So, I made a wooden box! When it came to this assignment, I didn’t really have much experience with woodworking but I was very eager to jump into it and really improve my knowledge and skills. Therefore, I decided to pursue a modified beginner level box and also build a personal one. I began by deciding that I wanted to cut up my own wood in the woodshop so as to get some experience with the miter saw. It was during this process that I experienced my first drawbacks because we had ran out of the 1×4 lumber and I didn’t want to wait that much for a fresh supply. Therefore, I just adapted by scavenging the woodshop for scrap 1×4 lumber and then was able to actually get enough to make my box after measuring the necessary dimensions and cutting them up with the miter saw. Because they were scrap pieces, most of the lumber wasn’t smooth like fresh store bought lumber so I decided to lean into the ‘rustic’ look aesthetic for my box.

This step went surprisingly smoothly and next up for me was using the router to make rounded edges on my freshly cut wooden pieces.

This step was also smooth after I asked for assistance in adjusting the heigh for the router. With this done, I was finally able to get started with the process of actually putting together my box.

using a corner clamp, I first started with putting together the 3 horizontal sections of the box by clamping the wood, making pilot holes, making counter sinks and then drilling in the screws until they were flush with the wood. Initially, I had challenges making sure the screws were flush with the wood because the countersinks wouldn’t be big enough or they would be skewed in one direction leaving half the screw head exposed. However, I believe that I got better at this with time. The results can be seen below.

After this I attached the 3 pieces that would form the base and repeated the process to have them drilled in place. Next up, was a large amount of sanding on all the assembled pieces rectangular pieces. I did this at this stage as it would be easier than when the box was fully assembled. This process took an hour where I used an orbital sander and first started with 120 grit sand paper before moving to 200 grit sandpaper. The orbital sander is easy to use and again a fire spotify playlist helps pass the time. I also hand sanded some hard to reach corners. Next up was to start joining the 2×2 pieces that would act as the columns for the crate. This proved to be quite the challenge because I had to clamp all the pieces to make sure they all actually fit well but eventually got it right and began the process of drilling. Voila, the physical structure of my crate was done!!

Next up was post processing, and I chose a clear orange tinged wood polish and conditioner. I chose this because I thought it would be what best brings out the ‘rustic’ aesthetic I was trying to go for. This process of applying the conditioner, waiting for it to dry and wiping off excess took about another 4o minutes but at last I was done and could proudly say I made myself a box from scratch!

Cost of Project

Labour – It took me 7 hours to make this @ $7.50 an hour = $52.5

Wood – Estimate it at $15 for the 2×2 and 1×4 lumber

Equipment – Renting space in a woodshop can cost about $8 an hour giving access to all necessary equipment = $56

Total cost = $123.5