The crate was a time-consuming but rewarding assignment. Let’s dive into how we did it!

To start off, Aiman and I filled out the survey and selected the option to get pre-cut wood. This saved us a lot of time.

After collecting our pre-cut wood, Aiman and I assembled our three frames. We started with two pieces, a long and short one, ensuring the short one was clamped outside the long one. See the picture below to follow along.

Next, we marked our screw spacing on the short piece using a ruler. Screws were aligned 3/10″ from the edges. Vertically, they were spaced at 1 1/10″ and 2 1/2″ as shown in the picture below. The spacing of the screws was initially marked with pencil.

Next, we used a 1/8″ bit for our pilot holes, we used a larger bit (19/64) to create countersinks for the screws. Finally, we used a star-shaped bit to add in the screws. Refer to the image below to see the bits we used.

Here’s a picture of the process, with one screw in. We repeated this for the three frames of the crate.

After assembling the three frames, we routed and sanded each frame. To speed up the process, we used the table router and orbital sander for large areas. We used sandpaper around smaller areas that needed smoothing such as corners and screw holes.

After this, we got the three planks for the bottom and the four posts and sanded these using the orbital sander. Finally, our pieces were ready to be stained. We used a neutral brown stain that we found outside the wood shop. Here’s what it looked like wiped on.

After staining all the pieces, we wiped on a polyurethane finishing oil. This takes about 4-8 hours to dry, so we had to wait and resume the next day. Note, that we later moved these indoors to dry because the humidity outside was slowing down the drying process.

After the pieces finished drying, Aiman and I began attaching the bottom planks to the crate. We used two screws for each plank, and drilled them into the short side of the crate. We also attached the four posts as shown in the picture. The posts were secured to the bottom layer using a screw through short side of the bottom frame, and an additional screw through the long side to add extra stability. The screw holes for the posts are circled in red in the picture below.

Next, we used spacing blocks and added on the next frame. We secured it to the posts using screws. This was repeated for the third frame. Take a look at the process.

We finished off with a light sanding with P400 grit sandpaper. The completed crate is shown below, placed on the EDES 210 table. Note, we wrote our names on tape for now, because our Laser Cutter tutorial for the name place isn’t until after the assignment is due (tutorial is 2/10/25 at 3pm).

Most importantly, we made sure to clean up after ourselves and vacuum the space.

A cost summary is included below with sources linked.

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	1×4 lumber	$0.25/yard	Menards.com	5.8 yards	$5.97
	2×2 lumber	$3.8/yard	Menards.com	1.2 yards	$4.56
	Screws	$0.11/screw	Menards.com	40 screws	$4.4
	Sand Paper (400 grit)	$1.5/sheet	Menards.com	2 sheets	$3
	Sandpaper (120 grit)	$0.8/sheet	Menards.com	2 sheets	$1.6
Labor	Woodworking Operator	$18.40/hour	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	Woodworking tools (table router, orbital sanders) were used for ~ 4hrs	$73.6
	Prototyping Engineer (You!)	$36.66/hr	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	We took ~ 8 hours to assemble and post-process	$293.28
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	$150 for maintenance and upkeep	Maker Cube	–	$150
Design	Engineering and Development	$36.66/hr	US Bureau of Labor Statistics	Measuring screw spacing took ~ 30 minutes	$18.33
Total Cost: $554.74