For the second assignment, I joined forces with Isa to create the most lovely crate from scratch. We first decided on the entire process we would use before even touching the wood:
- Cut
- Plane
- Route
- Sand
- Clear Coat
- Assemble
We opted to cut our own wood, and did so simply by measuring out the appropriate lengths of wood, using a straight edge to form a line, and cutting with the miter saw. We made sure to keep in mind the kerf of the blade, cutting just outside of our line.
After cutting, we wanted to strip away the topmost layer of wood, revealing a pretty white pine underneath. We used a uniform depth on the planer to achieve this. The planer table had a good bit of random sawdust built up that we needed to sweep away with a brush.
After this, it was on to the router. We opted to use a semi-circle bit to add a nice roundness to all of our wood, including the posts. This process was relatively straight forward, we just had to be careful where to put our fingers.
Moving on to routing, we needed to remove the rough edges. After some trial and error, I discovered that 120->320 grit was a possible progression of sandpaper with the orbital sander. I did this to all 20 pieces of wood, on all 10 distinct planes per block. We noted to use circular motions with the sandpaper to avoid ugly scratches and marks. We weren’t satisfied with the orbital, so we hit the broad sides of the wood with 1000, 2500, and 3000 grit by hand. It was glorious.
When the wood itself was processed, it was time to add some finishing touches. We wanted to use a white stain to elevate the natural color of the pine, but the OEDK seemed to be running low. We opted to use a matte clear coat enamel instead to preserve the color of the wood and add some shine. We sprayed each piece top to bottom in sweeping motions as per our demonstrations in class. We did two coats, and let the wood sit overnight.
I will note that this was the first big hiccup we faced with the project, as spraying by hand is difficult to keep perfectly even. There were some spots of clear coat that were noticeably thicker than the rest. Since we couldn’t find stain, I had to come to terms with the fact that we would need to add another step to our process and sand again if we wanted to retain our lovely smooth finish from before. So we did, this time opting to remove the 120 grit from the rotation to preserve the coating. Sanding in this stage had two effects: naturally it smoothed over the clear coat, but it also acted as a buffing agent, adding a nice gloss to our wood.
After painstakingly sanding and wiping away excess material with rags, it was time to assemble the crate. We used the standard Torx wood screws that were shown in class. We used an 1/8″ pilot hole bit, a dedicated countersunk bit and the driver bit in order to drill our wood together seamlessly.
We used the corner and table clamps in conjunction to piece together 6 L-shape pieces of wood. We then joined those to form 3 small boxes, and planted screws in the bottom short side to secure the bottom. These base planks didn’t exactly fit so well, so I needed to sand down 2/3 of their edges with 80 grit to make the squeeze. We added the four posts on top of the base, and determined that the thickness of generic lumber was a good fit for our slats. We used table clamps to force the middle and top boxes to be level with the scrap wood as we used the drills.
A funny oversight of this process was that the scrap was now tightly caught in the slats of our crate, so I had to use a mallet to remove them.
Additionally, during the assembly process, some of our pilot holes were drawn too close to the edge of the wood, causing cracks in the bottom of the crate. We opted as a final step to screw down the cracks using very small screws, that required 1/16″ pilot holes.
Here is the cracked wood before we fixed it.
After assembling the box, making the necessary repairs, and checking all screw heads for flushness, we were done! Nourishing our crate from not-so-good plywood to glossy smooth product gave me a sense of pride with our work. I am particularly glad we chose to cut our own wood, as it elevated the sense of agency we had over the project. I’m looking forward to this week and the next project!
Cleaned off workbench
COSt Estimate:
198″ of 1″x4″ lumber | $4.50/board foot: $24.75
40″ of 1″x1″ lumber | $4.50/board foot: $1.26
Box of wood screws | $45.00
Matte clear coat enamel: $40.00
12 hours labor | $30/hr: $360
Overhead/equipment rental: $200
TOTAL COST: $671.01
