Pre-processing: 

For our crate, we opted with pre-cut wood to save some time. Once we got our wood, we planed some of the pieces that had imperfections. We didn’t plane all of them because most were already very smooth. 

Next, we began by creating smooth edges on all of the sides of the wood. We wanted to go for a smooth, bubbly, cutesy crate with very rounded edges.  

After this, we began sanding all the pieces. We started with 60 grit then 120.

Assembly: 

Next, we assembled our crate. We used the corner clamp throughout the process. We started with the bottom row and then attached the 4 legs. We uses a ¾’ drill bit to make the nails flush

Once we finished the assembly of the crate, we noticed some flaws in our nail placement. On 2 of the sides, the nails were not aligned and it did look a bit sloppy, but the other sides were very nice. We couldn’t fix this issue, so we just moved on to post-processing and finishing

Post-processing and finishing: 

We began the post-processing and finishing phase by drilling 2 holes where we wanted to add rope handles. 

Next, we sanded the crate to 1000 grit. This took a while and was tedious but so worth it. The crate ended up very smooth. 

Last was adding a glossy clear coat of spray to the crate. We were so excited for this step but so so sad when we finished and felt that it made out wood so hard. 1000 grit for nothing 🙁

We added green rope after we painted and we adored our crate. 

Cost Analysis:

(9) 3×14 lumber long pieces: Home depot $2.28 each = $4.56

• around 27×126 inches  (10.5 ft across…need 2 boards from home depot

(4) 2x2x8 lumber legs: Home depot $2.87 each = $2.87

• around 4x4x48 used

(6) 3×12 lumber short pieces: could use from leftover of top wood! In total buy 2 sheets of 3×14 to use for the long and short pieces

• around 18×72 used

RustOleum 2x Ultra Cover Clear Gloss: $5.98

(72) Star screws: $6.84 for the entire pack. We used $3.88 worth.

• walmart

Rope ~ 1/4 in thick, 2ft long polyester rope: $0.91/ feet = $1.82

• rope.com

Our labor

• 2 workers, 10 hrs each, $10/hr each… $200

Total Cost of Crate:

$219.11