Belen and I made a crate with slats using lumber and finished it with careful sanding and red stain.

1. We first cut 10 x 14.5″ long pieces of 1×4 lumber, 6 x 12″ long pieces of 1×4 lumber and 4 x 11″ long pieces of 2×2 lumber.
2. We then used countersunk and piloted screws to attach two pieces of 14.5″ and 12″ lumber to create 3 rectangular levels of the crate. A failure in this step was that the countersinking was overestimated a few times and the screwed went in too deep. This was solved by attaching a piece of tape to the drill bit so that the depth is more uniform.
3. To one of the rectangular levels, 4 pieces of 14.5″ lumber were screwed on to create the base of the crate. This rectangular level is now the lowest level of the crate.
4. To this level and the base, 4 pieces of 2×2 lumber are screwed on to the corners vertically to support the rest of the levels. The second level was then screwed onto the vertical lumbers using a 1×4 lumber to determine the size of the slat.
5.  Finally, the third level was screwed on and the 1×4 lumber was again used to determine the slat size so that the slats are uniform. Then, the whole crate was sanded with a 100 grit, followed by the 240 grit sand paper. A hurdle in this step was that some of the pieces of wood had large pieces chipped off which were not smoothening off using a 100 grit sander. This was fixed by using a 60 grit and 80 grit sander to remove larger amounts of wood and then smoothening with a 100 grit.
6. Lastly, the crate was stained red.

Cost Estimates

1. Philips Flat Head Wood Screws ($0.060/screw) x72 = $4.32
2. 1×4 Lumber ($0.0475/inch) x 217 in = $10.31
3. 2×2 Lumber ($0.037/inch) x 44 in = $1.63
4. Miter Saw Power ($0.000133/W-hr)(840 W)(0.6 hr) = $0.07
5. Drill Power ($0.000133/W-hr)(63 W)(1.5 hr) = $0.01
6. Orbital Sander ($0.000133/W-hr)(600 W)(2 hr) = $0.16
7. Router ($0.000133/W-hr)(600 W)(0.5 hr) = $0.04
8. Stain consumed (0.15 ml/in^2)(2000 in^2)($0.02/mL) = $5.39
9. Woodworking Labor Cost ($24.81/hr)(8) = $198.48

Total = $220.41