So over the past couple of weeks we were asked to make a box out of wood using various tools from around the OEDK. Since I love self inflicted pain and procrastination I am writing this post at 1:25 am in the basement of the OEDK the night before it’s due. Its lit fam. Anyway I went pretty overboard in the construction of this box and probably put way too much time into it, but who cares? Its a damn beautiful piece of art.
To start off I found some nice 1/2″ plywood in the wood shop and planned out the dimensions of the future king of boxes. It started out pretty simple, I was going to have two sides overlapping the shorter sides with the base sitting within the sides so it would be hidden. As I was cutting out the sides I began to think of ways that I could mess with the equipment in the shop and do something cool with the box. Seeing that the miter saw could tilt up to 45 degrees I decided it would be pretty dope to angle the corners to hide any edges of the plywood excluding the top. After messing around with that for a while I finally had my 5 sides ready to be glued and screwed together. Here’s an example of a side:
To line up the corners I used the nifty little red 90 degree corner clamps, and at first only screwed them together. After taking it out of the vise I realized that it was not strong at all and definitely needed some glue to sturdy it up. So on round 2 I decided to glue them together first and clamp them into each other to try to get a better hold. Once the glue dried I screwed them together with a countersink cavity to avoid splitting. This one worked a lot better so I moved forward with the idea when I was going to put the two corners together.
Thus begins clamp mania. Over the next hour I used every single adjustable clamp that the OEDK had to offer. If you were ever wondering how many clamps can fit on the top of a 9″x 9″ box, the answer is 12. You learn something new every day don’t you? To begin with I glued both corners together using an acceptable number of clamps then quickly upgraded to the magical number of 12 to glue the bottom of this wondrous box on.
Also, another neato thing that I did to help with the hole drilling was use a small punch to give me a sort of indention to then drill into the plywood from. Definitely a pro tip for anybody wanting to drill into a spot without slipping.
After gluing the bottom on I took it up to the router and rounded all of the edges. Then, I began to sand that ever living hell out of this box. I swear, no box on earth has been sanded more than this thing. I started out with 120 grit to get the bottom of the box all evened out and, then moved up a level to 250 to get everything to a nice smooth level. Then, cause I was feeling extra, I took a piece of 3000 grit sandpaper to the box and I have never felt anything so soft and smooth in my life. This box felt like a baby’s bottom who has been floating in clouds for his entire life. It was life altering. Finally I wiped it down with some mineral spirits to clear out all of the sawdust and the box was finished.It had taken over 8 hours of hard work, along with buckets of blood, sweat, and tears to make it, but it arose as one of the most beautiful things I have ever made with my own two hands. This box is more than a simple box to me, it is my child, my firstborn. I will cherish it for the rest of my life.
Live long and prosper box.
