Ric and I built a crate from scratch this week. We chose the beginner level.
Step 1: Getting the materials ready
Using the chop saw, we first cut a few long 1 x 4 planks and 2 x 2 planks to get 9 x 14.5” long, 6 x 12” long, and 4 x 10” long pieces of lumber. Then we used an orbital sander with sandpapers of 180 and 600 to sand all the woods. The surface of those pieces felt so smooth which was satisfying.
Step 2: Assembling the sides
To assemble the four sides of the crate, we needed 14.5” and 12” lumbers. With two pieces each per frame, we built three frames by drilling the screws in. Before actually putting the pieces together, we made sure the woods aligned properly and clamped them with a corner clamp and a table clamp.
Here comes the fun part: drilling. We drilled two screws for each joint. First, we made a pilot hole with a 1/8” drill bit, and an additional larger hole near the surface of the wood with a countersink drill bit so that the screw goes in flush. We drilled in the screws after, repeating the same process for all three frames.
Once the frames were done, we moved onto routing the edges. Fernando helped us use the router and choose the appropriate router bit. Moving the wood from right to left, we trimmed the top and bottom four edges for each frame. We also initially planned on routing the edges that are close to the screws but ended up filing down instead considering that the screws were so close to the edge.
Step 3: Assembling the base
The remaining three 14.5’’ pieces of lumbers were used for the bottom part of the crate. We placed those lumbers into one of the frames we made which fit pretty well. For each side where the end of the lumber and the frame meet, we drilled two screws so that they would be in joint.
Step 4: Assembling everything together
Now that we have the sides and base, we used the 2 x 2 pieces as vertical supports to attach the rest of the side frames. We placed those support woods in each corner of the base and drilled the screws. To attach the sides, we placed a spare piece of 1 x 4 lumber on top of the bottom frame so that the gaps between the sides are consistent. Then we drilled the side frames to the support lumber. The same was repeated for the top-most side frame.
Step 5: Post-processing
After assembling all the pieces, we sanded the crate once again. We hand-sanded it this time to focus on small corners and edges that are hard to reach with the orbital sander. We especially tried to sand down where the screws are since they slightly split up the wood.
The final procedure was staining. We applied teak oil with paper towels and let it dry outside.
The finished box is as below !!
Challenges and Potential Improvements
We could have routed each lumber first before assembling them. Since we added the screws too close to the edge of the wood, we were not able to use the router to trim the edges. As mentioned before, we were still able to get rid of the sharp edges by filing them down. However, it would have been better if they were just routed in a uniform way using the machine.
Also, the top-most side frame barely fit into the 2 x 2 pillars that were already attached, so the screws on one of the edges were too weak to keep the frame tight in shape. The planks kept falling apart, but after we drilled in another screw to connect the frame and the pillar, it was able to maintain its shape fortunately.
Cost Analysis
- 8 hours of labor: $13/hr x 8hr x 2 people = $ 208
- 6 of 1 in. x 4 in. x 3.25 ft. wood (Home Depot): 6 x $3.43 =$ 20.58
- 1 of 2 in. x 2 in. x 8 ft. wood (Home Depot): $3.35
- 1 can of Teak oil (Home Depot): $17.98
- 76 wood screws (Home Depot): $4.03
- TOTAL: $253.94
