Community Brag Posts

This was such a fun build and a wonderful addition to my Christmas collection.

This was my first major woodworking project, and I am so pleased with it! I have been looking for a piece of furniture like this and couldn't find something that I liked and could afford. I spent about $180 in lumber, and also took Ana's advice and invested in a Kreg Jig. I HIGHLY recommend this! It is expensive ($100) but so worth it. I had to learn a few things along the way, and had encountered some obstacles, but in the end I am very pleased with the project. A few things I learned on my first project:

1. Exact cuts are SO important. Every 1/8" matters. It was helpful to do as many cuts as possible at the lumber store.

2. Ana mentions this in her beginners section, but it bears repeating: wood glue will repel stain. Be sure to wipe away ALL residue of wood glue before staining, and be sure to give extra sanding attention to areas that had wood glue. Otherwise you will have a white spot in the midst of your stain.

3. On this plan in particular there is one change that I recommend. Do not add the wrap around trip on the top and bottom until AFTER you have put the plywood backing on in the last step. The reason is that the plywood adds another 3/4 inch, and so there was a gap between the edge of the trip and the back on the furniture. I redid it on the top because it was so noticeable.

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.

Took 2.5 hrs to cut, fasten and sand, and approximately 24-48 hrs to paint, stain and poly.

This has been a very rewarding project. Now I have people comissioning work!

Thanks for the plans

I made this using plans submitted by pericles49. Thank you, pericles49!

I altered the design to use materials I had laying around, and changed the size to fit my space. That made it take a little longer - especially because changing the fastening pattern is still tricky for me - trying to keep screws from hitting each other.

Design

I made mine a little deeper 27-1/2" instead of 24 on the plan.

Materials

• Landscape timbers I had laying around. To save on weight, and wood, I ripped a couple of the landscape timerbers down the middle.
• Roof - 5-V crimp tin roof
• 1x4 pine boards (2nds from other projects)
• 1x4 and 1x2 cyprus boards (2nds from a construction project)

What I'd do differently next time

• The weight of the firewood is resting on the screws that fasten the floor to the posts. Next time I'll make the wood support the weight, and the screws just hold it in place.

mortise and tenon joints with dado for breadboards

I made a loft bed for my 4-year-old son using Ana's Chelsea Loft plans. When I finished, I was able to build this toddler bed for my 1-year-old using almost entirely scraps left over from the loft (save for the 1x6 runners). I skipped the curved headboard design and went with a solid piece of 1x12. I was going to round the top edges or cut a more rounded design, but my wife said she liked the squared off look better (she has lots of ideas for painting various designs on it, apparently). Since we were going to use paint and not stain, I ripped some leftover MDF board for the 1x6 footers. The whole project took a single afternoon, including cutting, assembly, woodfill and sanding. The end result is pretty sturdy. My wife laid on it with both our small children and the slats hardly bowed at all.