Greetings EDES 210! This time I’ve returned with a brand new project, building a wooden crate! Now you might be wondering, what’s so special about a crate? Well, that’s what I’m about to tell you, so hold your horses!
To start, this project involved woodworking, which is a skill that I have quite a lot of experience with. Everything from furniture to model airplanes, I’ve had multiple opportunities in the past to work with this material and it is one of my all-time favorites! It’s relatively easy to modify and finish, making it an essential material for use in all projects! Anyways, I first started this project by sanding all of the pre-cut wood pieces with my partner, shown below. Here you can see how each individual piece is sanded and routed as well, ensuring that anyone holding the crate will feel more comfortable doing so!
Rounded edges on pieces of wood is almost always a must given that most of the things we craft will eventually be held, transported, and used by people! No one likes having to hold onto a rough surface!
Shortly after this step, I decided that it was time to start the assembly process given that all the pieces of wood were already prepared. As such, I immediately started making the base of the crate, making sure to use all of the proper corner clamps and countersunk screws in the process. While somewhat tedious, going through the extra effort to pre-drill holes for these specialized screws made a significant difference in the fit and finish of the project as a whole. Additionally, I made sure to use a ruler to properly space each of the holes, most of which ended up being approximately 1 cm away from the edge of each piece!
As seen above, almost all of the screws were aligned perfectly (with 4 cm of spacing between screws holding the same plank), but I will acknowledge that some of the work done to prepare for the countersunk screws did end up causing some of the edges to chip off! Nothing too noticeable and all part of the woodworking process. You can see what the completed base of the crate looks like below!
After this important step, it was finally time to start building the crate vertically, so adding internal support was a necessary step. To do this, I made sure to align all four of the provided rectangular wood pieces to the corners on the inside of the base, then I proceeded to drill holes on the bottom of the base to secure each support in place! I did see a lot of classmates securing these supports to the vertical planks on the side, but I found that securing them directly to the base of the crate was far more stable!
Following this pivotal step, it was pretty simple from this point forward. I simply attached the wood planks located at the very top of the crate first, to give me a reference point to work with when trying to evenly space the planks located in the middle, in between the top and bottom. As seen below, I also attached the modified wood planks that my partner had made earlier, which was a nice touch! Small things like this make the crate much easier to carry and use.
With all of the aforementioned steps completed and checked multiple times for alignment and stability, the crate itself was complete! However, like all good engineering projects, it is always proper form to check screws and bolts again to ensure that everything is fastened properly. And in this case they were!
As seen directly above, I had completely assembled the crate and the countersunk screws truly made a huge difference in improving the look of the final design! Going through the additional planning and marking all of the holes that needed drilling in advance definitely paid off in the end! At the time of writing this post, my partner had agreed to take on the responsibility of using a wood stain to finish the crate, however, he encountered some delays! I fully expect the crate to be finished soon though and I hope you enjoyed reading this post!
For more information, here is my overall cost breakdown of this project including labor, materials, and tools:
Labor – 4 hours at a hourly rate of $15 an hour would be $60
Materials – 52 individual countersunk screws plus 15 planks of wood and 4 wooden supports would come out to be $35 (purchased in bulk and wood was already cut)
Tools – Hand drill at $40 plus tools for sanding (can vary in price) comes out to be around $100
Total Cost of the Project – $195 (assuming you have no tools to begin with)
Here is a picture of my clean workspace after the project:
