To start we located our lumber that was pre-cut for us using a miter saw. Our pile of wood consisted of nine 14.5” pieces of 1×4 wood, six 12” long pieces of 1×4 wood and four 10-11” long pieces of 2×2 wood.
With this wood, we created 3 frames by fastening the 14.5” long wood to the 12” long wood to form a rectangle that has side lengths of 16” and 12”. To do this we secured the wood using a corner clamp and drilled big countersink holes near the top and bottom edge of both sides of the 12” wood (this was to make the screws level with the wood). This was something we got better at as we progressed into our crate as some of our countersunk holes were too deep or too shallow at the beginning. We then pre-drilled 1/8” holes into the countersunk holes to help the fasten the wood with ease. The screws we used were 1-1/2” screws which were long enough to pass through the 1-inch thickness of the wood and enter into the 2nd piece.
Due to an OEDK meeting on Friday, September 13th, we were not able to rout the wood when we had planned so we opted to sand our wood first. We sanded the wood to give a nice smooth feel to it while also making it look like a more finished product. We used three sets of sandpaper (60, 150, and 220 grit) to work our way to a smooth finish. When we were able to rout we routed the top and bottom of each of our 3 frames. We had a small chunk of wood break off at this point and used wood glue and sandpaper to make it look like the piece never broke off.
At this point, we were able to start assembling the crate. We screwed our 3 remaining 1×4 planks to the base of one of the frames to create the bottom of our crate. We then put the four 2×2 beams vertically in each of the four corners of the frame and secured them to our base frame. We then secured the other two frames to the corner beams at a uniform distance from each other to form slats. We temporarily used scrap 1×4 planks to rest between the frames to set the distance. We used the same techniques as mentioned above for fastening the wood together but used table clamps instead of corner clamps to secure the wood in place. To fix any mistakes we made along the way we used saw dust/wood glue putty to fill any cracks or holes.
After it was all assembled we gave it one last sanding and then were ready for staining. We used a blue oil-based stain and coated all visible surfaces of the crate. After waiting 5 minutes we used a rag to wipe off any excess stain and left it to sit overnight. After staining we were left with our final product, we did a light stain to have a lighter blue look and allow the original color of the wood to show through in places.
After each work session, we cleaned up our space by putting things back where they belonged and vacuuming any sawdust. Here is our clean workstation after doing the final stain on our crate.
Here is the price breakdown table:
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | 1×4 Board | $5.98/14’ | Homedepot.com | 1.21 | $7.24 |
| 2×2 Board | $9.97/3’ | Homedepot.com | 1.22 | $12.16 | |
| Wood Screws (1-1/2 in.) | $0.11/screw | Homedepot.com | 60 | $6.60 | |
| Oil Based Wood Stain | $13.98/qt | Homedepot.com | 1/4 | $3.50 | |
| Sand Paper (60 grit) | $5.98/5 sheets | Homedepot.com | 1/5 | $1.20 | |
| Sand Paper (150 grit) | $6.98/4 sheets | Homedepot.com | 1/4 | $1.75 | |
| Sand Paper (220 grit) | $6.98/4 sheets | Homedepot.com | 1/4 | $1.75 | |
| Labor | Woodworking Operator | $23.79/hour | Indeed.com | 4 | $95.16 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $35/hour | Red Fox Innovations | 1/6 | $5.83 | |
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | $4.85/hour | Rockler.com | 4 | $19.40 |
| Quality Control | $13/hour | Zippia.com | 1/6 | $2.17 | |
| Design | Engineering and Development | $35/hour | Red Fox Innovations | 1/6 | $5.83 |
| Misc. | Waste and Scrap | $13.50/hour | Ziprecruiter.com | 1/2 | $6.75 |
| Total | $169.34 |
