Hello! I’ve just pushed myself to create a crate by myself using many woodworking, post-processing, and finishing techniques, learning a lot about the world of woodworking in the process. Here’s how it turned out.
First, I gathered some pre-cut wood for the crate. Because I only had some of the wood, I also had to cut my wood using the mitre saw.
Before I could post-process the wood, I had to clean up some of the wood stains on the original wood. To do that, I used a planer to remove the top layers of the wood that had stains on it.
Then, I sanded all the wood down using an orbital sander. I first used 60-grit paper with the sander before using a 100-grit paper. The resulting wood was smooth to the touch without any visible sawdust sticking out from the wood.
The wood planks after cutting and sanding!
Now, on to the crate assembly process!
The crate consists of 9 14.5-inch 1×4 wood planks, 6 12-inch 1×4 wood planks, and 4 9.5-inch 2×2 wood planks (the “poles”). I would have used 10.5-inch 2×2 wood planks; however, given the limited amount of wood available in the OEDK, I decided to cut them an inch shorter to save on resources.
To streamline the screw placement process and to make sure I do not have to measure the screw placement every time I have to put in a new screw, I created a little stencil template using copy paper, a ruler, and a pencil to mark the dots through which the nails will go. The dots are approximately located at one-quarter and three-quarters of the way through the width of a 1×4 wood plank.
The stencil template!
Using the stencil on a piece of wood!
After making the stencil, I used it to drill Torx countersunk self-tapping screws into the wood to assemble the “ring stages” of the crate. For each screw, I drilled the entirety of the screw’s length using a 1/8″ bit, then made the countersink using a 5/16″ drill bit, and then finally screwed in the screw using a Torx screw bit. Along the way, I had to use a few mounted corner jigs to make sure that the wood planks were intersecting each other at a 90-degree angle and to stabilize and balance the wood assembly as each “ring stage” of the crate was being built. I also used a technique where I put blue masking tape at the part where the drilling ends, so I know when to take the drill out of the wood every time I drill into the wood.
A drill with a 5/16″ bit, with tape slightly behind the front of the bit.
Two jigs to keep the “ring stage” stable!
Here’s my clean work table after assembling the ring stages:
I then decided that I would need a handle on the crate to carry it around easily, so I drew a handle pattern on the 12-inch planks of the top ring stage, after which I used a scroll saw to cut the necessary wood out to make the handle. I would say the handles were a bit uneven in how they turned out.
The handle pattern, written with a pencil on wood.
Cutting the handle out with a scroll saw!
The resulting “handle” wood pieces.
After cutting out the handles and sanding them out using sandpaper (60 to 180 to 280 grit), I rounded the edges and corners of the three-ring stages using a table router. The ring stages were then complete!
I then stained the wood using white wood stain. First, I applied a coat of wood pre-stain conditioner just in case the stain doesn’t go in properly through the wood. Then, I used a wide paintbrush to apply a coat of wood stain to all of the wood pieces, after I let them dry for some time. I left the pieces out longer than they were supposed to, so the stain ended up creating a sticky layer, which I had to rub off using some specialized paper towels and acetone. After that, I put on a coat of matte clear coat spray paint to ensure that the wood starts to have a clear, glossy finish.
The wood pieces after staining.
(Above 3 images) The wood pieces after post-processing with acetone and clear spray paint.
After removing the excess stain, I started spray painting the crate pieces to give a more glossy, colored finish, and then assembling the entire crate together as I went. I aimed for colors that represented my residential college (Will Rice), since I am involved with its culture and committees. I started spray painting the base pieces, where I used paprika-colored spray paint (yes, I didn’t know that color of paint existed). I had to apply a couple of coats before proceeding, just to ensure they had somewhat of an even coat of spray paint.
I also spray-painted the first of the ring stages and all of the wooden poles with apple-red spray paint. I also had to do a couple of coats for that one. After letting the paint dry, I attached the base pieces to the first ring stage using the same screws and the same technique I used to put together the ring stages. I also attached the four poles using the screws, though I positioned them such that the screws would go through both the ring stage and the pole. I made sure to spray paint over the screws afterwards. Note that I had to use a jigsaw on the base pieces before assembly, as I had to trim them down to size. I sanded the cut edges down afterwards.
For the second ring stage, I first put down some 1x4wooden planks in a diagonal manner so that the second ring stage is level to the first ring stage, keeping the spacing consistent along all sides of the crate. I spray-painted the second stage with yellow spray paint, and after letting the paint dry, attached the second stage to the poles using Torx countersunk screws, as shown in the image below. Again, I made sure to spray paint over the screws afterwards.
After attaching the second stage, I repeated the same spacing and attachment techniques to attach the third (handle) stage to the poles.
And after a lot of spray painting and painting fixes, the crate is finally done!
I’m proud of how this crate turned out. Despite the many hours I spent on it, I had fun designing it, and, because I worked by myself for this project, I took a lot of creative liberty on how I wanted to finish and post-process the crate. Overall, I would say that the crate is well constructed, and I think it will do a “crate” (great) job housing all of my EDES 210 projects, both in the past and in the future.
I would say that I loved how the colors turned out; however, if I were to do this crate again, I would definitely apply another coat of spray paint and in a more even fashion, as there were slight drippings of spray paint after I let the paint dry. I would also smooth the handles out more before staining and spray painting, just to make the crate easier to handle.
Here’s my clean work table after all the assembly and painting:
Cost Breakdown
- Wood
- In total, I used about 2*(14.5) + 2*(12) = 53 inches (4 feet, 5 inches) of 1×4 wooden planks, so assuming that an 8-foot piece of 1×4 wood costs $3.14 (source linked here), the cost of the 1×4 wood used in the crate would be: (($3.14)/(12 inches/foot * 8 feet))*(53 inches) = about $1.73.
- I also used about 4*(9.5) = 38 inches (3 feet, 2 inches) of 2×2 wood, so assuming an 8-foot piece of 2×2 wood costs $2.97 (source linked here), the cost of the 2×2 wood used in the crate would be: (($2.97)/(12 inches/foot * 8 feet)*(38 inches) = about $1.18.
- So, the total cost of the used wood would be: $1.73 + $1.18 = $2.91.
- Paint
- The four types of spray paint used are: apple red, paprika, yellow, and matte clear coat.
- Assuming that I used a full can of paint for each color I used in the crate design, including the clear-coat paint, the total cost of the spray-paint cans would be (using the source linked here): 4*($5.86) = $23.44.
- Other materials
- One sheet of copy paper (source linked here): ($9.44)/(500 sheets of paper) = about $0.02.
- One roll of blue masking tape (source linked here): $3.29.
- One pack of 60 screws (source linked here, assuming wood screws): $6.87.
- One can of wood stain (source linked here): $8.98.
- Labor
- I spent around 10 hours making this crate, so considering that $10 per hour is a reasonable wage, the labor cost would be: $10 * 10 hours = $100.
- Total Cost: $2.91 + $23.44 + $0.02 + $3.29 + $6.87 + $8.98 + $100 = $145.51.
Note that I also used extra tools and machinery around the OEDK, which includes orbital sanders, a table router, a mitre saw, a belt and disc sander, sandpaper, corner jig clamps, table clamps, drills, drill bits, a jigsaw, and 4 cans of spray paint.
Even though I am more confident about woodworking tools around the OEDK and woodworking in general, which will certainly be used when I do prototyping for my senior design project, who knew that a crate could be so expensive…
