(Crate)ative Project – Vân and Julia 🎨 | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

January 29th, 2026

For the second project of EDES 210,

With my partner-in-crime, Julia and I were set out to build a crate together. After 4 days and 3 nights consecutively, we gloriously finished crate-ting art in sawdust, sore hands, and a questionable amount of my obsession with smooth surfaces.

Tools:

Corner clamp
Table clamp
Drill
⅛” drill bit (for pilot hole)
Philips head driver
120, 180 and 320 grit sandpaper
Jointer
Scroll saw (handles)
Disc grinder (handles)
Orbital Sander (wood processing)
Belt Sander (wood processing)

Materials:

Screws (I’m using ½” thick wood so I will be using 1.5” long wood screws.)
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
Acrylic paints
A lot of patience and arm strength

Day 1 – Built the first two layers (3.5 hours)

Fighting the cold of Houston in negative -1 Celsius which felt illegal in Texas, we came to the OEDK early to work on our crate.

I had all the pre‑cut wood ready thanks to the Teaching Team. Before building anything awesome, I checked our inventory to make sure we had everything we needed.

Pre-cut woods.

All the wood pieces needed for the crate.

I noticed that the edges of the woods were sharp and could cause splinters. So, I used the belt sander to soften the corners of the 12” boards, wisely practicing on scrap wood first. Once confident, I sanded all the actual pieces until everything was smooth and assembly-ready.

Practice on scrap woods

Sand the corner of the woods. Headphone for ear protection.

Next, I use the corner clamp to line the 12″ with 14.5″ up in 90 degrees. I use ruler and pencil to mark where I would drill to make it space evenly (3cm and 6cm – two marks for two screws). I faced trouble as the drill would really be hard to pierce through the woods, requiring me to push super hard and caused redness on my hands. I also took a bit of time to get used to all the direction of the drill tool. A trick I used was having the finger lies up again the button to drill in).

I repeated this process for all four corners. I successfully assembled the first frame of the crate. Julia also worked on the second frame of the crate. Together we create the first two layers of the crates (2/3 way done and spirits very high!).

Line up the woods and drill!

First frame, finished!

To make the bottom, I lined up three 14.5” boards inside one frame. Two fit perfectly. However, the last piece didn’t fit (slightly wider than needed). So, I marked the excess part, and we went back to the wood shop again to use the jointer machine to cut it off. After watching a YouTube tutorial and practicing on scrap wood, we used the jointer to shave off the excess. All three boards fit perfectly.

Now it’s time to drill them on to the last layer to secure. Julia and I measured and marked all 6 screws we need to put on (two for each 14.5″ board).

Use a jointer to cut the excess parts.

Drill and secure the bottom with the frames.

It was getting late outside, so we were set to finish putting the two rectangular woods layers together on the 4 10″ long pieces of the corners.

Layer the wood evenly.

Space between layers

First, I lined up the corner and use wood to put between the two layers for an even spacing of 1.5″. Then, Julia and I alternatively screw all the corners. By the end of Day 1, we had two layers fully assembled and one very sturdy crate in progress. I was genuinely proud of how far we’d come.

Day 2 – Build the handles and assemble the final layer (1.5 hours)

Right after our ELEC 305 class, Julia and I were eager to finish the top layer and the handles for our crate.

Today’s challenge is to create the handle that requires the scroll saw. Neither of us have used it before so we ask Fernando (Lab Assistant) for demonstration. After practicing on scrap woods, we felt confident to do it on the actual ones.

We sketched out the part that needed to be cut off. I cut one handle and Julia cut the other. Even though we had a bit off struggle with how shaky the scroll saw made the woods and cutting and turning to cut corners, with patient and coordination we successfully cut off the trace marks.

Sketch the outline of the handles

Use the scroll machine to cut out the outline. Remember to wear your safety goggles.

Evenly cut handles

They came out nicely! However, I noticed the corners were kind of rough from the cutting. So, we went back to the woodshop for post processing. We use a disc grinder to smooth out the rough corner. The thing was the machine is a cylinder so it kind of sanded unevenly. For this, we manually used sandpaper and sand off the rough part.

Use disc grinder to smooth out the handle’s corners.

Hand sand with 180 paper grit.

Next, we assembled the last layer. Julia and I both did half of the frame so we finished it pretty quickly. Then, we assembled the last layer of the crate and screwed it on the pillars with the other two layers. I hand‑sanded the surface with 180-grit paper. It was inefficient holding it flat like a paper (no pun intended). Luckily, our TA Katherine later showed us the proper sanding block technique (saving us from sanding the entire box holding it F-L-A-T).

By the end of Day 2, the crate was officially complete. Tadaa!!!

We finished the crate!

Day 3 – Paint the box and post processing (4 hours)

Our crate was not the smoothest yet. Therefore, we focused on surface prep and aesthetics in session 3. I sanded the entire crate using an orbital sander (120 grit) and finished by hand with 320 grit. I may have gone slightly overboard – well my hands were numb from the cold and effort, and I completely wore out the 320‑grit paper. Worth it (check it out for yourself :3)

Use an orbital sander to smooth the corners and surface of the crate

120/180/320 grit sandpaper

I sanded so hard that I wore out all the 320 grit paper.

For the final step, we all had one goal in mind – putting our personal touches on the crate. As discussed, my teammate and I wanted to paint koi fish and lotus on our crate using acrylic paints. We quickly sketched out the vision on iPad and just hoped Van Gogh will somehow reincarnate into us. The name space holder is for the future laser cut name tag project.

We decided to paint two koi fish. In Chinese culture, koi fish swim upstream to the Dragon Gate against the strong currents of the Yellow River to transform into the dragons. They’re the symbolism of determination and strength – much like us when we built this crate together.

Sketches on iPad.

Julia and I are sketching the outlines on the crate.

We have Van Gogh at home 😉

Since the handles are curvy, I wanted to paint something that can wrap around them. My name – Vân means clouds in Vietnamese so I painted some on the handles!

I painted clouds and bunnies as my name – Vân means clouds in Vietnamese

Add first layer of the paint.

Add koi fish, lotus and water.

Refine the details to add depth.

We also added a layer of mod podge on the final product to protect our paintings. To finish up, I vacuumed all the dust on the crate, final sanding touch and turn it in.

Mod podge to seal the paintings.

At the end of the night, Julia and I magnificently painted a beautiful picture of koi fish in the pond. The crate looks gorgeous!!! Maybe I could have a backup plan if engineering doesn’t turn out, wink to the art department – jk or am I?

Beautiful painting using acrylic paint – by Van and Julia.

This was my first time woodworking and returning to painting in a long while. I genuinely enjoyed the process, and at moments I even felt like an art major might be calling to me. The project introduced me to many new tools, including the scroll saw, jointer, and disc grinder, which expanded both my technical skills and confidence to work with tools in the OEDK.

Julia and Van with the crate.

Thanks to my amazing partner Julia for collaborating with me and getting this project done efficiently :3 I had so much fun and would rate this experience two-ten (210) out of ten because there are two of us hehe.

P/S: I guess you can say we were crATE-ing art.

Materials Cost (estimated from Home Depot and Amazon, 2026)