Time to Crate a Box – With Linda and Juliana | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

For this week’s installment of BIOE 555, we applied skills such as drilling, sanding, and post-processing wood to craft a beautiful box. For this project, I worked with Juliana Strother. Together, we collaborated, shared tasks, and managed our time to finish this project on time.

Step I: Making our first Corners

We decided to have our wood pre-cut to save time and to prevent anything from going wrong because we are both beginners in woodworking. After selecting this wood, we went to an open table at the OEDK and set the wood pieces according to the provided instructions. Unfortunately, the corner clamps were being used by other people, so we got creative and aligned our wood with normal clamps (Figure 1-2).

After aligning the two pieces, we used a power drill and a small bit to make a hole through both pieces, then switched to a larger bit to make a place for the screw head to lay on (countersink); last, but most definitely not least, we put the screw on. We repeated this process to build the first layer of our box.

Figure 1. – Alingning the corners

Figure 2. – Clamping the corners to the table with clamps

Step II: Routing the Wood

After putting together the first layer of the crate, we moved on to routing. With the help and supervision of Fernando, Juliana and I routed the first part of our box (Figure 3). We then decided it would be easiest if we routed all the wood before assembly, so we carefully routed all pieces, ensuring only the parts that would face the outside would be routed.

The following task was sanding the wood to give it a better finish after routing it since some pieces were sticking out and could lead to splinters.

Figure 3.- Routing the bottom

Step III: Adding Bottom Panels and Skeleton

To officially have a base for our box, we must add a bottom and 4 posts to stabilize the structure. To make the bottom of our box, we measured 3 pieces of wood side by side, measured them, and sanded them so that they could fit snugly in the bottom (Figure 4); we later screwed them in place using the technique mentioned in Step I, ensuring all screws were nicely flush against the wood. Posteriorly (pun intended), we added a post on each bottom corner and screwed it in place with 2 screws on each side (Figure 5).

Figure 4.- Bottom panels of the box being measured and screwed in

Figure 5.- 3/4 posts were screwed in place

Step IV: Completing the Box

We repeated the process in Step I two more times to create two extra rectangles, and we later fit them around the posts. This process used a little of trial-and-error because the posts were a little wider than the inside of the rectangles, so they didn’t just slide in and fit perfectly at first; so we sanded down the posts until we were able to fit the rectangles around (Figure 6), and we used a rubber mallet to fit them well in place. We made sure to leave a gap between the layers by adding a piece of wood between them before we screwed it in place. (See Figure 7a,b)

Figure 7.- The second rectangle added and screwed in place

Figure 7a.- Fully assembled box Figure 7b.- Please admire the craftsmanship

Step V: Clean Up!

It is imperative to leave a space better than what you found it, so we took it upon ourselves to clear an vacuum the table we last worked on (Figure 8).

Figure 8.- Linda using the vacuum to leave a clean space

Step VI: Post-processing

To give our box a nice finish, we decided to sand down all imperfections and stain our wood. We used an old rag and a brown stain (Figure 9a, b) to generously cover the wood, and after 3 minutes, we swiped out the excess stain and then let it dry overnight. We spray-painted the bottom of the crate with black paint after the stain had dried fully (Figure 10).