In a time where school has been very busy, building the crate has been a great way to take my mind off of things. Summan and I began with precut wood to assemble the frames of the crate.

Assembling the frame

To assemble the frame, we began with 2 long pieces of wood and 2 short pieces of wood to build a rectangle. Since we built three frames, this translated to the following amount of material:

• 6 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber
• 6 x 12” long pieces of 1×4 lumber

To begin joining the pieces, we started by butting the long piece into the short piece using a corner clamp (see Figure 1).

Next, we used screws to attach these pieces together, drilling the screws into the face of the short piece of wood. To ensure our screws fit snugly and laid flush with the wood, we first used a countersink to create space for the screw head. We then used a 1/8″ pre-drill bit to ensure easy drilling, and finally, a star bit to drill the star-shaped screws into the wood. Note that we were unable to find a countersink drill bit, so we used a regular drill bit approximately matched to the diameter of the screwhead. The first bit we used was a smaller diameter than the screwhead and we got a bigger bit afterwards. See Figure 2 with the three drill bits that we utilized.

After using the countersink and the pre-drill bits, this is what the site looked like (see Figure 3). Subsequently, we drilled in the screw using the star bit.

We continued this process of joining the wood, butting the long piece into the short piece to fasten together. At the end, we created three rectangular frames which then moved into sanding and routing.

Sanding and routing

After joining the pieces together, the edges were sharp and wood was rough. To mitigate this, we routed and sanded our wood frames respectively. To create smooth edges, we used the table router. Summan and I consulted a lab assistant to set up the fence at a reasonable distance for us to route our pieces along. Then, we simply lined up our edge with the router bit and slid it along the fence. This process, shown in Figure 4, was repeated for all edges.

After routing, we clamped our pieces and used the orbital sander to smooth down the frames as needed. At this point, we also sanded our “posts” which were just 4 x 10-11” long pieces of 2×2 lumber pieces and out bottom pieces which were just 3 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber.

Staining

After routing and sanding, we stained all our pieces as shown in Figure 5.

Finally, we allowed everything to dry over 24 hours as shown in Figure 6. Later, we ended up moving the pieces indoors due to the humidity.

Putting It Together

Finally, everything was prepared to be assembled together. We first started by fitting the 3 x 14.5” long pieces of 1×4 lumber into the bottom of the crate. We used the same process of pre-drilling and countersinking before securing with a screw. Once the bottom was secure, we attached the posts, securing with screws on both the short and long face on the bottom layer as shown in Figure 7. Next, we used spare wood to space our frames evenly apart and secured with screws as shown in Figure 8 and Figure 9.

Finishing steps 

Lastly, we sanded with a very light hand using 440 grit sandpaper, focusing especially around the screw holes.

Here is our finished product as shown in Figure 10.

Here is our cleaned workspace, as shown in Figure 11, making sure to vacuum sawdust and wood shavings.

Cost Analysis:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	1×4 Board	$0.36/foot	homedepot.com	17 ft	$6.12
	Screws	$0.07/screw	amazon.com	44 screws	$3.08
	440 Grit SandPaper	$1.07/paper	amazon.com	1 paper	$1.07
Labor	Woodworking Operator (me!)	$22/hour	ziprecruiter.com	9 hours	$198
Overhead	Tools in personal garage workshop  Table router  Miter saw  Orbital sander	$642	Table router: homedepot.com Miter saw: homedepot.com Orbital sander: homedepot.com	1 of each	$642 (cost of all three together)