Community Brag Posts

Made from 2 pallets, 2 x 6 x 8, leftover trim from my house, wood branch from my backyard. Attached shelf with pocket holes.

Accents:
-Handpainted lettering; painted prior to glazing entire piece
-Finials made from 4.25 inch spray painted and glazed clay pots and saucers coated with Valspar clear finish and attached together with epoxy; buttons attached to pots with E6000 adhesive
-Buttons attached mostly with small screws; a few with holes too small for screws were attached with epoxy
-Plastic flowers made from mayo and water bottles and lids; sanded, primed, spray painted, coated with Valspar clear coating; attached with screws
-Faucet knobs sanded, spray painted, glazed and attached with screws
-Plumbing pipe filled with plumber epoxy puttty; insert screw into putty before it hardened, then screwed into wood
-Gardening tool hooks made from pant wire hangers with a few beads attached; wire simply wrapped around tree branch

Not sure that I will use pallet wood again since difficult to pull apart pallets, uneven and some split boards could not be used, and required tons of sanding for those boards that could be used. I think I paid more for orbital sanding pads than the cost of buying new wood. Will use pallet wood for other non-furniture projects not requiring a perfect finish.

This is a simple project for the beginning woodworker. There are a variety of bird feeder designs available on the web but I wanted to try something a little different. Anyway, this is my try at a simple bird feeder.

Build Instructions:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Bird-Feeder-1/

I used 1x3 box pine instead of 2x4's for the bits that things sit on, and everything fits perfectly.

Originally I was planning on a 3.6m long x 0.6m deep X 1.8m high shelf.  At the lumberyard I found out that 2x4's came in 6m lengths as standard, so I adjusted this to 1.5m high instead, which worked out fine as I think 1.8m would have been a bit tall to get heavy things on top of.  Luckily for me my power points and light switches were just under this, which I didn't think about at the time!

Originally I was going to try and cut grooves for the 'rungs' of the ladder frames to slot into, hence the insets at the bottoms of the legs.  I think that the glue-and-screw construction will be plenty strong enough, though.

This took me about 4 hours to put together, and cost about NZD$170 all up, which is about USD$120.

I've got the bug.  Making things is awesome.

Made these chairs from plans found on the Kerig Jig website. I added the cup holders for convenience and lowered the seats by 2 inches to account for our short legs. Chairs were stained with an outdoor fence treatment that was tinted with a light grey color.

I decided to build bookshelves on either side of the fireplace, where it was just drywall. I wanted them to be flush with the wall, and the garage is behind the wall. So, I built them into the garage.
I put headers above where the bookshelves would be, and framed the back side in the garage with just 2x4's. I used full sheets of bead board to cover the backs and sides, and tops. Then I bought pre made shelves and put them up using quarter round to support the shelves on all three sides.
I then bought a door frame kit that I liked, that came with fluted pieces for the sides and top with decorative squares to put at the corners. I caulked and painted it all once it was built. I used a circular saw, framing nail gun, compressor, trim nail gun, chop saw and a hammer total. It was a pretty simple project but has made the space much more useable and pretty. My next project is to build a mantle and surround that matches the bookshelves.

I saw the plans on Ana White website and and used them to put this together. I changed it slightly to fit my needs. I made this for my in-laws and it was a lot of fun to do. Hardest part was using blue tape on stain and paint.

Provence table knockoff from restoration hardware (aka: providence) with 4x4s and providence benches

table modified to 90 inch length, benches to 42 inches

used lag bolts with a washer on 4x4's that show, kreg pocket screws everywhere else

note: the free-diy plans listed last have an issue with the table height. It came out 1 1/2" too high, so we made a change that I like better: we modified the table top to have a 2x4 skirt held together with kreg pocket screws that drops over the 2x4 frame above legs. we left about 3/8" gap between the skirt and framing so the framing would fit in easily. The top actually just sits on the frame so it is possible to move it in two pieces. It is so heavy and stable that we didn't worry about screwing it together.

we love it! perfect for 2 families to eat dinner together. my husband calls it Thor's table because it looks so tough.

I wanted an inexpensive but wonderful gift for a special co-worker who is having her first baby after many years of trying and painful medical treatments. I loved this PB inspired trestle table and thought the plans looked like something I could handle. Paired with the four-dollar chairs, I felt this would be a winner. I had a few burps along the way with the table project....there's a paint stick glued to the bottom of one of the legs as a shim....have no idea how that leg ended up shorter. There's also a countersink drill bit inside the table somewhere, broke right off in there! My biggest challenge with the table was the stain. I have never used the all-in-one stain before and have to say, it is a tough product to work with. It is hard to do with a brush. I brushed on my first coat and wasn't happy at all. Sanding away mistakes is an ordeal because the poly in the product hardens everything up so quickly. I really had trouble here and am still not happy with how the stain turned out....I wish I had applied the first coat with a cloth, as I did all the other coats because there is so much more control than with a brush. If I use this product again (which I probably will), I would only apply with a cloth. The chairs were a breeze, however, you may notice that my back legs are on the wrong spot....that was a mistake I made with the first chair. Since I used glue before screwing, I couldn't undo it. So I just made the second chair the same way....no big deal, but they are NOT stackable this way. I tried to use firring strips, but they were splitting like crazy, so I just used them for the seat slats and used regualar boards for the rest. The other thing I did differently was that I didn't countersink my screws on the seat boards. I painted my pocket hole screws black and let them show. This way, if my friend ever wants to change the color of the chairs, she can easily unscrew them, paint the chair and screw them back on. This was a fun and "just challenging enough" project. The table was my second build and the chairs are my third. Each project has taught me a ton!

My wife has been asking for new dressers for the boy's room for a while now but every time we go out shopping for them I am very disappointed in the quality of what is available. So I decided to make them myself. I have not made any furniture before and needed a few tools to help me out and thought what better way to get both the practice and the tools then build my own router table.

I searched the web for plans and found these great ones. I loved these plans but wanted to make a couple of changes anyway. I decide to build the table top as well as the cabinet and decided to make it a little taller to fit me better. Due to the changes and making the table top it took me 2 days to finish, 1 day for the cabinet and 1 for the top and to put it all together. (Not having used a router before it took me a while to get the template just right to cut in the insert.)

It works great and looks great in my shop. Now on to the dressers.

Your plans made this project so much easier. We love it and have gotten a lot of compliments for it.

This took about 6 hours from beginning to end, but next bench should take about 4-5 hours. Most of the time was spent on sanding the wood and waiting for the stain to dry.

Main lesson learned: Drill pilot holes throughout. I used no-drill construction screws, but it didn't pull the wood tight enough against each other. Also, stain all the wood pieces before assembling (as opposed to just the top slats as suggested in the plan). Remember that the leg pieces will not need stain on the flat surfaces, just the sides that will be exposed. Use a square tool to stay as close to 90 degrees as possible.