Introduction

The task for this assignment was to create a box out of wood with dimensions of roughly 16″ by 16″ by 12″. I chose to use both plywood and cedar planks to make my box as I wanted to have the planks act as hand holds to make lifting the box easier than trying to lift the whole thing from the bottom. This project took me a decent amount of time as I tried to use as little wood as possible and my woodworking skills are still novice. I did run into a couple of bumps along the way, including the table saw not being operational when I was attempting to cut plywood, there were not a sufficient number of correctly sized wood screws available in the OEDK, and some spray painting issues. My personal goal was to make a box that I could use to carry, hold, and store frisbee disks, so they wouldn’t be lying randomly around my room and I could easily transport them to practice and games.

Designing and Cutting and Routing

I took some time to measure my plywood and cedar planks so I would know exactly where I needed to cut using the table saw. I decided that I liked symmetry better than keeping everything equal, so I went with both sets of planks being screwed in between both plywood side pieces. Taking this into account, I adjusted the overall dimensions of the box I would construct. My initial estimated box size was 17 in by 15.5 in by 12in. I cut two plywood pieces of size 15.5in by 12in for two of the sides of my box using the table saw. I also cut two long pieces of cedar into 6 15.5 inch long planks using the table saw. The table saw gave me very precise and straight cuts. I then mock put my pieces together to make sure everything was sized correctly, and they were. I then planned to put the sides together before cutting the base piece of plywood. My plan was to then cut the bottom piece of the box out of plywood with dimensions of 16.75in by 15.5in (0.25in was lost from using the planar on the plywood side pieces), but when I was ready to cut, the table saw was not operational. So, instead, I used the miter saw to cut two more 15.5 inch cedar planks to act as the base of my box. The miter saw cuts were also very clean and precise with the cedar wood. Finally, I rounded all of the corners of 6 out of my 8 cedar planks using the router. I wanted to round the edges so that it was more comfortable when holding the box by the cedar planks.

Bolting Together

As I had received an extension for this project, a lot of the materials had been used already. One notable one was wood screws. I checked the wood screw box in the OEDK and there were no long wood screws left. I attempted to use some smaller wood screws but they were not long enough to hold the plywood and planks together. So, I fixed this with two solutions. One, I scavenged through the wood shop and the rest of the OEDK to find longer wood screws, with which I was successful, and secondly, to plane the plywood pieces to make them thinner. I used the planar to thin the plywood size pieces from 3/4 inches thick to 5/8 inches thick. Each of the plywood pieces took many passes through the planar. With the limited number of bolts (26 instead of 32) I was unable to bolt each of the 8 planks at four places (two on each side of the plank). For aesthetic appeal and function, I spaced the bottom and middle planks by one plank height (0.75 inches) and the middle and top planks by two plank heights (1.5 inches). I did that so there is more than enough room for a hand between the middle and top planks and it looks nice.

Post-Processing

I used four processes to post-process my box.

1. Laser cutting – I laser cut two designs, one on each of the plywood pieces on opposite sides of the box. As my plan for this box is to hold frisbees, one of the engravings was of a frisbee flying through the air, and the other one is the name of Rice’s ultimate frisbee team, Cloud 9. I used rastor setting of 100 power and 50 speed with 600 RPI for both engravings and I am very happy with how it looks.

2. Sanding – Used 100, 220, and 320 grit sand paper on all parts (inside and out) of the box to make it smoother.

3. Protective coating – I covered the entire outside of the box in two clear matte coats. I then sanded my box again after the coat dried. I wanted to give a protective coat to my box as if I do indeed use it for frisbees, it will experience a lot of wear, and I want it to be in use for as long as possible.

4. Spray paint – Used blue spray paint on one side of the box.

Conclusion / What I Wish I Did Differently 

I am pretty content with how my box turned out and I think it will be very useful and successful as a frisbee bin. The box is large enough to hold a decent amount of frisbees and it is pretty easy and comfortable to carry. There are a few things I know I could have done better and would change if I were to construct a similar box again. First, I would definitely plan my time better so I wouldn’t be doing everything late and have to worry about running out of wood or screws. Second, I would have spent more time working on bolting the box together as a few of my screws are sticking out a tiny bit as the head became stripped and I was unable to move the screw in either direction. Next time I would be more careful with the drill and not go to fast and risk stripping the screw. Third, I would have attempted to use different cuts on the router to make some non functional edges of my box more aesthetically pleasing, but I was having a hard time changing the bits, so I ended up only using one bit for all of the edges I rounded using the router. Lastly, I should have prepared where I wanted to spray paint before spray painting. After I used a clear coat on the outside of the box, my plan was to add some color to the side where my ultimate frisbee team’s name was, but I ended up painting a very poor looking design. Next time I would want to think about what the finished product would look like before actually putting paint on the wood. Some on these things I can work on I can apply to my final project. I enjoyed making the box and will use these wood shop, prototyping , and post-processing skills over the rest of my years using the OEDK and beyond.

Cost Analysis

Cost of plywood = (2.583 square feet) * ($1.50 per square foot) = $3.87

Cost of cedar planks = (124 total inches long) * ($9.64 / 96 inches) = $12.45

Cost of screws (used 26 total screws) = $2.60

Cost of spray paint (used 1 can) – $5

Cost of clear matte coat (used 1 can) – $5

Cost of sandpaper = (3 sheets) * ($6.77 / 4 sheets) = $5.08

Labor cost – 6 hours total, at $10 per hour – $60

Total Cost = $94.00