Homework 2: Minecrate! | ENGI 210: Prototyping and Fabrication

Cutting the Wood

Ashelin and I decided to challenge ourselves and cut our own wood. I began by using the milter saw and measuring to get

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 (in this case, we did a little over 11”)

PROCESSING THE WOOD

Once I cut the wood and fixed a few hiccups with the bottom planks fitting into the base(see picture below) with hand sanding and doing another set of bottom planks,

Ashelin and I got into a rhythm. I used the router and belt sander to smooth out the rough edges (router on the top and bottom sides for long planks, router on all sides for small planks) and Ashelin used the orbital sander to smooth out the surface.

left is me with the router, right is Ashelin outside with the orbital sander!

ASSEMBLING THE CRATE

Then, we got to assembly. I clamped down where necessary and, admittedly, we had to redo because I hadn’t noticed the dimensions would be off from the 14”x12”x12” required so we redid it. We also redid it when we had accidentally did a countersink that was too large and, thus, unable to drill any screw in it.

box clamp clamp!

Additionally, we had been using the wrong screws, however, after talking with Dr. Bisesti who was there for her 5:30 pm class, she allowed us to continue as long as we finished the bottom base with the screws we used. Then, we had to use the screws which were recommended. So, we continued with our crate! In the end, with staining and decoration, the screws aren’t really noticeable.

SPECIAL ADDITIONS: HEART HANDLES AND minecrate

Once the crate was finally assembled, we focused on the more exciting aspects. For the handles, we decided to do a heart shape which was achieved through the bandsaw and then the scroll saw. This gave us rough heart handles which was perfected and smoothed with the belt sander and the spindle sander. Ashelin then took them and sanded them again as the planks had gotten rough.

Final result

Post-processing

Here, Ashelin applied the stain once(it was a dark stain and we were afraid it’d be hard to make the crafting table with such a dark base). She let it dry overnight and we began sketching and painting over the course of a beautiful Sunday.