Community Brag Posts

My best friend has really wanted an antiqued trunk but they were way out of her price range.

I built the becca trunk but planked the top with 1x4's and 1x6's and made the trunk just a tad deeper. Worked perfectly!

For the finish I stained it minwax china red and then added gf java gel stain over the top. distressed it and sanded it until I got the look i wanted.

I cut up an old belt we had and used that for handles, found a window sash lock, nail head trim and black strap hinges at blue. The base molding I bought was only 3 1/2 inch as it was much cheaper (82 cents a foot) than the 4 inch. worked great for me.

It was a super easy and fast build! Now I get to make one for me :)

This trunk is super sturdy and she absolutely loves it!

Price breakdown for me as I had screws and nails, scrap wood for lid and even the java stain...

40.00 for one sheet of 3/4 purebond plywood (will make another trunk with other half)
13.00 for one sheet of 1/4 ply
16.40 for base moldings
2.00 nail head trim
6.00 strap hinges
12.00 minwax china red stain.
4.00 for latch

Keep in mind I am a novice at best and this took me a total of 12 hours over 2 days to construct and stain and line.  Filling will be a separate project all together!

I opted to remove the top row of lumber all around to have something to attach bird netting to to keep the critters out and make it easier to reach in, also a cost consideration. The posts are still the recommended 3 ft I also changed to 12ft X1in boards instead of 12ft x2in also in the interest of cost. 

My first wood project and I think it turned out good. Didn't want to bring out small old table into the house we bought so i built this. Fits my family of 6 and guests perfect! 

Josh

This is our 2nd project - we liked building the bookshelf so much, we decided we're gonna keep going and need a good workbench. Got these plans from the Family Handyman Website (http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Woodworking/Workbenches/how-…). They claim the cost to be $50, but it was closer to $80 for us - still a GREAT project and easy to put together with the nail gun.

Made from only 2x4's!  Much much cheaper than buying an outdoor sectional!

As our very first project we decided to go big or go home as the expression goes lol and it turned out great.

Let's start first with the list of mods that we did.

1. We wanted the bed to be higher. A lot higher. Gives more room for storage under the bed also. Plus we like high beds and it serves to keep 2 out of our 3 dogs off completely since they can't reach anymore \o/

2. We raised the footboard up 12" in height. So everything on the footboard height we just added 12" to which was really simple to do.

3. We added side rails, and despite the fact I thought wife was crazy she wanted 2 x 12 used for this. 12" wide so that it would look a lot better plus cover the the box spring and help hold mattress into place. We couldn't find a reasonable sized board that wasn't pressure treated so ended up getting a 2x12 that was 16 feet long, and just had it cut down to 7' long pieces at the store.

4. We swapped out the paneled look on the headboard and footboard with sheets of hardwood plywood. If your not adjusting the footboard as much as we did you could get away with a single sheet but we went so much higher that we had to use 2 sheet and have a lot of leftover wood.

5. We did slats to support the mattress and boxspring and added small legs to them also. We just added furring strips ($1.82ish) to both side rails on the very bottom so they would be flush. Used wood glue and 3" screws to hold them onto the side rail using clamps and made sure they were thoroughly secured. From there, we just measured across and cut 2x4's to fit and slide them into place. We used the extra parts of the 2x4's to make legs that we put into the center of the boards also to help give a bit of extra support. Plus, to ensure stuff doesn't move around at all, we added an extra furring strip cut into pieces that we used to help hold the 2x4 supports into place. Only took 1 of those to do that and works out great.

Some tips:

Now, we had issues locating 4x4's at the local big box retail hardware stores. The only options there were pressure treated (ok for our usage) but if your wanting to stain the bed would need to use an actual lumber store which could get them, but the cost was approx $3 more each and had to wait for them to come in. We opted to use pressure treated since they were already available, we were planning to paint so the look difference wouldn't matter, plus we have 2 male dogs who are being difficult about marking so the pressure treated aspect helps protect against them. -.-

As for the side rails. We looked through tons of posts and saw very little about this. What we did was attach the side rails onto the insides of the 4x4's. For the footboard end there is just under 2" of space or so that you can connect to, and of course on the headboard side you have the entire area to work with. Worked out great. We initially attached them using 2 3" screws to get them into place and make sure everything was level and squared and after that was all done added in some beefy 4" bolts that we predrilled holes for a bit to make it easier to get them in.

While we were building the bed, we went ahead and did the canopy at the same time. So we just added on a few screws, 4 corner brackets, 4 hanger bolts and then the 4 2x4's. Was approximately an extra $25 or so to do and was really quick. We were planning to do the canopy to start with anyways so bought 4 of the 4x4's and ended up with very little scrap after it was all over and done with.

Total costs all said and done including the paint was just around $300 or so. However, again if your not wanting to completely change the height of your footboard could be cut by approx $50 (cost of extra sheet of hardwood plywood).

