This project proved to be more time consuming and difficult than expected. It was tedious enough cutting the massive amount of wood necessary for the crate. I, slowly, cut out all the wood I would need for the crate using the miter saw. Then, I decided to miter the corner pieces. I would soon learn that this should have been done later in the project. However, I continued to prepare my wood. I passed the wood through the planar and the jointer in order to get the wood flat and square. From there, I used the router to round the edges of the wood so that it would feel nicer to the touch. Then, I was ready to put the finishing touches on the planks of wood.
After cutting all of the pieces to size and making them easier to work with, I decided to sand down the wood. I used the orbital sander to pass through each plank. I also had to sand down some of the defects in the wood, which was a bit of a challenge, but it gave the wood interesting shapes. I severely underestimated the time that it would take to sand down all of the wood. Getting all the wood to feel nice took forever, but it was worth it because the wood was unrecognizable after sanding it down. 
From there, it was time to make the wood look pretty. I decided to go with a blue stain for the wood because I liked how it looked on other wood I had seen. The staining process was another long and tedious process. I had to apply the stain, let it sit for a few minutes, wipe off the excess stain, and then let the wood dry for over an hour. I had to do this a couple times to stain all of the wood.
I would then assemble the box. While screwing in the planks, it was sometimes difficult to align them due to the rounded edges I had given to the wood. Creating countersink holes in the wood was difficult at first because I was just using a larger drill bit. This kind of cracked the wood when making the counter sink. Once I got an actual countersink drill bit the process was much easier and cleaner. Overall, I think the box came out pretty well.
Cost Estimate:
- $4.68 – 2 in x 2 in x 8 ft pine lumber (The Home Depot)
- $13.76 – Two 1 in x 4 in x 8 ft pine board (The Home Depot)
- $9.98 – 1 box of #8 x 2 in construction screws (The Home Depot)
- $9.28 – 8 oz of water based wood stain (The Home Depot)
- $100 – 10 hours of labor at $10/hour
– Total Cost: $137.70
