Credits: Most pictures were taken by my project partner, Isaac Zavaleta. We both made different posts and some images are cross-shared.

Introduction

The OEDK has many rules, but with this project, we decided to break one of them. “No Boom Boom in the OEDK” is a random ruleset strung above the former Eclipse workstation, and such a rule became the inspiration for the design of this project. Of course, we are not building a nuclear annihilator in the kitchen, but we are building something to make random items disappear: a crate! I don’t want to just build a simple crate, however. I want something I’ll be proud of while having fun, and the design I chose is inspired by one of the most generationally influential games. From creatin to assembly, tune in on how we are going to assemble the most bombastic crate in the OEDK.

Preparing the Material

Since we didn’t opt to have pre-cut wood, we decided to cut our own. To make the process easier, we used a clamp guide to cut our 1 by 4 lumber into 14.5″ pieces and 12″ inches, and the 2 by 2 lumber into 11″ on the miter saw. After cutting our wood, we measured for accuracy, and our planks were nearly the exact dimensions required by the project.

Before we start building, we need to plan ahead in order to minimize our mistakes as we build the crate. To do this, we have to prepare the wooden components and even them out by sanding the edges that are going to be joined (since our wood was not horribly warped, we did not have to use a planer or a jointer to help us use the wood) After sanding all the edges with 60grit, then 120 grit, then 320 grit, we were able to have semi-smooth surfaces that would line up correctly with each other, making them suitable to be joined. Despite our preparations, however, we did have some bad pieces of wood, (see Below) that would eventually make it difficult to make the crate appealing. Such pieces of wood had to have special reparations, which would be performed later in the project.

 

Assembly

The time to build the weapon of mass storage has come! To begin, we gathered corner clamps, pressure clamps, a bunch of countersunk screws, and the drill bits necessary to fasten them. To make the crate easier to customize later in the project, me and my teammate decided to only assemble the three 16×12 in. frames first, and then build the upward stilts to hold the box (i.e. make painting easier and thorough). These would be assembled by inserting the countersunk screws perpendicular to the shorter side. First, we made the pilot holes, then we created the countersink divots, and lastly, we inserted all the screws to hold the frames together. Once we had built all three frames, we picked the frame that was going to be on top and gave it its special attribute: a handle!. This handle would be rasped and filed away, and eventually sanded. (To make the other handle, we used a jigsaw because the previous method took us a ridiculous amount of time, we needed this superweapon on time!)

Below, you can see the processes we used to give shape to our crate. After we were done assembling our wood, we sanded the screw flakes away with 120 grit and sanded the whole box with 320 grit again to give it a consistent smoothness.

 

Filling, Routing, and Painting

Remember how I said that we had some broken and really messed up pieces of wood? Well, since we wanted to make our box look nearly flawless, we had to get rid of these natural imperfections (cracks, flakes, and missing knots). To repair the wood, we used Bondo multipurpose putty and sculpted away some of these imperfections. Then, we let the Bondo dry and cure and sanded it away with 120 and 320 grit for smoothness. Below, you can see an example of a crack filled and polished with Bondo putty, which reinforces the piece and makes it look better.

Once the cracks, knots, and flakes were molded away, The frames were ready for routing and painting. First, we did routing (painting and cutting again would be impractical, obviously) by using the routing table in the machine shop. First, we gave our wood a 1/4″ round edge route to make the bottom of the crate safer and at the top to make gripping the crate much more comfortable.  Then, we gave our middle layer a 3/8″ Cove route to make it look accentuated and give the box stylistic depth. We set the routing table between half and full routing potential and ended up with the following designs:

After routing, we were ready to paint each of the layers. To make the project interesting, I wanted to give it s design that is reminiscent to many individuals: the Minecraft TNT box ( I mean, the crate looks like a square too, it is fitting). Such video game item consists of two red layers, and one white later with the letters “TNT” inscribed in it. The fact that the crate and the item had similar consistencies was inevitable, and we had to give our crate such a fun pattern.

