Before this class, I want to say the most experience I had with assembling pieces of wood into something that resembled a useful piece of furniture or storage was following IKEA instructions to assemble a bed and drawers. And I struggled with that. So, when we were told we could work with partners for this assignment, while I regretted the inevitability of me forcing my shocking lack of woodworking expertise on anyone else in the class, I was incredibly grateful with Issy asked if we could be partners because I knew I would need help making this without totally flopping.

We almost immediately decided on pre-cut wood due to our combined lack of experience, but that ended up proving a bit of an issue, as a few of the pieces were just slightly shorter than anticipated, which led to our 2×2 and short side 1×4 pieces being about 0.25in shorter than the rubric outlined. After Issy outlined where we’d need to cut to, we evened out the pieces using the miter saw and sanding belt where needed. This was followed by using 120-grit sandpaper on the orbital sander to even out any other imbalances.

To create the handles, I used a band saw (after having attempted and failed using the jigsaw) to make a rectangular shape with curved corners on two of the long 1×4 pieces and sanded those by hand with 120-grit sandpaper.

We had decided during Tuesday’s class that we would use the butcher’s block finishing oil on all the 1x4s and spray paint the 2x2s. So, Issy began lightly coating the 1x4s in oil while I spray painted the 2x2s outside in what we deemed the prettiest color in the box.

We let these sit for an hour before buffing the oil in and let it sit until the next day before assembling. The next day, Issy assembled two of the sides, and I assembled the other side before we realized we had to route the edges, so I took care of routing and cleaning up the edges of the sides we had deemed the bottom two. Also, a little side note, Issy’s sides had much cleaner counter-sink jobs than mine, as I realized how to do it properly by the end of my work, and we both had a screw that resulted in split wood at a point, but since it was still stable, we just let them be.

Once the edges were routed and everything was ready for final assembly, we realized that all three long 1×4 pieces would not fit perfectly into the base due to previous cut jobs, so I used the band saw to take off 0.25in from one of the long edges of one of the pieces to make everything fit, and it ended up fitting perfectly after that. From here, I mapped out the locations to screw the base, and Issy screwed in the bottom planks and 2×2 columns to the base of the box. I then was able to finish by screwing in the last two sides using the method I had set up for more proper counter sinking through messing up previously and re-finished the routed edges of the box. Of course, I cleaned my station, as depicted below.

On the business front, here is the cost estimate:

• 1×4″ pine planks: $19.48 per 10ft (Home Depot) -> $38.96
• 2×2″pine: $9.62 for 8 ft -> $4.81
• Wood Screws: $16.48 for 100 -> $8.24
• Wood stain:$2.54 for 2oz -> $1.27
• TOTAL: $53.46

So, for material costs, the total ends at around $54, which is a bit more expensive than expected, but I’ve also had a tendency of purchasing inexpensive crates that break, so maybe the joke is on me. Furthermore, the price would increase with the addition of the cost of labor, but since the materials were free to me, I’ll call it even and drop that part of the cost.

While it’s incredibly imperfect, I’m proud of this; the crate shows every lesson learned and is still functional, which is a good reminder for when I get anxious that the final product can be functional and even cute with some mistakes and lessons learned and that sometimes a little (or a lot) of help can be a good thing when encountering unknown territory.

Finally, I’m so grateful for my project partner – Issy Tsai. She was so kind, helpful, and patient the whole time, and I couldn’t be happier that I got to work with her this semester 🙂