As someone who’s always been enamored with the idea of living a transient, minimalist lifestyle, I knew from the beginning of this project that I wanted to make a container that could be easily taken apart and put back together. Inspired by the shelves and dressers that fold and collapse in my room, I wanted to recreate that on a smaller scale. My initial plan was to create a set of interlocking pieces that could be taken and apart and put together again in multiple configurations, much like a puzzle, but quickly realized that given my knowledge of woodworking and the amount of wood we were given to use.
After brainstorming a little more, I decided to create something that could ideally hold itself together without creating interlocking pieces, and settled for the concept of a container that would fit together after being placed in a stand. I decided to use triangles because the shape would be simple and would have a larger surface area, as less pieces would be needed. In making the actual container, I first cut the piece of wood given to us in half lengthwise using the miter saw in the woodshop, doing the same to the extra piece my group was given. Taking two of these halves, I cut two squares, both the same size, again with the miter saw. These two pieces were then cut diagonally with the scroll saw, which proved to be difficult as the scroll saw would vibrate the pieces and I had trouble controlling the direction of the cut–on one piece, the cut ended up being curved. This piece was discarded as I only needed three, not four triangles to complete the box.
Taking the two halves from from the extra piece of wood, I drew two rectangular boxes on each half which would later become the stands for the triangle to rest upon. Using the scroll saw, I cute the rectangles out and cute two vertical lines in the middle of each one. I originally wanted to use the scroll saw to cut out this inner portion so that the stands would form a rectangular “U” shape, but could not figure out how to do this. Instead, I used the drill press and essentially drilled holes across the center, allowing the inner portion to come out. This was an unanticipated challenge and certainly undermined the aesthetic I wanted to achieve with the container, which was one of straight, clean lines.
With the pieces cut out, I attempted multiple times to assemble them in such a way that they could freely stand and hold items, which did not happen. Natalie suggested I sand the pieces so that they fit together better, which I did using the belt sander and sanded an angle on edges of the triangles. This made it so that the pieces fit together much better, and could hold objects without collapsing. I used the wood burner to create a pattern constructed of straight lines as well. All in all, this project was a challenge as I expected the wood to be a lot more easily manipulated, and the power tools easier to work with.