Before we painted, we tested the paint on a scrap piece of wood to see how it looked. We liked the vibrant colors and continued forward. First, we painted the bottom 3 planks to create to not miss any spots in between the planks and the bottom layer. Then, we painted the top layer with red paint as well. Next, we painted the middle layer white to finish the major details of the crate. Lastly, we painted the 2 by 2’s black to make them look gunpowdery and give the crate contrast.

To make our crate look as good and vibrant as possible, we spray-painted it with 3 layers over the course of our project, plus the finishing touches needed after vertical assembly. Using primer, sanding, and layering techniques, we were able to create a smooth, glossy coat of paint.

Now, time to paint the letters. To create a uniform print on all four sides, we measured the dimensions of the workable areas and created a “TNT” stencil. Using this method, we were able to rapidly reproduce the word around the box. To give the box an “older” personality, we smudged the letters to make it seem, once again, gunpowdery and old.

After finalizing the paint, we continued to build the box vertically and finish it.

Vertical assembly and Finishing Touches

To attach the layers vertically, we spaced each layer 1 and 1/8th of an inch so that all layers could cumulatively span 12 inches. We inserted a screw on the longer side, and one on the bottom so that all 4 of these stilts are fastened well. After the box was built, we went over the new holes, sanded them, and spray-painted the new screws so that the colors remain consistent throughout. Lastly, we sanded down the paint to get the result below.

Now we are ready to use the weapon of mass storage!.

Things to Improve

The creation of this crate came out very smooth, but we did encounter some problems while building it. Though the wood was not warped or bent, we did still have some uneven sections that made it difficult to attach other parts of the crate to it. To fix this error, we had to use multiple clamps to even out the planks and make them more usable when assembling the layers. We were able to resolve most of these instances, but I wish we had considered using a planer or sanding the uneven pieces on the sanding belt to equalize them.

Another mistake was that we accidentally flaked a small bit of wood when we were countersinking our screws. It was difficult countersinking the screws with a small margin of error and a large drill bit – you would have to fit the bit perfectly on to catch the plank behind without flaking or misguiding the screw. This happened to 3 of our screws: two were fillable with Bondo putty, but one was a bit bigger and closer to the edge, which made it nearly impossible to fix. To improve using countersunk screws, we should use a drill bit with a better flute to prevent splinters from getting trapped, creating heating, and eventually just remove an unwanted piece of wood.

For routing, everything went smoothly except the Cove route. The sides are not fully uniform as one has a little “jump” from the rest of the route and one section accidentally flaked some wood. The little jump was caused by a hard spot (we tried to route it many times but it didn’t get removed) and the flake was caused because the routing bit goes against the wood grain at the corners, making them prone to splintering. Though sanding and priming made these less obvious, they were still there. To improve of this technique, maybe routing before assembly would have been the preferred way to do things, especially when the routing bit is intrusive and concave like the Cove.

Lastly, when assembling the whole box, we ran into uneven stilts that left gaps in between the box layers and themselves. To fix this issue, we simply clamped the components as tight as possible and screwed that in. Fortunately, the integrity of the structure was well preserved after this process, enabling us to complete the box.

Despite the mistakes, the adventure of building this box was the most nostalgic and fruitful moment I’ve had in the OEDK.

Cost Model and Estimates

• 15 hours of Labor for 26/hr due to 2 people, each at $13/hr: $390 (Source: ZipRecruiter – Bottom Percentage)
• 9 14.5-inch 1 by 4s at $3.38 per 8ft: $4.59 (Source: Lowes’)
• 6 12-inch 1 by 4s at $3.38 per 8ft: $2.56 (Source: Lowes’)
• 4 10-11 inch 2 by 2s at $3.38 per 8ft: $1.48 (Source: Lowes’)
• 1 can (Volume) of Rustoleum Spray Paint in total: $6.58 (Source: Amazon)
• 48 Screws at 8 cents a piece: $3.84
• Total: $406.05