Day 1

I’m not going to lie– this box/crate project caused me a bit of stress before Austin and I even started. Something about power tools has always been intimidating to me (despite my father being a carpenter)… Even though I was nervous, I was definitely excited about the idea of me building something with my own bare hands. Upon deciding to work together, Austin and I decided that we would be cutting our own wood to get the full experience. Unfortunately on Tuesday, we found out that we would need to wait for more wood to come in and that it would possibly take a couple of days before then. For the sake of time, we figured it would be best to use pre-cut wood instead. This is just another reminder (of the many, I’m sure) that starting as early as possible is the best course of action for these projects.

After getting our pre-cut wood, Austin and I began to sand down our wood planks. We started with a lower grit initially and then worked our way up. Once the sanding was complete, we started the assembly of the box. Our goals for Day 1 were to sand all of our planks and complete the base frame of the box. We used the corner clamp, fixed with 2 table clamps, and attached our planks together with 2 1.25″ wood screws. We wanted our screws to be flushed against the surface of the wood and so we used the countersink method by using a 5/16″ drill bit over our 1/8″ pilot holes. In the end, we successfully completed our goal of creating the base frame… or did we?

 

Day 2

On Day 2, we realized we made a huge mistake. Instead of attaching 2 14.5″ 1×4 and 2 12″ 1×4 planks together, we made a base frame consisting of 4 14.5″ 1×4 planks… clearly neither of us read the instructions thoroughly. We had 2 options from there, either we cut pieces of wood to fit our newly assembled frame or we started over. Given that we already had all of the pre-cut wood, we decided it was best to just start over with the correct pieces of wood.

Now after reading the instructions over, we assembled our base frame correctly and continued to work on the remaining 2 frames. We wanted to utilize the router and round the edges of our top frame. This was to prevent injury from the sharp corners at the top of the box (which is the most exposed). We rounded the edges of our top frame and all 3 frames were ready for assembly.

Our goal of the day was to finish all 3 frames and secure the bottom frame to the 4 10×11″ pieces of lumber. Because of our initial mistake, there were some planks of wood that had our previous holes. We decided to leverage those holes and use them to secure our frames to the posts. Thankfully, we measured the initial holes just shy of the current ones so we wouldn’t have 2 perpendicular screws interacting with each other. After securing all 4 posts, we completed our day’s objective! And before leaving, you best believe we cleaned up our stations!

         

Day 3

Austin and I met on Friday morning in order to finish the project. All that was left was for us to complete the box assembly, sand the entire box (focusing on areas where the 9×14.5″ and 6×12″ planks were interacting), and stain the finished crate.

After 2 days, I felt like we were a well-oiled machine. We finished the box assembly in no time. Sanding the box was where we got stuck. We initially started filing the interaction sites but eventually got help from a lab aid who suggested sanding would be significantly more efficient. We used 40 grit sandpaper initially, then 80 grit, and for the final sanding we used 240 grit.

Just when we thought we were done, alas another problem came up. The bottom of our crate had an exposed screw… it seemed we screwed them too low and now they were exposed. We got the idea to use wood glue and patch them up– we made a mixture of saw dust and wood glue to create a paste which we then patched the exposed screw with. After letting it dry, Austin patted the bottom of the crate and one of the planks came undone. Needless to say, we took those screws out and re-screwed them at a higher angle. Sometimes its just better to take apart and reassemble rather than patch it up…

After sanding the area we just screwed in, we made our way to the loading dock and began staining the crate. We decided to go with the Dark Walnut stain– starting from the outside, working our way to the inside, and then finishing with the bottom. We did 1 coat of stain because we were satisfied with the color and made sure to wipe off as much excess stain as we could.

We honestly couldn’t be happier with our final product! This project was, although stressful, so fulfilling. There were a lot of road bumps along the way, but I’m glad we reassessed as a team, came to a decision, and moved forward.

TA DA!!!

Cost analysis

Material Cost = $34.12

9 x 14.5″ 1×4 planks + 6 x 12″ 1×4 planks @$8.73/1x4x96″ =  $18.41
4 x 11″ 2×2 planks @$3.55/2x2x96″ = $1.65
56 x 1.25″ screws @$9.97/85 screws = $6.57
2 oz Dark Walnut wood stain @$9.99/8oz = $7.49

Labor Cost = $243.00

Tool Use (clamps, drills, sander, router) = 7.5hr @$15/hr = $112.50
9 hrs @$7.25/hr = $65.25 x 2 people = $130.50

Total Cost = $277.12