Community Brag Posts

I wanted a bunk bed for our daughters, it needed to be easily moveable like the "classic bunk beds." I also wanted stairs like the "Sweet Pea Garden" bunk bed because we have toddlers in the house. I modified the classic bunk bed to put the ladder on the end, then built the Sweet Pea stairs to fit to the opening (I think the only difference in dimensions was a 20" top stair. I didn't want the unfinished ends of plywood so I got 4'x16"x3/4" pine boards from lowes which happens to be the width of the stairs in the plan. Instead of using the 1x2's as trim on the ends of the shelves I put two of them together, one all of the way down the front of each stair and one resting on the top of the stair (screwed together) so I wouldn't lose lateral stability. I then spaced 2x2's in between to keep it "simple" looking instead of the heart shaped decorations from the sweet pea bed. I used some 1/4" paintable composite board to provide a backing to the stairs. I bolted the stairs on to the bed with some flat bar stock cut to size and 3/8' in hex bolts cut to length. I used pocket hole joints wherever possible and countersunk all other screws and used 3/8" dots from lowes to fill the holes. I painted it with a coat of primer and a coat of Glidden Trim and Door paint in antique white from the Easy Vintage Step Stool project.

We wanted a round table that would seat a full Monopoly game. To do this we needed about a 5' diameter tabletop.  The base was made consistent with the plans.  

A few tips on the base:

1. Get your angles as close to 45° as you can.  Otherwise, there will be much sanding and puttying in your future.  
2. If you want to hide your lag screw like I did, I used a spade bit to recess an area for the screw head.  Then I glued in a plug made from dowel and sanded flush.  

If you want to make a round tabletop, here is what I did (there may be better methods).  Keep in mind this was for a ~60" diameter table, I was assuming that the perimeter arc pieces would be about 4.5" wide and that I would cut the inner circle at a 50" diameter.

1. Picture 1 - I built two 5' slabs of (7) 2x4s pocket-holed together.  
2. Picture 2 - Then I cut two pieces from each slab that would later make up the 90° "pie slice" pieces.  Make sure to remove the screws that will be in the way your saw blade. Also, you just have to concern yourself with the angle since the radius will be dealt with later.  There is a lot of wood waste with this method, but I think it avoided headaches. 
3. Picture 3 - I assembled (screwed and glued) the "pie pieces"to the cross pieces. The length of the cross pieces don't matter much since they will also be to cut to a specified radius.  Since I would be cutting a 50" diameter circle, the large cross piece had to be at least 50" and the two small pieces had to be at least 22.25" (subtracting the 2x6 width).  
   1. Picture 3 - I mounted my router to a piece of MDF and drilled a hole at the necessary distance to cut a 50" diameter circle. This distance is 25" + half of the bit diameter.  Since I used a 1/2" straight bit, my point was 25.25" from the center of the router bit.  I screwed this jig to the center of the tabletop assembly so the router could pivot and cut a circle.  As for logistics, I rested this assembly on some scrap wood and kneeled on the tabletop as I was cutting it.  It took a large number of passes with the router since I was cutting through 1.5" of material. 
4. Picture 4 - The perimeter pieces required some time and geometry. I found that I would need (8) 23" 2x8 pieces (the 23" is approximate because I was a little off for some reason, though I can't recall why).  From those pieces, I used the same router jig to cut the perimeter arc pieces. You will need to make two new radius holes in teh jig to accomplish what you need.  To cut the inner arc you need a hole set at 25" - half of the bit diameter (24.75" for me).  To cut the outer arc, I used a hole that was 29 5/8" from the center of the router bit.  You may need to do some fine tuning to these pieces to get them to fit correctly, but for me it pretty minor.  I trimmed a couple pieces with a miter saw but that was it. 
5. The rest is screws and glue. 

This cart was smaller then I expected but makes a great little addition to my office

I've been building Ana White American Girl doll furniture for my two daughters for the last three years, culminating with my biggest build of all - a modified version of Ana's dollhouse.

My wife kept telling me it would end up being huge, and she was right.  The great news is that it doubles as storage when the girls aren't playing!  2 Bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathroom, and upstairs bonus room for dance and gymnastics.  78" tall x 76" wide, mounted to the wall studs for safety.   Lots of joy in our home on Christmas day.  Thanks Ana!

Large Banquette Bench with Storage (12’x7’)