were chipped, warped or the incorrect length. When we tried to put together these pieces with defects the edges did not align up perfectly so there were panel gaps in the wood. We did our best to fix this using the planer, orbital sander, and sandpaper. This overall fixed most of the problems with alignment. After assembling we began to route the edges of the wood as shown below:

 

Routing was very straightforward and produced a good result. We decided to route all exterior edges as those were the only visible ones. However, we noticed later on that when we were doing post-processing, a lot of material was sanded away to where the effect of the router became less noticeable and less even. It probably would have been good to reroute the edges and sand them down so that they were consistent and visible.

At this point, Kyle and I decided to do the first round of sanding before assembling the rest of the box since it would be easier to access all the nooks and crannies of the box and give us more angles to work with when sanding for ergonomics.

We religiously used the orbital sanders to smoothen out the wood and even out all the edges. We started with the 60 grit, then moved to 120 and eventually 320 grit sandpaper. This allowed us to get a very smooth finish on all the wood but was very exhausting; it made my hands feel like they were vibrating for a while after using the orbital sander.

The next step in assembly was inserting the wooden slats into the bottom of the clamped box and then securing them with the screws using the previous techniques with pilot and countersunk holes. The wood fit almost perfectly and we decided to use two screws to secure the ends of each piece of wood as well as a screw to bisect the long edge on the side. Some of the screws were drilled to close to the edge so that when we were sanding, the edges of the screws started to show at the edge of the wood.

This allowed us to start working on the vertical supports. We attached those with screws and clamps to get the corners secured properly as shown below.

We later learned that using a singular clamp for each post on the corner was more effective than using two clamps, one for each edge. Again, since the wood had defects, we had to rotate some of the posts so that there would be no panel gaps. Following this, we assembled the rest of the rectangular frames onto the posts using wood spacers and clamps as shown.

 

These were secured using screws alternating from the bottom to top on different sides of the box to get the best stability. At the end we noticed two posts were not flush with the edge, so we clamped and added another screw to those edges.

We then ran through the last round of post-processing, starting with the belt sander to take off larger uneven parts, especially at the bottom. We then repeated the same orbital sanding process outlined, focusing on the areas with the new screws since the other parts had already been sanded before.

Finally, we wiped off all the sawdust with some rags to prepare the box for the staining process. We cleaned up the interior workspace by vacuuming the area and returning parts to their homes. The box before staining looked like this:

Lastly, we prepared to stain the crate. This was the part we struggled with most. At first, we had trouble finding a color of stain that we liked that also had a sufficient amount. We ended up settling for an uglier blue stain that had enough for our crate. Setting the crate on cardboard, we then applied the stain with some small brushes and then wiped it off after five minutes. This did not work well as the brushes were old and ineffective, and the stain definitely was old and had issues. It would cause blotches on the wood and overall applied an uneven and ugly stain even though we had followed all instructions on the can. We believe it was old and had been sitting for too long. We decided not to stain the inside because of how bad it looked.  This is how the box looked with the blue stain:

It looked worse in person. The next day we came back and talked to the TA and decided to restain the wood with another stain we found of a dark walnut color. He also recommended we apply the stain with scrap rags, which helped a lot too. We restained the crate (2 coats) and achieved a better look, although some of the blue splotches were still visible:

We then cleaned up the workspace and allowed the crate to dry outside.

Cleaned workspace:

Reflection:

Overall, this project was a good refresher for me on woodworking techniques since it had been 2 years since I had done any serious woodworking. I learned to use some different machines I hadn’t used such as the planer and router. The main struggle arose with the stain we initially chose, but I think that can be overcome in the future when I would be purchasing my own stain and also using a test piece of wood.

 

 

 

Bill of Materials:

Wood (Home Depot):

4″x 1″ * 17 ‘ needed/8′ piece wood @$6 = $12.75

2″x2″ * 4′ needed/8’ piece wood @$5 = $ $2.50

Wood Total = ~15$

Screws (Lowe’s):

$13 for 200, used 50 = $3.25

Disposable Gloves, Facemasks: $1

Stain (Home Depot):

1/2 Quart = $7

Sand paper (Amazon Variety Pack): $7

 

LABOR:

Woodworker avg salary (Indeed) = $20/hr * 6 hrs = $120

 

Machine time:

Wood shop membership: $60/month

 

Total: $213.75