Hello! This week, my partner James and I completed a wooden crate for storage. We used all kinds of woodworking and finishing skills, and I can’t wait to show you. We started by cutting wood to length with the miter saw. The TAs offered to cut the wood for us, but we wanted the experience marking and making accurate cuts. Unfortunately, no photos of this!

Cutting out the handles!

My first solo task, while James fell in love with the orbital sander, was to mark out and cut the handles into two of the planks. I made a paper template to ensure symmetry across each handle and across both handles, and I went to town with a jigsaw. To smooth off the resultant jagged edges, I hit it with the oscillating cylindrical sander in the woodshop. Because I knew that it would be hard to route an roundover into these once assembled, I also went ahead and routed the edges of the handles.

Laser-engraving!

Our next task before assembly was to laser-engrave “The Box” into our box. Here is James watching attentively. Posture check! We made the file in Illustrator and used scrap wood to test our settings.

During assembly of the top layer of the box.

Here’s a quick snippet of box assembly. Once we had these made (using a paper template to ensure consistent screw spacing!), we took each rectangular layer and routed the edges to a roundover. One of the requirements for intermediate was to use two different routing profiles. Unfortunately, all of the bits that had the edge bearing, which was required since we weren’t making designs in the wood, were of the same roundover profile.

Dream team: getting the table router bit switched out!

However, in lieu of this requirement, we did learn how to change out router bits in the table router!

Assembling the bottom floor planks of the box.

With all three layers complete, I turned my attention to the floor of the box. This required some precise sanding to ensure the planks fit well.

Final assembly!

Here’s James completing final assembly of our box, using scrap wood as spacers.

Hand-sanding the exterior of the box before finishing.

Sanding is an important and thankless job.

The Box, completed!

We chose Tung Oil for our finishing product for its light, natural finish and protective properties. No photos in-progress due to our use of chemicals and gloves, but our final product is displayed above. We’re super proud, and really like how the finish came out! In bringing out the grain of the wood, it also brought out some imperfections, but like last week’s heart, I believe that only makes it more special.

Cost breakdown:

Lumber: ~205″ of 1×4: ~$12. ~40″ of 2×2: ~$5.

Screws: 46 1.5″: ~$7.

Labor: ~7h * 2 people * $10/hr = $140.

Machine time: We agreed $10/h is fair, so $70.

Total: $234

This was an awesome project. I’m a lot more confident woodworking now!

Clean workspace post-sanding!