We added a pic to show how we did the pocket holes for the hardwood plywood on the sides. Since the directions themselves call for just the 1x8's to be used figured this might help some. The kreg mounted to the workbench helps loads for the top, but not so much for the sides since we were building on our covered deck and couldn't just turn it straight up on it's side.

Final piece of advice, we debated for a long time between the Harbor Freight pocket hole jig and the Kreg version. Ended up going with the Kreg Master Kit and got a great deal on it ($111 or so plus tax) so saved a bundle there which helped. HF sends out 20% off 1 item coupons all the time, we took that to Lowe's and used it for the Kreg jig set without any problems. So would definitely recommend this if your considering and trying to decide which to buy. Cost differences between them is huge, and if your scraping it can be a great way to get the costs a lot lower.

Also, seriously, seriously, seriously, get a nail gun and air compressor. Don't nail stuff in yourself. It saves a huge amount of time. We picked up an air compressor for $150 that works awesome and has great CFM and found some great air tools off CraigsList that cut the costs for a nailer down to just $10 and gives tools to use on plenty of other projects so was a really great investment for the time it saves. Definitely beats nailing by hand with a normal hammer.

Final advice, if your painting check the weather. We had problems with the primer drying to start with since we had primed the pieces outside and left them on the deck to dry and it started pouring something awful. So the pieces had to be brought inside to finish priming and fix the parts that were messed up by the rain coming in on them. Without this complication a single coat of primer might have worked but not sure. Overall still looks great though and quite happy with the results.

As for the paint, took less than 1/2 a gallon to do all 3 coats and still have enough left over to repaint the rest of the bedroom furniture to match. Hopefully this gives enough information to help anyone looking to change things up. We were really nervous about it to start with since we were shifting so much from the original plans but it came out great and my wife loves it so I'm definitely a happy guy.

We brought all of the wood home by carefully packing it all into our lil 4 door Saturn. Yes it was a super tight fit, but it was possible. We didn't have access to a truck, and none of our local stores had a truck that was available to rent. So you shouldn't stress out if you can't get your hands on a truck it's still possible to get everything home you need to do this project. Just get as many of the huge pieces cut as possible at the store.

Second coffee table I made following these plans. Took me a while to complete only because I was on 12 hour shifts at work, but I tracked the time it took me to finish it and it was 5 hours. 

This project is one of my favourites. I loved it so much that I made 6 of them. 

They are extremely easy to make. The plans are super easy to follow.

So, after two years searching and not finding a square coffee table. I decided to see if I could build one. Having never built ANYTHING before I found Ana's plans and proceeded to get to it.
After we framed it, I kind of realized, "hey! I think I can do this."
One would think, since I belonged to a theater company for a while and I majored in theater in college, that I would have learned how to do this. However, I was very very good at walking up to people as they finished something and asking them if they needed help.
The breadboards didn't line up perfectly (the original plans were for a 2' x 4' table and I modified it. But, then i kind of fell in love with the edges.
The stain wasn't as red as I was hoping for. But it works. (Cabot Red Mahogany)
And now we have our coffee table.
I know. I know. Like bazillions of coffee tables haven't been built by humans over the years. But, this one means a lot to me. Cuz, you know, I'm really talented at handing over a credit card and asking someone else to do it for me.

Adapted from plans for Bedside charging table. Made it taller and wider to accommodate a hidden litter box inside. Cut out a cat silhouette for entry through the side. Cabinet is big enough for litter box and extra litter and scoop. Antique painted white finish distressed by sanding and used a coffee glaze over it. 

This was my 2nd woodworking project, so I was very pleased with the results. I wanted more seating and storage for my office area. I liked the look of the Farmhouse Storage Bed, so I decided to modify the plans and turn it into a bench. I made the seating area 30" wide and 68" long. Instead of headboard and footboard, I made 2 sides that were about 40" tall (36" 4x4 plus the 2x4 and 2x6). I made 3 24" deep drawers and left the back side open so that I can store electronics that need to be charged in them with the cords hanging out the back of the drawers. It was a lot of fun to make, and I know that my family will enjoy it!

Saw a basswood table just like this in Crate & Barrel for $750. And it really needed to be sanded and finished. That made wonder what one made of antique maple and oak would be worth.

I got the maple from a salvage place; three 10 foot 1 x 6s for $5 a piece. The wood looked terrible, but sanding from 80 to 320 helps anything.

Anyway, it's in my bedroom now and I already got a $650 offer for it!

It's the first "real" table I've ever made. I used my pocket hole jig and glue to build it up and it's solid as a rock.

When I do another, I'll do something different to secure the legs.

This is an absolute beginner project and took me maybe a day and a half to sand, build and finish. I sanded through at least six grits and quit at 320 because I didn't have anything finer.

About the only "non-beginner" this is that the height, width and length, as well as the distance of the bottom tray from the top are all Fibonacci relationships.

j

Tryde coffee table

This was a very easy build and I love the way it turned out - Tim