For this assignment my partner Ryan and I were tasked with creating a crate using woodworking tools and applying a finish to it.

Before building the crate we first need to cut out our wood pieces that would make up our crate. Using the miter saw we cut out nine 14.5″ 1×4, six 12″ 1×4, and four 10″ 2×2 planks of wood. Since we had multiple pieces of wood with the same length, we measured out the first cut with a ruler and subsequent cuts were made using the original cut as a ruler. This caused some variation in the lengths but larger variations were adjusted using the belt sander.

After cutting we decided to do post processing before assembling the crate to ensure all pieces were sanded and had a finish applied to all surfaces.Before doing so, we used the router on the pieces of wood that would make the sides of the crate. All six 12″ planks and six of the 14.5″ planks were routed, giving them a rounded edge.

After routing, we sanded all pieces starting with 60 grit, 120 grit, and 240 grit sandpaper. Since we had decided to stain our wood before assembly, it was important to sand the wood before applying our stain to allow the stain to seep into the wood.

We decided to apply MinWax White Wash wood stain due to both time constraint and easy application. Although it wasn’t our first choice, it didn’t require a lot of time to dry and it preserve the look of the wood while also providing protection from the elements. Even with the relatively quick drying time, it still took about an hour to apply the stain to all wood pieces with constant application and waiting 2 minutes before wiping off excess stain.

 

 

After we applied our wood stain, the final part of this project was to assemble the crate using screws. before we can drill in the screws, we first had to make a pilot hole using an 1/8″ drill bit and due to the shape of the screw, drill again using a countersink drill bit. Once ready, we then drilled in a screw to connect our wood pieces.

This section was were we experienced the most problems with building our crate. First, when we assembled the first layer of our crate, we found out the 3 14.5″ planks that were to make up the floor of the crate were too long, requiring extensive sanding to reduce their lengths. There were multiple instances where when we were using the countersink drill bit we went too far or were too close to the edge and either debris or even small pieces of wood would be removed on accident. Due to the varying dimensions of our wood pieces, gaps would form between pieces and oftentimes wouldn’t be flush with each other.

 

Although we encountered a few problems, we were able to assemble our crate that can be used to store future projects. The assembly of the crate could’ve gone better but overall I’m satisfied with the resulting product.