As someone who owns a lot of books, I’ve always wanted to build my own bookshelf. I also have a Pinterest board dedicated to DIY wood projects that I’d like to try, and after this project, I now have experience and skills that can help me do that. Building this box was my first time assembling something out of wood, and I learned a lot along the way.

I started this process by sanding down the precut pieces because some of the pieces had big splinters and rough edges that made it uncomfortable to hold the wood. After this, I began to assemble the three frames that constitute the four sides of the box. I used the corner clamping and drilling methods demonstrated in class. One challenge that came up right away was making the countersink holes. I found that some pieces of wood allowed for a clean hole, while others developed cracks and splinters in and around the holes. I tried switching the countersink drill bit I was using, which helped in some areas.

In retrospect, I should’ve placed some of my screws farther from the edge. I could have also measured and marked their placement for a more symmetrical look.

After creating the frames, I measured them to make sure they were 12″ x 16″ and then used the router to trim the edges. This is the part where placing the screws farther from the corner edge would’ve been ideal, since I wasn’t able to trim all the edges without risking having a screw come into contact with the router bit. Although I wasn’t able to trim the corners, I sanded these down later on for a smoother look.

Next, I arranged and drilled three bottom planks into a frame to create the bottom of the box. To help me space them out evenly, I stuck 2 popsicle sticks in between them, which ended up being a perfect fit for distance. I sanded the 2×2 pieces again to make sure they would stand upright and fit better in the corners of the frames. Many screws later, I finally had an assembled box! For personal preference of adding rope handles to my box, I also needed to drill 4 big holes for the rope to go through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For post-processing, I spent a lot of time sanding the entire box. It helped that I had already sanded all the pieces before assembly, but there were still a lot of areas with splinters and cracks, especially around some screws. Next, I applied two coats of the mahogany glossy stain. The instructions said to sand in between coats, but I found that sanding left scratches that I personally didn’t want to be visible so I sanded very lightly. One challenge that arose was that I stained both the interior and the exterior at the same time, so when I left the box flipped over for drying, some of the stain dripped and dried leaving a trail in the interior. In retrospect, I should’ve done the interior, let it fully dry, and then stained the exterior. I also should’ve wiped down the edges where the 2×2 pieces met the frames a lot more because I found that some small puddles accumulated there that I missed.

 

Now that my box had the look I wanted, it was time for me to add the rope handles. When making the holes for the rope to go through, I used the biggest drill bit size I could find. However, it was still too small for the rope to fit through, so I tried making the hole bigger by drilling holes next to it and by using wood files to achieve a rounder opening. This was hard to do because of the thickness of the wood, so the holes did not turn out as circular as I would’ve liked. Another challenge was that the OEDK doesn’t have lighters or allow open flames, so I had a hard time finding something to melt the ends of the ropes with. After looking around, I decided I’d use rubber bands to secure the rope frays as I cut them, and then I’d use a hot glue gun to seal the ends. This worked out pretty well! In order to prevent the rope from falling out through the holes, I folded the ends and secured them with another rubber band. Although this is not the most elegant solution, I tested it by putting objects inside the (already heavy) box and carrying it using the handles. They were sturdy, secure, and held up nicely. If I have time later in the semester, I can easily take off the rubber bands to remove the ropes to make the holes look nicer.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, this was a great learning experience! Now I have a storage box to put some books in the meantime before I eventually build my own bookshelf 🙂

Cost Model for Woodworking manufacturing

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	1×4 Board	$0.06/in length	Lowe’s	9 (14.5” length)	$7.45
	1×4 board	$0.06/in length	Lowe’s	6 (12” length)	$4.11
	2×4 pieces (will cut in half)	$0.04/in length	Lowe’s	2 (11” length)	$0.88
	Screws	$11.98/pack of 200	Lowe’s	1 pack	$11.98
	Sand Paper	$6.98	Lowe’s	1 (5 sheets)	$6.98
	Mahogany stain	$8.98	Lowe’s	1 (half pint)	$8.98
Labor	Woodworking Operator	$16.55/hr	Salary.com	3 hours	$49.65
	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$39.14/hr	Salary.com	1 hour	$39.14
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	Orbit Sander Drill Saw	Home Depot Home Depot Home Depot	4 hrs 1 hr 2 hrs	$13 $4 $13
	Quality Control	$32.36/hr	Salary.com	0.5 hour	$16.18
Design	Engineering and Development	$0, find instruction manual online	Instructions	–	$0
	Iterations	1/crate	–	–	$0
Misc.	Waste and Scrap	Screws Wood	–	136 screws Excess wood	$8.15 $0.60
Total: $184.10