First thoughts: I’m not going to lie, I was afraid of the power drill for this assignment. Even after I got my one-on-one lesson on how to operate it with Dr. Wettergreen, I was afraid that I was going to hurt myself. But then, in stepped Kaira, my mentor for this project. We both made our separate crates, but it really took separate lessons one-on-one instructions from her on two different days to accomplish making this crate that I am proud of. Additionally, Kaira is the individual who cleaned the ENGI tables and organized its contents, and she is absolutely awesome for setting an example for the other students.
But let me go back to the beginning of making this crate. I started with pre-cut wood because this was my first time doing anything like this. These were the pre-cut lengths (directly from the beginners’ guide):
- 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
Before we did anything with the pre-cut wood, Kaira told me that we should sand the pieces before putting them together, just to make things easier! So I started by sanding every side of every piece of lumber with 80, then 140, then 220 grit in that order. I used the rotary sander for this part.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY: I don’t think I would have anything differently for this part. If I had followed the beginner’s guide, then I would have saved this bit till the end and then would have realized this would have been much easier to do at the beginning before any of the assembling. Thanks to Kaira for this awesome tip!
Then, it was time to put all the sides together! Kaira showed up at 8am in the morning (God Bless Her) to show me how to use the drill. She had pre-drilled pilot holes (using the ⅛” drill bit) into some of the 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber so that it would be easier for me to practice screwing in the screws. Generally done as instructed. I clamped the corner clamp to the table, joined one 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber with one 9 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber, tightened the clamp to hold it in place ensuring that there were no gaps, used the ⅛” drill bit to make a pilot hole, used a counter sink to create a wider opening for the screw head, and then used a Philips head bit to screw in the screws. Lots of mistakes were made in the process.
After 3/4 corners were assembled, this one just didn’t line up! Could it have been the wood? Or were some of the other corners not done right? I had to unscrew a previous corner and realign, but there still wasn’t much of a difference.
Tragedy of the countersink: I kept destroying the wood because the countersink would go too far in and start splitting the wood. I tried to remedy this by not going in as far with the countersink and also by sanding out the problem areas, but there are plenty of screws with messed up surrounding areas on the crate.
And some of the screws just wouldn’t go in flush on the first try. Initially, I tried to push the countersink in further, which caused the previous error mentioned, but then I just started screwing them in manually as much as possible to achieve a cleaner look.
After putting the sides together, I needed to route the edges. Kaira showed me how to use the belt sander to achieve that desired effect manually, but I had a rough time achieving uniformity, so I went to use the official router instead. I used the router edge that was already set up for me, which most resembled figure H on the beginner’s guide. I pushed the tops and bottoms of all the sides through the router, and wanted to do the edges that making up the corners as well, but decided against it due to the presence of the screws.
The end product looked like this:
What I could have done better: With some extra planning, I could have done this step at the beginning of the project, before or after sanding, and certainly before putting the screws in. I think that would have taken a bit of extra planning on regarding where the routing should be done, but I think it would have achieved a cleaner look.
Then, I placed the three bottom slats of 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber into the my most stable (non-rocking) of the three sections. They did not all initially fit, but it did take some force on my part to get them all to be even I marked out even areas on the outer lumber where I thought the bottom slats were and repeated the process mentioned above of screwing them in! On the first one, the hole made was too high and screw came up over the top of the bottom slat. So I had to remind myself to start drilling lower than my original marked spots. Please see below.
What I could Have Done Better: anticipated that the screws should have been lower? This was just a trial and error situation, and now that I’ve made this mistake once, I hope I don’t make it ever again.
I tried to make the line of screws pretty! But it was still a little off. Next, following the beginner’s guide, I set up the 4 x 10-11” long pieces of 2×2 lumber as shown above, clamped the 2×2 lumber as well as the bottom section to the table so that it wouldn’t move and screwed those screws in. Then I placed Kaira’s discarded extra slat on the bottom section to create the uniform windows and placed the second section on top of it, screwed those together, and repeated the same process with the third and final section as well.
After putting all the pieces together, I felt around on the inside and outside for areas that I felt could use better sanding. And I found that all the edges that had been routed were feeling especially harsh, do I repeated the process of sanding with the 80 and the 220 grit this time. I had to use the gloves with the sandpaper on them to really get at some of the edges.
I really like the way it turned out! I thought about adding a liquid finish to the box, but I was already satisfied with the product, and decided against it. I’ll save that for another time. So I ended up with a 16″ x 12″ x 13″ wooden crate.
Overall Reflections: I’m glad I started this project much earlier than I started the last project, and part of that is thanks to Kaira for making me start earlier. I wish I had worked on the blog while I was making the crate and then updated as I completed tasks. I think I will be doing that going forward. I would also have liked to have built in handles on the top section. Additionally, I think I would have liked to have cut my own wood, just for the experience of knowing how to use it. But here’s to having learned one more awesome thing that I literally wouldn’t have learned anywhere else in my professional career/training: how to build a crate!
Financial Cost Breakdown
- 9 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber: total ft = 130.5/12 = 10.875ft; 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber: total ft = 6ft. Total 1×4 lumber used = ~11+6 = 17ft. I have to buy at least one 12′ board and at least one 6′ board at minimum = $6.98+3.62 = $10.60.
- 4 x 11” long pieces of 2×2 lumber = total ft = 44/12 = 3.7ft = ~4ft. Price for 8 ft = 3.98. Divide by 2 for 4ft = $1.99
- 48 6×2″ wood screws = $8.98 for 166 screws so for about a 1/3 screws = 8.98/3 = $2.99
- Hours of Labor: 9 hrs x $7.25= $65.25
- OEDK tools: not involved in cost calculation
- Total Cost = 10.60+ 1.99+ 2.99+ 65.25 = $80.83
