This past week I spent several hours building a wooden crate! Even though it was a lot of work, I found the entire process rewarding because I ended up loving my finished product! You can see the steps I took in the video below.
Watch me build a wooden crate!
As fun as this project was, I struggled A LOT along the way.
One of the aspects I struggled with was figuring out where I wanted the screws to go through and which screws I wanted on the outside, visible to others. I didn’t think to pre-plan that because I thought it would be obvious but that was not the case as I started to build it. As you can see below, I ended up making mistakes and drilling screws in a few different places before I figured out what I wanted to move forward with. Luckily, I started drilling on the bottom of my crate so this mistake isn’t visible but it did slow me down in my process.
A second aspect I struggled with was trying to keep the planks of wood as flush together as possible at the corners. Below you can see that I clamped the planks in both the x and y direction before drilling but there are a couple places in my crate where there are tiny gaps between the wood.
A third aspect I struggled with was the missing counter sink bit! I was able to use the counter sink bit on the first day I was drilling. As you can see below in the pic on the left side, the counter sink bit creates a smooth pocket for the top of the screw to rest in. Unfortunately, the next day I had to improvise and use a wider regular drill bit to create a space for the screw head. You can also see below the difference between using a counter sink bit versus a wider regular drill bit. The regular drill bit created rough holes with rough edges (as seen in the pic on the right side). This also caused the screw heads to create splinters and cracks in the wood. I tried to remedy the splinters with sanding in the post-processing phase. Obviously, this isn’t best practice and a woodworker/carpenter would be very upset at the decision I made but I had to do best with the situation and use what I had!
A fourth aspect I struggled with was getting an even coat of staining on my crate. I was able to apply 1-2 layers across all the pieces of wood but there are a couple areas where I wasn’t successful in wiping the excess stain off completely. This caused an area where the stain started to drip which can be clearly seen to the right.
The final and last aspect I struggled with was creating a used/rustic look on the top rung of wooden planks. After the stain dried, I sanded the tops of the top four planks (seen below) where your palms would be when you carry the crate. I was trying to achieve the look where it looked like the crate had been used for a while and the stain was coming off where it came it contact with hands. In my opinion, I don’t think it looks like that at all and it just looks like the stain got scratched off in awkward areas LOL. I tried my best though!
Cost Estimate
Wood [(1) 2×2 & (2) 1×4]: $11.94
Ply wood [16×16]: $5.96
Screws: $9.48
Machinery & tool rental (based off the assumption that I am renting the appropriate machinery/tools and not buying new equipment): $30/hr=$420
Stain: $22.99
Labor: $15/hr= $210
TOTAL=$680.37
The cost estimate of this “simple” wooden crate is very high. This is due to the high amount of time I was “renting” out machinery and tools to cut the wood and build the crate. I spent a total of 14 hours this week from start to finish. The materials themselves are less expensive in comparison, so in the future I would be able to decrease the cost by becoming more efficient with the process and spending less time making the crate.
