Hello everyone! In this blog we are going to present you with our very own wooden creation.

Background:

Both of us have only basic skills and knowledge regarding the tools that are used for cutting, drilling and sanding. It is a great challenge for us to build the box successfully without any practice. Therefore, we have practiced every movement on junk wood pieces and that has consumed plenty of time for us.

Part 1: Pre-cutting the wood

To get more experience on the whole making process of the box, we chose not to get the wood precut by others. We first marked the length of the woods we wanted, and then used the miter saw to cut the desired wood. Following is a picture of my partner Brian using the miter saw.

After preparing the woods, we decided to carve out handles on the 2 of the lumbers. We marked a isosceles trapezoid shape on the lumbers as shown below:

Then, we used the jigsaw to cut out the pattern.

Part 2: Pre-processing and assemblying the frames

The first step of putting together the box should be making the base frames with two 14.5” 1×4 lumbers and two 12” 1×4 lumbers. In order to join them with tightly enough, we did some pre-processing steps on the lumbers. We sanded the entire lumbers with sandpapers of 60 to 120 grits. As a result, the joining places of the corners would be flat enough to minimize any accidents that could happen while joining.

We used the corner clamp to fix the lumbers and 2 normal clamps to stablize the corner clamp. After marking the place of the pilot holes, we first used the 1/8” drill bit to drill in the pilot hole. Then, A larger bit was used to complete the countersinking. Finally, the wooden screws were applied.

This drilling process was applied to every one of the screws on the box. The three frames are all completed. We then use the router to refine the edges so that it will not be sharp to harm users.

Part 3: Assembling the box:

For every short sides of the planks, we put a screw in the middle. For the two planks on the sides, each of the long sides were fixed by three screws.

We put four 2×2 lumbers at the corners of the base frames to fix the other 2 frames. When putting second and the third frames, we placed two thin pieces of wood with equal height to ensure levelness.

 

Part 4: Post Processing:

After finishing the box assembling, the found that the support bars were higher than the crate. Therefore, we sanded them down so that it can be perfectly flat.

Subsequently, we sanded every outer surface of our box with up to 400-grits-quality sanding, and ended up like this.

Finally, we decided to put danish oil on the box to preserve the texture of the wood while protecting it from sweat and water.

Successes and Failures:

Successes:

• We did a very good job assemblying the box and sanding them so that the outer surfaces are extremely smooth.
• We carved out a handle on the box so that it has the advantage to be carried easily.
• All the sharp corners are routed and sanded. It is both aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly.

Failures:

• When counter-sinking, one of the holes was too wide so that it cracked the edge of the box with a little groove.
• The supporting 2×2 bars are a bit tilted and cannot lie on the vertical surface of the box completely.

 

Costs:

Lumber: Two Home Depot 1×4 lumbers (8ft) and four short 2×2 lumber: $11

Labor: working for 10 hours: $15 * 10  = $150

(Screws, electricity and danish oil are ignored)

Total cost: $161