Community Brag Posts

     My husband and father-in-law built this crib over many weekends. They decided against using pine since it is soft. Instead they used maple and the materials cost far more than the $50-100 estimate. The finished project is beautiful and is lovingly referred to as the bomb shelter because it is so sturdy and heavy. 

     They made it so the mattress could be raised and lowered as well as easily converted into a toddler bed. They used the crib mattress as a starting point to adjust the plans to ensure there would be no gaps between the sides of the crib and the mattress. 

      They used a router to put a dado at the top and bottom of the sides so the slats fit into the slot instead of just butting against the top of the rail in order to minimize the number of nail holes and create a nicer fit. They used one solid piece of maple plywood at the ends of the crib because there is a lot of temperature variation where we live resulting in a lot of expansion and contraction and they wanted to make sure that didn't cause any gaps.  

I honestly think Ana is a mind reader. Whenever I need plans for a particular piece of furniture, they magically appear on her site. Of course if she was a true mind reader, everything will be exactly as I need it requiring no modifications. That's what makes her plans so amazing. I can build bigger and better because I've learned to modify her plans to fit my current needs.

This Cart was no exception. I had to make mine a few inches deeper and change the height of the legs and it was a piece of cake. I put this together in less than 2 hours and finishing was easy too.

I did a blog post all about what I did differently including how I constructed a towel bar instead of the pipe. Check it out at www.thepursuitofhandyness.com

The need for a proper workbench in my garage/shop is a must, but. So is space! I already have a fold down workbench I’ve made with ¾ inch pipe & a door, but. I just need something that can handle all my tools. So, I stumbled upon these plans from the Family Handyman & couldn’t find a reason why this wouldn’t work in my shop. It has room for storage, can easily accommodate my tools & most importantly fold up to store. Easy to build too! Make sure you read all the plans first as some of the materials could be pricey, but well worth it. Technically it’s taken 2 months to build this bench, as I operate on a firefighter/teacher’s budget & during the holiday season no doubt. I ordered all the shelf standards & brackets through Amazon, $210.00 for those alone, but they hold so much weight to support your tools I figure it’s worth it. The rest materials (wood, screws) were purchased at Home Depot for around $150.00. The plans called for ¾ inch ply & it was $45.00 per sheet. However they did have a smaller thickness for $22.00 per sheet & was only a 1/32 inch thinner. I plan on topping all my surfaces with some ¼ inch tempered hardboard later on so I knew it would work. That also left me adjusting my screw size to mount my brackets. Due to the reduction in thickness of the plywood all my #8-1 inch screws needed to be adjusted to ¾ inch so to not screw through the ply. I also hit the molding isle to nab some pieces to use as furring strips to use under the shelves before attaching the brackets. This way I can sand each strip to match before mounting to make sure it lined up flat with the center top. One more thing; where it says “drill 1/8 inch hole in brackets make sure you use 1/8 inch pop rivets. I barrowed a pop rivet gun & was handed some rivets as well. Popped two & they had to be trashed because the rivet size turned out to be 5/32. So I stepped up in drill bit size & it all worked out. As I said, I’ll be topping it with some ¼ inch hardboard. I also plan to run it’s own electrical with an outlet on each post. I hope you all enjoy & this can help!

This is made by using treated lumber and concrete deck piers. The genius of this bench is that there are no screws. It fits together like a puzzle and sits on concrete deck piers. I left it untreated for a bit and decided to let the piers stay gray. The original plans called for the piers to be stained black and a stain to be applied to the wood. I wanted to post this as inspiration but will add the link to the template for the wood pieces at a later time. 

Like many others have mentioned, I wanted a 36" high table so I could use it as a bar. Ana mentioned that it would be too wide at 15 degrees so perhaps 10, after busting out some trigonometry I found that 10 degrees would give you about a 16" base and 15 would give you a 24" base. So, 12.5 degrees it came to be if you want a 20" base.

Many have said it takes 4 2x2's, that definitely holds true with this modification.

