While working on the apron, I was also building a crate!

For this project, I decided I wanted to cut my own wood in order to get more practice using the saws in the OEDK. After cutting my wood I then use an orbital sander to sand down the cut pieces to be nice and smooth and ready to be finished later.

After sanding, I then moved on to assembly the three sections of the crate using some other pieces of wood to aid in alignment.

After fiddling with the dimension of the base boards I was able to finish the bottom section.

For the top section, I decided to create handles. I did this by using a jigsaw and Dremel to create the cutout.

After finishing and assembling the handles, I then used the router to create soft edges throughout the crate. After doing that, I moved onto finishing where I decided to go with a dark walnut finish.

Once the stain dried, I added a clear coat finish to protect the wood.

Finally, I was ready to assemble everything together! I used scrap wood to create the desired spacing.

Now I had a finished crate!

Cost Breakdown

17.5 feet of 2×4 (6×16″, 3×14″, 6×12″) at ~$0.70 per foot = $12.2

4.66 feet of 2×2 (4*14″) at $0.60 per foot = $2.90

1/8 of a can of stain = $1.63

6 hours of work at $15 per hour = $90

Overhead = $5 for miscellaneous items used

Total: $111.73