Justin and Joseph’s Project went Crate! | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

Introduction

This week Joseph and I collaborated to make a wooden crate. Both Joseph and I had a fair amount of woodworking experience but both learned new techniques during this project. I am quite pleased with how the box turned out!

Step 1: Routing and Sanding

Routing is a technique that both Joseph and I had not done before. Prior to routing we took care to look through our precut wood to pick out which piece we wanted in which area of the crate. Uglier pieces of wood were put towards the bottom of the crate while the more pristine pieces were put towards the top. After we identified which edges on which pieces of wood need to be router we route the necessary edges and saddened every piece of wood with 120 grit sand paper on a orbital sander.

Step 2: Drilling

For drilling we used an unique to make sure our while were precisely predrilled. We measured out and drilled the holes on one piece of wood. We then used that piece of wood as a template and drilled the holes through the rest of the pieces of wood to make sure the holes were uniformly placed on all pieces of wood.

Drilling holes using our template

Step 3: Staining and Finishing

We deiced to stain our wood with a dark stain as opposed to spray painting to obtain a rugged look. We stained the wood after drilling to prevent unstained wood from being exposed.

The wood was stained Wednesday evening and we left it dry overnight before applying a spray on finish the next morning. The coat was mainly to protect the wood but also added a very desirable matte finish.

Stain being applied (with copious amounts of paper towels)

The protective coat being applied

Step 4: Screwing

Screwing the pieces of wood with a more tedious than expected. All the wood drilled with a countersink drill bit to countersink to all the screws to be driven in to be flush without splitting the wood.

To make sure the box was exactly 12″ tall the gaps between the levels need to be 0.75″ each. In order to achieve this pieces of 0.75″ thick wood was used as spacers.