Hello again EDES 210! This week, I build a wooden crate by myself and choose to have my wood pre-cut with the intermediate level to have the best practice with the new techniques learned during class.
Here is my initial work space and starting wood.
My pieces of wood included:
- 9 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber
- 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber
- 4 x 10-11” long pieces of 2×2 lumber
I began by using the planar and sanders to clean the imperfections of my wood. I them proceeded to clamp one of the 14.5″ and 12″ pieces in diagonal with a corner and table clamp and used 1.25″ screws to join them together using the methods we learned in class. I used the 1/8″ drill bit to make the holes, the drill bit to create the space for the screw head, and the screw driver to put the screws. This was the best part!
Here is where my first mistake happened. While I did form the rectangular shape before clamping them together, in the process of putting them in the corner cramp I somehow flipped one of the pairs and the diagonals didn’t match, making it out of square, so I had to unscrew it and reassemble it correctly.
After screwing both corners, I used the clamps to screw them together.
I then realized that I made my 2nd mistake realizing I first wanted to use the router to round the corner of my pieces, for which I used the table router in the woodshop and the manual router .
I also wanted to to make handles, for which I used two of the 12″ pieces, drew a curvature and cut small vertical lines with the vertical saw.
I then used a wood file, the round filer, and the manual router to perfect my handles. They look really pretty!
I then used the tints and a piece of cardboard I found in the recycling dumpsters to paint all of my pieces a beautiful red brown color. I then put them in the drying rack for a whole day to let them dry and cleaned the outside table.
I then used Thursday’s work day class to build my whole crate! Or that is what i thought…
I used the homework instructions to build the crate. I joined the 12″ and 14.5″ pieces again using the clamps. I then nailed the 4 11″ long pieces of 2 x 2 lumber.
I then repeated this step using two pieces to create the equal spaces between the layers.
And when I thought I was finally done…
I forgot to put the floor pieces 😭
So I separated everything again :’)
(And no, I didn’t wanted to put the skinny piece of plywood as the floor, but it’s ok, mistakes only makes us better)
So I came the next day to try again. I got all of my materials and got to work. I now knew exactly what to do, so it was much faster and easier now.
Here is my beautiful new floor!
And now I repeated the whole process again. The only difficulty I encountered during this process was the previous holes made it a little hard to re-screw it back as it was a little open, so I made new holes close to the previous ones, making it almost unnoticeable.
It was finally done! But I wanted to make some final post processing details.
I decided to sand a little bit of the 2 x 2 long pieces that stuck on the top and tint it again to make the color a little darker.
I left it to dry and came the next day to remove the excess tint.
Here is my cleaned work space on the outside of the OEDK.
At the end, it looked really beautiful. Look!
Here is my cleaned final area.
My final box meets the required specifications of 12″ x 16″x 12″and uniform gap distribution. If I could improve anything from my final crate, it would be to close a gap in an upper corner that has some weak joins from the repetitive screwing, but is still really sturdy.
The process of making this crate was really repetitive, and while making the crate was fairly easy as I had used many of the machines I used before, it was the planning process what really hurt the making of the crate. If I had planned the steps I was going to take before starting constructing, many of my errors could have been preventable. This is something I plan to correct on the rest of my homeworks and future projects, as it can really affect the quality and time consumption of the final product. I made a lot of mistakes, but it only though me how to improve my next projects.
As for cost breakdown:
2 – 10′ x 1″ x 4″ lumber planks ($5.88/each at Lowes)
1 – 8′ x 2″ x 2″ lumber planks ($2.97 at Home Depot)
50 – 1.25″ wood screws ($7.47 for 196 screws in Walmart)
8oz – oil based red mahogany stain ($8.98 at Home Depot)
I did not count the machinery such as the router, cutting saws, clamps, electric screwdrivers, sandpaper, groves and eye protection, towels, blushes or other one use items as they can be found in the OEDK and have minimal input towards the cost of the product. As for cost of labor, I won’t count the hours I used by mistakes, as that would be a lot of hours… and the client buying the crate shouldn’t pay for my mistakes, so I would count approximately 8hrs of actual labor with a cost of $7.25 with the minimal wage in Texas.
The total cost of my crate comes to approximately $89.18, which of course no one will buy. I would probably sell this to maximum $25.
