Crate Assembly
I built my crate with Alexis. To begin the process of building a 12″ x 16″ x 12″ crate, we first sketched out a crate and determined the dimensions of each piece of wood. We wanted the 16″ side to extend all the way with the smaller pieces pressed between.
With our desired dimensions written down, we went to the woodshop to cut our wood using the miter saw. For our crate we cut six 16″ and 10.5″ pieces for the walls and three 14.5″ for the floor out of the 1×4″ wood. Then we cut four 11 1/4″ out of the 2×2 wood. To cut the wood, we measured one of each length, made the cut, then used the cut piece to line up the next cut. After each cut, we measured to ensure the dimensions were correct. After cutting we vacuumed the area.
After cutting we began the assembly of the walls of the crates. For assembly we used 90-degree angle clamps, drills, and drill bits for a pilot hole and counter sinking. The 90-degree angle clamp was utilized to secure the wood in place while drilling the holes and inserting the screws. The screws were placed one inch from the top edge of the wood to leave sufficient room for routing.
After making two of the walls, we took one of them to serve as the base. The floorboards were pressed to the bottom and held by a screw on each side. Before assembling the top wall, handles were cut out of the short side wall. The goal was to create handles with a trapezoidal shape. However, when I went to use the band saw I went in at the wrong angle missing the lines we had traced out. I attempted to correct instead of stopping and pulling out. This led to me rounding out the handle and once I started rounding it, it was decided to just keep going. The band saw is not designed for this type of cutting so the radius of the circle is large resulting in our handle being asymmetrical. It was decided to just continue forward and make the other handle asymmetrical as well. The second handle was done properly by adding relief cuts to facilitate the angle.
With the handles completed, the top frame was assembled in the same manner as the other two. With assembly completed, the table and bandsaw were cleaned before we left the space.
The next step was to route the edges. We grabbed spare lumber from the woodshop to practice and test different styles. The top edge of the crate was routed to have a convex shape. The remaining edges were given a concave shape with the router. Following routing, the walls were sanded down using the orbital sander. Three rounds of sanding were down using P100, P240, and P320 grits. This was finished with a P400 grit sanding done by hand.
The crate was then assembled. The 2×2 wood was placed in the corners of the base and attached with a screw. We then slid the middle section in and placed a spare piece of lumber between the middle and bottom piece for the slat spacing. Then placed the top section using the spare lumber again for spacing. Before attaching the top section, it was seen that the top wall was not level with 2×2 wood. So, we moved the top piece up to be level with the 2×2 wood, screwed it in. Since we had to move the top section up, the slat sizes were not equal resulting in us unscrewing the middle section and adjusting it so that the slats were of equal spacing.
With assembly completed, we sanded the areas around the screws that were added to hold the frame to the 2×2″ wood. The workspace was then cleaned.
The last step in creating our crate was staining. The crate was stained following the instructions on the stain can. The wood stain was applied over the crate using paint brushes in the direction of the grains. It then sat for 2 minutes until we took napkins to wipe it the access away. In some locations, the stain dripped and was not spread immediately leading to some dark streaks on our crate. The crate was left on the drying rack to dry.
With the crate dried, it is now complete!
Cost Breakdown and Estimate
The raw materials for the crate were 1×4″ lumber and 2×2″ lumber. T-25 star screws and wood stains were used to create the finished product. The tools used include the miter saw, bandsaw, 90-degree angle clamps, drills and bits, clamps, orbital sanders, sandpaper, router, and paint brushes. The tools used were all provided for by the OEDK and will not be considered in the cost of the crate. The tools used can be expensive but also are not consumed in manufacturing so they can be reused for future projects.
202.5″ of 1×4″ lumber was consumed by project. At a price of $3.18 for 8 ft, $9.54 is spent on 1×4″ lumber. 45″ of 2×2″ lumber was consumed. 8ft of 2×2 costs $3. A box of T 25-star screws costs $50.99 with each screw costing $0.04. 30 screws were used to put the crate together. The wood stain costs $14, less than a quarter was used. The total material cost of the crate is $17.24.
Alexis and I put in 10 hours of labor to create this crate. An entry level carpenter makes about $18, so paying $15/hr per person then the labor cost is $300. The total cost of the crate is then $317.24 neglecting equipment costs. The cost should be higher if tooling cost is accounted for. The price of the tools should be spread out across its lifetime and degradation of any blades should also be added. This is very expensive for a small crate and there were certainly a lot of inefficiencies in our process. With practice, the crate could be made faster and better utilization of the two workers can lead to higher efficiencies.
