We created a 2-Level Wooden Holder from scratch, using reused fence post boards.
- Reused fence post boards (wood)
- Hand saw
- Power drill, drill bits
- Wood screws
- Ruler, sharpie (for marking)
- Drew up plan for fruit holder project
- Created 2x A boards (15 x 4 in), 2x B boards (15 x 4 in), 5x C boards (9 x 2.5 in), 4x D boards (17 x 4 in)
Lesson #1: Don't cut against the grain (perpendicular to the direction of wood markings) or else large chunks of wood will likely fall off (one knob of wood fell out of a C board)
- Finished 2 sets of "crates" as fruit holder sections!
- Kirby put one together, Lisa put one together (with Kirby's help at the end)
- Sanded each of the 12 sides of the 2x A boards and 2x B boards
- Screwed the 4 sideboards (A, B) together perpendicularly through B boards
- Then did slanted screws through the bottom of the 5 C boards (base)
- Tried: Dipped wood in water to make it wet so that drilling in screws wouldn't crack the wood as much
Lesson #2: Wetting the wood is NOT a good practice because screw grip may worsen when wood dries and wood can rot from the inside
Lesson #3: Screw wood farther from the edge of wood to prevent splitting/cracking by drilling a pilot hole before drilling screw
- Finished the entire wooden fruit holder!
- The wet crate (from Day 2) was ok! No additional cracks seen
- First trimmed down the 4x D boards to 2.5 inch width (thicker boards took longer)
- Then placed D boards on one of the B board sides to draw out slanted cuts
- Cut the slanted cuts and drilled pilot holes through D and B boards (avoiding cracks on B boards) before drilling screws in
Lesson #3 (again): Drill pilot holes! It helps a lot, and there was no cracking wood
Lesson #4: Squeeze the boards together when drilling (so there is no gap between the two wood boards at the end)
Inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M4pHhloUPY