Here we are Again… the Proficient Proliferation

Over this is last week and a half, I’ve been spending an insane amount of time at the OEDK Wood Shop drafting and creating a movie replica wooden box! As I chose the proficient difficulty, I knew a lot of the work of this project would come from the planning of this project from movie captures. With this in mind, I started this process…

Picturesque Planning & Drafting

The inspiration for this project came from one of my favorite movie series Indiana Jones. In it, a crate made of 6 stacked planks conjoined by crossbeams transports the mythical Ark of the Covenant within a US military box. Denoting this in my drafting as shown, I set out to scale down and construct this crate as faithfully as possible. Firstly, I scaled down the crate to determine its dimensions. With these set, I drafted out the required materials needed for the creation.

With the dimensions/materials down, I then moved towards the more minute details of the box. To create the iconic look of the box, I drafted utilizing smaller plywood cuts to not only recreate the joinery beams but to cover/hide the screws that wouldn’t be visible from the outside (As per the movie). Furthermore, in my planning I determined that the pine wood I used would need to be stained to a white birch to be more accurate. Finally, I decided that to recreate the paint of the side portion of the box I would laser cut a stencil to spray paint both long sides of the box.

One difference between the previous Sewing project and this one, was that I actually created a timed schedule to follow in my creation of the box as shown. While it will be touched on later, this schedule helped immensely in the creation of the crate and furthermore aided in the overall quality of the piece.

Comprehensive Construction

Following the initial planning, I cut the wood pieces that I needed for the general construction. Taking 1×4″s, I utilized a square and weighted ruler to mark the pieces as 2.75″ by 10″/15″. From this point, I used a combination of a miter saw and table saw to cut my pieces to the accurate dimensions in combination with a planar to make each piece level (So they could be stacked levelly as per the movie prop). This process was repeated twice-more with 1/4″ plywood to create 1″x14″ joinery beams and a 10.5″x13.5″ base board.

Although the wood was cut, it still wasn’t finished. Because this will hold more fragile and soft projects in the future, the crate would need to be sanded down to a soft finish to prevent any future project from me being damaged through the woods coarseness. To do so, an electric sander was loaded with 120, 240, 320, 400, and finally 800 grit sandpaper to make the wood progressively smoother. Once finished, the wood was smooth to the touch at all cut surfaces (Excluding pre-damaged areas as this was re-utilized wood),

As this was pre-used wood, the base board included a large crack/blemish down the center of it. To fix this, I mixed in a 1:1 ratio of wood glue and sawdust to not only cover the hole but to also give it the same wooden finish as the other portions of the wood.

Sequential Step in Formidable Fabrication

As all pieces were now prepped, I moved forwards in the physical construction of the box. To start this process, I determined the best method of construction was to drill the base side pieces to the base board whilst the rest of the side pieces would be drilled to the joinery beam and added separately. In doing this, I would be able to hide the screws of the piece on the inside of the box and the base board screw as the joinery beam would cover it. With this in mind, I began  constructing. For the base screws, I used a counter sink bit and 1/16″ drill bit to create the holes 3″ from the outer edge for the screw to guide them into the board. This prevented cracking along the bottom whilst allowing the screws to be more easily guided. Thus, with each hole created I attached the base board pieces until a solid base was formed.

The next step in the construction was to make the side base boards. Utilizing the same countersunk-drilling procedure, all face woods were attached to their respective joinery beams. To ensure all sides were evenly spaced and would align with the base piece to hide the base screws, a frame was constructed with all measurements noted. The long-side pieces were constructed to have the joinery beams 2″ from the cross beam sides whereas the short-side pieces had a 1″ clearance. Twice I had an instance where a screw went through the joinery beam, but the indentation was small and was promptly covered up to protect the aesthetic of the wood. I also had a countersink drill bit break in one of the screw holes, it wasn’t removable so I opted to wood glue these pieces together as the equipment failure didn’t warrant an upheaval of the crate.

Following all sides being created, I moved to the physical attachment. I once again hid the attached screws on the inner face as they were screwed to the base board. I did have some difficulty in fitting the drill to attach, but I planned for this when I drafted the piece and gave it enough clearance to fit a standard OEDK drill. The joinery beams did, in fact, cover the screws as planned and laid flush against the base board pieces. Additionally, while the sides held themselves up they weren’t incredibly rigid/load-bearing. To compensate for this and for small gaps in the wood, I created a carpenters mixture to fix both issues. Wood glue and sawdust were mixed at a 1:1 ratio to create a binding glue that, when dried, would cover the gaps with a wooden edge. Additionally, to aid the curing process of the mixture I clamped the crate to dry  for 24 hours.

To finish off the crate, the appearance needed to match the original crate as close as possible, thus a wood stain and paint job would need to be applied. Firstly, the wood was conditioned using butcher-block conditioner to allow for better adhesion of the stain and for the grain of the wood to come out. After this set for approximately 1 hour, the excess was wiped off and the stain was prepared for application. Utilizing a white birch stain, two coats were applied wherein they were applied, had the excess wiped off after 10 minutes, and allowed 24 hours to set and cure. Finally, a stencil was created in Adobe Illustrator that was then laser cut so that the side wording could be spray painted on. Following the laser cut of the material, a matte black spray paint was used to finish off the piece. It did bleed past the stencil onto the box itself, but it does add to the charm/characterization of the box so I do not consider it a complete failure of the design.

Reflective Rumination

Room for improvement on the next woodworking project I work on:

• Ensuring my stains are more uniform and less splotchy
• Measure the clearance of the miter saw beforehand to ensure cuts don’t fall in this clearance
  • Led to difficulties in placement of the wood when cutting and misaligned cuts originally
• Utilizing a better backing so the spray paint doesn’t splotch as much
• Better countersinks to ensure tapped screws do not go further into the wood and potentially split it
• Acquiring different woods to determine how their final stain will look before working with it
  • While I’m not disappointed with the final stain, I would like to look into other woods to determine how stain/cutting affects the final aesthetic

Despite all this, I did thoroughly enjoy the process of woodworking and plan on having another similar project in the future (Maybe a recreation of a Minecraft Chest…)!!

Palatable Pricing

• Materials
  •  9 Beams of 1″x4″x3.25′ Wood ($3.50): $31.50
  •  Wood Stain: $12.98
  • Wood Conditioner: $9.98
• Time:
  • 10 hours at National Median Carpenter Wage ($23.20): $232.00
• Overhead:
  • Estimate: $15

Total Cost of Crate Process: $301.46

Since last time, sticking to a schedule helped this building process progress more efficiently. Next time, however, I’m going to test out my finishes/modifications to ensure the ending aesthetic definitively matches the aesthetic I want!