Here are my measurements, otherwise the cuts and assembly are the same as the original:

All angles are now 12.5 degrees rather than 15.

The legs are 33 3/4" from end to end

The outside edges of the legs should come to 20 1/4" wide for the base.

The stretcher will stay the same 13 3/4" on the bottom length, just cut at 12.5 degrees.

The stretcher is now 7 3/8" up from the ground, I found it was easiest to measure 7 1/2" up along the inside of the legs and line the bottom of the stretcher up at this mark.

And that's it!

A tip I used was clamping 4 2x2's together to get all the legs even, this only works if you have a sliding compound miter saw. I also recommend doing the straight cuts first and then leave the saw set at 12 1/2 degrees until you finish the project, this will keep cuts consistent.

Other modifications I made were to shorten the depth to 16 1/2" and use 2x6's for the top, I needed a narrow table in the room. I also made the depth of the sawhorses only 15 inches so the top would have a 3/4" overhang in front and back, I think this cleaned up the look some.

For this project, we followed the plans for the Firetruck Bed and also modified them a bit to fit our needs in the room. From start to finish, this project took two weeks to complete and cost us roughly $200 to build and $100 to paint. We were lucky though in that nearly everything we needed to purchase was on special or sale.

A good friend of mine, a pastor of a local church, asked me to build a pulpit for their recently finished church up in the countryside of Grenada. She showed me a picture of what she had in mind and based on that, I drew my own plan in SketchUp, and then built it out of Yellow Pine boards and Plywood.

Note to the dimensions:
After I drew the plan, and just when I was at the lumberyard to have the plywood and boards cut, I thought I might have had it estimated not wide enough, so I decided on the spot to make it 2" wider and the top panel 2" wider and deeper too. So if you'd like to build based on my plans, please consider if it's wide enough for your purposes.

This is what I used (corrected measurements here):

2x 2x8 26" long YP Boards (Base)
1x 18 1/2" x 6 1/2" Plywood (Base Support Panel)
1x 26" x 16" Plywood (Top)
1x 18 1/2" x 9" Plywood (Shelf Panel)
2x 45" x 9 1/2" Plywood (Side Panels ) - these are cut angled, see plans
1x 44 1/2" Wood Moulding (for the "stopper" on the top panel, and the "back" of the top shelf.

This rustic modern version of a pub table has multiple uses - it can rest along a wall to make a 16 foot long bar, or rolled together to form an 8 foot long pub table. It is standard counter height 36" and will accomodate seating for 8-10 counter stools. If you don't have live edge wood slabs, you can also use construction lumber (2x8s or 2x12s) to achieve similar dimensions and versatile use in a more cost effective way.

When we moved into our new house, I figured it was time to replace my girls's mattresses on the floor with actual beds. so I set about making the twin storage beds with corner unit. I primed all the wood prior to cutting and assembling, and that made things go much faster. Assembling the corner unit was tricky, since i really didn't want to have sanding and much paint in their bedroom. (i loaded in the beds first and the corner unit a week later). I added trim that wasn't on the plan, and also used the magnetic paint on the center area, although it makes a weak magnetic surface. All in all, I LOVE the way it turns out and no one can believe that I built it and didn't buy it... (although it seems obvious to me when you look closely LOL)

Fabulous home gym by Nailgun Nelly!

*Incorporated and modified the grand waterfall console plan

I had so much fun building this! I got a little creative with the corner section and decided to make it a table. I built a small hatch so that I could put in a container for ice and cold beer. When the hatch is not in use, the container can be removed and the hatch can be closed to provide more table space. I also added drink holders! 

I am a beginner diy'er and this was one of my first projects.  Also it was my first time using the Kreg jig and I loved it!  My shelving system was around 8 feet tall, 12 feet wide and 30 inches deep.  I added some extra cleats to support my deeper shelves (30") and also used thicker (5/8") plywood.  This was a fun and easy project to do!  Thanks so much!