[Kyle + Iñigo’s Crate] Crate Expectations! | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

Crate start

Given that I wanted more experience on the woodworking tools in the wood shop, I opted to not have pre-cut wood. As such, strolling into the wood shop, I was surprised to see that there were no more pieces of 2×2 lumber around. Thus, I decided to make use of the 2×4 plywood and cut it down to size. First measuring the length of the needed 2×2 (around 10 inches), I used the miter saw to cut a 10-inch piece of a 2×4.

Image 1: The 2×4 plywood I started with

Next, although it wasn’t demonstrated in class, I wanted to try using the table saw, as using the miter saw to cut lengthwise seemed a bit sketchy. A few push stick uses later, and the four 2×2 pieces were here. As for the 14.5-inch and 12-inch pieces of 1×4 lumber, I simply used the miter saw.

Image 2: Using the Table Saw to cut a 2×4 into 2×2 pieces

Image 3: The cut wood

wowie the power of friendship

I split the assembling work with Iñigo, with each of us making a layer. When it came down to working on the top layer, we realized we needed a handle. We knew that I was the more artistic one of us two (from ENGI 120), so I was placed in charge of drawing some kind of arc. We knew we wanted the depth of the handle to be around 2 inches, with a length of about 4 inches, so I started to try to draw a freehand arc. Failing numerous times to get an adequate result, I grabbed a roll of masking tape and traced an arc using that.

Image 4: My sad attempt at freehanding an arc

Using the band saw, I cut off a decent chunk of wood, then handed it off to Iñigo to sand it, as he was in the process of sanding everything down anyway.

Image 5: Rough cut of the handle

Repeating the process again, I then assembled the top layer as he routed the sides. Giving the sides a final sand down at 220 grit (to remove the black labels), we ended up with the following.

Image 6: The three layers

uh… i Didn’t think the great expectations bit through – where’s my superficial happiness?

Due to it being SuperBowl day, we didn’t head back into the OEDK until 9 PM. But hey, we thought there wasn’t that much to even do. All we needed to do was sand things down, stain the wood, and assemble it all. We thought this portion would take less than 2 hours.

As such, off we went. We split up the sanding work, dividing and conquering until two layers were finished. From here, I assembled the base as Iñigo sanded our top layer.

Image 7: The assembled base

Up next: staining. We chose white for its uniqueness and the elegance we thought it’d give our crate. After 5 minutes, we removed the stain. However, we soon realized we needed to wait hours for the stain to fully set. Given that I was very ill, Iñigo offered to assemble the crate in the morning.