Hey everyone,
For the past two weeks Will and I have been making a crate.
Based on limited experience in woodworking classes in high school, we started with a simple Lego-like construction of the pre-cut boards. The locations that needed to be secured by screws were then planned and marked.
The holes were then drilled in the marked positions by electric drill and the two neighbouring boards were fixed by screws. The trick in this step is to use a larger diameter drill bit pre-drill before placing the screws, so that the screws are either level with the plane of the boards or are hidden after placing in.
Repeating this step we can finish the the two rings, and a ring with base and four columns.
We were then able to fix everything together, the gap between each Ring being completed by inserting an extra plank before fixing the Rings to the four posts.
After the box was prototyped the surface was sanded, starting with 60 grit sandpaper and gradually increasing to 200. (Can you tell the difference before and after sanding?)
After sanding, remove the wood dust from the surface of the crate with a damp towel and wait for the surface to dry before proceeding with the stain work. We wanted to make a pirate style crate from the movie so we chose a darker Dark Walnut colour.
The first layer of staining is complete. At this point the crate was a lighter colour than expect, so we planned to do a second stain. After the first stain, the crate is placed on a drying rack to air dry the stain.
A second stain is carried out and a deeper colour can be seen than in the first stain.
The second stain is followed by another two hours of air drying, at which point the crate assignment is complete.
The following pictures show the cleaning of the work area.
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | 1×4 Board | $10.99 /yd | Joann.com | 3 yds | $33.97 |
| Screws | $12.99 /100 pack | rockler.com | 54 | $7 | |
| Sand Paper | $18.79 /40pcs set | walmart.com | 10pcs | $4.7 | |
| Labor | Woodworking Operator | $18.20/hr | ziprecruiter.com | 7hrs | $127.4 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $38/hr | ziprecruiter.com | 1.5hrs | $57 | |
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | $60/1 moth | xerocraft.org
Membership of public woodshop |
1month | $60 |
| Quality Control | N/A | ||||
| Misc. | Waste and Scrap | $14/hr | indeed.coFor TA/LA to clean up the OEDKm | 0.5hr | $7 |
| Overall | $297.07 |
