Procedure
Step 1: I cut out wood pieces according to the dimension of the box, which is 16″ x 16″ x 12″. I used a plywood base that was already cut out to be a 16″ x 16″ square. The outer frame is composed of 12 pieces of 1″ x 4″ and the inner frame is composed of 4 pieces of 2″ x 2″. With the miter saw and the table saw, I trimmed each piece of 1″ x 4″ to be around 15 3/16″ long.
Step 2: Looking at past examples, a lot of examples have an awkward gap because they rounded the edges before attaching the planks together, which was not what I wanted. Therefore, I decided to create the outer frame first and then route each edge. To attach each piece together, I used a straight edge clamp to align them together, drilled a pilot hole with the 1/8″ drill bit (2 on each plank), created a notch with a countersink bit so that the screws can be entirely flush, and drilled the screw inside. The first few screws did not go in smoothly and created some gap between the planks. After some experimentation with the depth of the countersink and pilot hole, I gradually became more experienced with the tools (Blooper #1: I accidentally broke a drill bit, it got stuck inside my crate so I had to sand it down and find my screw a new hole). Although after assembling them together, there were some gaps (not that visible) due to the uneveness of the thickness of the wood pieces and also the cut edges, the entire outer frame was constructed at this point! (Blooper #2: Sometimes the countersink drill bit was hard to control, and too much wood was taken off at some points. I fixed it by creating filler made with sawdust and wood glue.)
Step 3: Next, we ran our frames through the router using the round bit. For the bottom frame, I only rounded one side so that the other side can be attached to the base plywood. The middle and top frames were rounded on both side to create a smoother edge for holding purposes. The router set up was definitely a pain as the router height has to be constantly adjusted and it was hard to find the right radius and shape. When routing was finished, I sanded the crate and the newly rounded edge with a orbiter with a grit of 80 to shave off any edges that weren’t smooth enough, then with a grit of 120 to create a smoother surface.
Step 4: Finally, it was time to put the pieces together! Using the same mechanism, I attached the bottom outer frame to the base, then the vertical supports to the outer frame, then added the top two layers of the outer frame after measuring out even gaps between them using popsicle sticks. Because the frames weren’t even to the millimeters, there were some gaps between my vertical supports and the outer frames towards the end. After everything was assembled, I sanded the entire crate again with a grit of 120 and then 360 to create an ultra-fine surface, prepared for the staining.
Step 5: Last but not least, I stained my crate with a dark walnut color and clear-coated the crate the day after to have a glossy finish. Lesson learned: use two layers of gloves or hands would be stained as well.
And TA-DA!
Cost Analysis:
- Wood:
- 1″ x 4″: 3 x $4 = $12
- 2″ x 2″: $4
- 16″ x 16″ Plywood: $4
- Screws:
- 3″: 48 = $8
- 2″: 8 = $1
- Finish: Wood stain + clear coat = $10
- Labor: 15 hrs x $8 = $120
- Total: $159
(The equipment and tools were not taken into consideration because there were just way too many of them involved. Much of the labor prices could be avoided if I were more familiar with the tools from the beginning.)
Bonus:
