Community Brag Posts

This was my first EVER wood working project.

With that being said, it took me more than just an afternoon.
I used cedar, and all the materials on the cut list had to be sanded , since I didn't like the roughness of the cedar.
I also made the box 4x8. I didn't take into account that that would require a minimum of 48 inches for the top planks. So, some of my top planks are shorter.

I also wished I had a little more instruction from which side to screw the screws in. May sound a little needy for some of you, but I never did anything with wood before. The instructions simply read attach top planks to arm rests (or something int that manner) and I wish it would have told me from which side to screw in (or give me a picture). Looking at some of the brag posts helped a lot.

Because its larger size, I decided to make the seats 3 top planks wide (and also the back rest) and made another middle cover piece to bridge the additional gap when both seats are folded down.

Also, the cedar was VERY expensive, and all the screws, hinges, and handles almost cost me as much as the wood.

The sand to fill the box ran us another $80 (for good plays and), but that was because we made it so big.

All in all, a rather pricey sandbox, but worth it because of the large custom sizes, and the cute little seats.

Pictures show the sandbox without sand, and with some of the handles still missing. I also still need to fill the holes.

Will add a picture of finished box filled with sand when it is available.

My wife and I love this table: http://www.woodlandcreekfurniture.com/graphics/DT00100NEW.pdf so I took the Farmhouse Table plan and modified it just a little bit. I used pocket screws to join the table top and eventually wound up installing 2x4 runners on the underside to sturdy the top even more. I also used my son to help keep the boards flush while I screwed them together. He though it was wonderful to help his dad out this way.

For the table frame I used a 1" straight bit in my router to put a little "flair" on the rail. The leg bracing is 1x1 scrap that I had left over from ripping the rail to size. I used my drill press on the bracing to make the recessed hole for the screws at the correct angle. I then covered the screw hole with a 5/8" red oak dowel.

I decided to go a little more traditional on the breadboard end just to see if I could do it. Its really not that hard just more time consuming. I used a 5/8" red oak dowel that I bought at the hardware store for joining the breadboard to the rest of the table top.

My table is made of a mixture of pine and spruce. I used shellac to seal the wood before staining. Shellac keeps these softwoods from splotching when they are stained. I then used Minwax Red Oak stain. I let the stain sit for about 15 minutes before wiping it off. The color turned out great. I used my Christmas money to buy an LVLP spray gun to hook up to my pancake compressor. I used the Spray-It 3000 to apply polyurethane. I put 5 coats on the frame and 10 coats on the top itself. In between each coat I used 0000 steel wool to buff the surface. The very last coat I left alone so it would shine. It left it with a little bit of an "orange peel" finish but I thought it made the table look more rustic so I left it alone.

All in all it took me about 60 hours over a 6 month period to get the table done. When you have a real job, kids, and a house to take care of it takes a while to do stuff like this.

I've got a plan for some chairs so I think I'm going to try chairs next. They say if you can build chairs you can build anything. I've built just about everything but chairs so maybe this saying will work in reverse. If the chairs go as fast as the table did, it might take another 6 months to get one done.

The wood for this table I got for free. My brother-in-law works in the lumber business and this wood was the throw away that none of the contractors wanted. All of it had been sitting in the sun and was warped, gray, and cracked. A friend from church who does woodworking for a living planed and jointed the boards straight and square for me. The lumber is construction grade pine and spruce. Most of the money I spent on this was for the spray gun, the finish, and the hardware that I used for joining the tabletop to the frame.

A help hint I found out after the fact. If you're sanding pine and spruce with a random orbit sander or any electric sander you are going to leave little "swirlies" throughout the wood. Either sand the wood by hand to prevent the "swirlies" or learn how to use a card scraper so you don't have to mess with sandpaper. The "swirlies" showed up when I applied the stain. Before then I couldn't see them. My wife thought the "swirlies" added to the rustic-ness of the table, so I left them alone.

I poured a 3 1/2" concrete pad first then bolted the completed shed to it.
Shed was easy enough to make, the plans were well done. Spent about 25 total hours on shed, including staining. Hinges were very expensive ($20 a pair with latches), spent about $400 NOT INCLUDING gravel, sand, & concrete for the pad or clamps. 

This jewelry box is a gift for a friend at work who is retiring.   It is a variation of the Easy Jewelry Box, with the following modifications:

Hinged lift-up top with mirror

Overlay drawer fronts from ¼” craft wood (Gold stencil on top false drawer front, and drawer boxes are 1/8” shorter than the shelf from front to back, to ensure the fronts sit flat against the box front and drawer back doesn't touch the box back at all)

The bottom is 2 pieces thick, to allow space for the drawer overhang and attaching the bottom moulding.

Solid wood back (instead of plywood)

Top and bottom edged with mini stop moulding to make the overhangs, and added feet made from lattice

Removable drawer divider tray and 2 heights of removable dividers for the top, made from dentil, lattice and screen bead mouldings

I really took my time on this build to get everything just right with the build and the finish.   Probably spent about 6 hours spread out over the last few weekends. 

This table is made out of Solid Oak and took me +- 6 weeks to complete.

Thanks to Ana White for the plans as I followed them to the "t" with some minor changes in the size

Final size is 10ft long x 47 1/4 inch wide and 29 9/64 inches high

I'm pretty happy with the way these chairs turned out.  It was a fun project as I did a few first, which included going to the fabric store (long waits) and got to tackle some upolstery for the first time!  I did end up with a few glue drops that did not take the stain, so I'll be researching tips and tricks to prevant that in the future!  

Also, I made these out of Popular, which pre stain was a must for cherry stain.  Next time, I would use Cherry!

Thanks to Joanne S for the original post and consults regarding the upolserty!!

Big Kids Picnic table. Made this for my daughters and they absolutely love it. Just the right size for a 9 and 6 y/o.

First cabinet in my kitchen remodel.

Slightly more elegant version of an outdoor cedar patio table. This is made from 100% cedar and joined using Kreg pocket hole screws. The finish is 2 coats of Sikkens Cetol MRD that has been hand rubbed on using a cloth, with 24 hours of dry time between coats.

I needed a picnic table for my kids to enjoy summer meals outside and when I saw the plans for the Pirate Picnic Table, I knew we needed it! But it was made for toddlers and my kids are 4 and 6 so it wouldn't work for us for very long. I decided to combine the plans for the Pirate Picnic Table and the Picnic Table for bigger kids. I turned out awesome! And then I finished it off with a nautical paint job to look like a bit of the beach was left in the backyard.

Built and painted to match toy bin.

I loved the Parson Chair plans on this site and wanted them for my dining room! I modified the plan simply by making the chair 2" narrower and the seat back 2" taller. I also made the slipcover removable (and with fringe), so that I could change it up as I wish.

There was some deviation from the original plans..  We made the storage boxes a bit taller and the headboard has several new features.

First off, the under-bed storage takes up the whole size of the bed.  So the drawers (six of them) are nice and deep.  One of the drawers is actually the dog's bed now.

The picture doesn't show it but behind the headboard there are cubbies for storing books, tablets, phones, glasses, etc.

On both sides of the headboard there are four electrical outlets plus two USB charging outlets for charging tablets, phones, etc.

There are two reading lamps on the headboard as well.

I did the construction portion while my talented wife did the amazing paint job.

Saw the other project and based everything off of that. I made some adjustments on the shelf side to ensure I could lay down 3 layers of 2x6's without it hanging off too far. At first I wasn't going to go with the rail shelf system, but I couldn't find anything that I liked at the store to make actually shelves. I did cut a 2* angle on the bottom and top of the shelf framing. I figured if I put enough weight on those shelves, I woudln't want it messing with the frame of the cart too much. On the bin side, I decided to just do different heights instead of angled because I know I'll have plenty of 3' plus. I chose to put a scrap bin on the end for anything smaller than a foot. Many of those joints were done with my Kreg setup, but not all of them. The last fix I did was add a 2x4 to the insde of the shelf frame. This was to move the shelf hangers in so that an 8' board wasn't just edge to edge (I found that to be a problem when I put some of the 1x4's on there...they would be on 2, but not always all 3). So moving each side in around 1.5" gives you about 3" to play with as far as 8' lumber goes. This enabled me to turn my old storage into bench and shelves and I'm ready to get moving on projects!

Address Sign

We picked up a couple 14.9" square plastic garden planters from Home Depot and ended up creating some wood planter boxes from pallet wood for them to sit in. 

I didn't add up the cost of these boxes, because we had most of the wood and only needed a few pieces, but I'd say they were definitely less than $10 a box. 

We altered our dimensions to fit our HD planters so they would slip in for a snug fit and made the legs flush with the top of our sides. We build a simple frame for the top, which allowed the lip of our HD planters to sit firmly on top. 

Something I didn't do, but wish I did: fill in the cracks with wood filler.  There were a couple places that really could have used it, but I was in a rush and decided to skip it.  They turned out great, but could have been even better had I taken an extra 30 minutes.  On an off weekend, we are going to use wood filler in the seams, sand them down, and do a second coat of white paint. 

Can't wait to plant these with some mums for Fall! :)

We were replacing the floors in our house so we decided to build a closet mud room. We used the plans for the smiling mudroom and altered them slightly. We didn't end up building the partitions because the left and right seats would have been too closed in. We installed bead board on the back wall and used moulding on the shelf and bench. The only hard part was that we had to actually assemble the shelves and bench in the closet because they wouldn't have fit in once built! The Kreg Jig was extremely helpful and well worth the purchase.

Modern Farmhouse Dining Room Table (with pocket hole) and 2x4 chairs with plans reposted from morelikehome.net.

Surfed the site for the right plans and dove right in. Thank you for the inspiration all!