Community Brag Posts

It was a big project, and my husband did all the main stuff!
I still have to paint the inside. Since we aren't building a deck yet, we are putting it on some pavers. We bought 40 12x12 pavers and will push that out on in the next couple of days. I also will eventually attach a window box with plants. I'm planning on painting a couple of the inside walls with chalkboard paint.
It was seriously worth every amount of time and energy. If you are thinking of doing this, do it! You can, it's a great plan. Thanks Ana for the plans!

This project was made for our four year old son, after viewing an article from a known magazine he came over charmingly stating "Daddy can you build me this in a dinosaur theme??" So of I went searching and found the plans online here (Thanks Ana!) @ a cost of approx $400 and about 40 hours of work it was built. He loves it and loves to show it off to friends and family, as it has also been a hit within our neighborhood. We built it using white board wood, sanding everything down, and using just semigloss polyurethane to seal and protect the wood. All materials where obtained from either Home Depot or Lowes.

Over the winter we decided to upgrade our daughter's bed from a single to a double.  We wanted her to be involved in the concept and design.  Here is what we came up with!  

More builds/projects/tool info can be found at my YouTube page.  Would love to have you stop by!

http://www.Youtube.com/ericgreaves

We needed shelving in our backyard shed. It’s really small so getting the plywood shelving in was a challenge, but I put the ol’ baron in and figured it out. Turned out pretty nice!!

Mark

I Loved the idea of this table! It is in the kids' living room/game room. This room is usually cluttered with blankets for friends, games, game controllers and so on! I was thinking about building a storage chest for their coffee table, then I saw these plans! It is perfect! The boys even use it to clean up...WITHOUT ME FORCING THEM! Oh yeah!!!!

I wanted my table to appear to have three drawers instead of two, so I modified a bit. I also opted out on the breadboard ends and just made the top boards a little longer.

After looking at sofas in magazines and fliers, I decided I wanted to build one. For the quality (or lack of) at the price we could even dream of, it just didn't make sense to purchase one if I could build it. There are still a few little adjustments I may make as time goes on, but overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out! The pillows I made definitely added the finishing touch it needed!

It's a full 8 foot sofa designed with plenty of space underneath for storage! My plan was to build two wooden boxes on casters for the kids to use as toy boxes, but I think plastic totes will work just as well and much lighter and easier to clean! I drew up the dimensions and plans to fit what we wanted and went from there. The frame was the easiest part; took about a day. The cover and cushions on the other hand were quite a challenge. The sewing involved in this project was HUGE; took a little more than a week just for that. The pillows took an evening.

Thanks for checking out the project! Whatever you have in your heart, you can do!

First wood- building project I have ever attempted. It seemed crooked for most the time i was building it, which stressed me out and somehow it all worked out in the end! Very sturdy and think it would definitely sell for more than i paid for. Proud of it!

I built the entire project to plan.. I did however engrave my daughters name instead of painting it on.. I think it gives a little more personal touch..

My wife got a large fountain for her birthday. She likes the sound of running water while she reads. What she doesn't like is damp carpet because the fountain splashes a little, as running water is wont to do. We had a choice of returning the fountain or me getting busy to build her a table for it.

The entire project is simply 2x4s and 2x6s. The top measures 44" x 36" and is made completely of pocket hole-joined 2x6s. The base is all made of 2x4s and is 16" high (plus top). I went for a little different look on the legs with a 15 degree cut, to a height of 4".

We both liked the look the Corona square table (the top especially)...BUT! She likes to be able to vacuum under furniture without having to move it or get Down on hands and knees with the wand attachment. So...recessed cross-brace to the rescue! I rigged up the miter saw to cut 1 1/2" into my bottom braces (2x4s on edge front-to-back), the exact depth of my cross piece (a 2x4 laid flat), and made repeated cuts, then leveled with a chisel.

I made sure to adequately brace the top, since the fountain, plus rocks, plus water comes in at well over 100 pounds. The pictures aren't all that great, but what can you expect when some are taken in an unfinished basement with no windows, on a cell phone...right?

You could probably replicate this for less than the $150 I spent, but I needed the wood, new stain, urethane, and new brushes.

Thanks for the plans.  My little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters and I made this table and had lots of fun doing so.  We made a few modifications which might be useful to others:

1.  We modified the center joints (at the lower and table level) so that one 2x4 could continue across the entire diameter of the table for greater strength (see pictures for details).

2.  As recommended we extended the seats out 4".  This made it very comfortable to get in and out.

3.  We started the center with 2 pieces of 2x6 rather than 6 with the thought being that this would help strengthen the center of the table.  (see pictures for details).

4.  We added a stiffener at the center 6-way joint on the lower level to help really strengthen that center joint.  This was made out of 2 pieces of 2x6 as shown in the pictures.

Thanks,

John

I live in Japan right now and my wife and daughters went to the states to visit family for 3 weeks. I decided to make a few projects. I went to my local home improvement store (HOMES), which is a combo of Lowes, Walmart, a pet store, and a furniture store rolled into one crazy store. I purchased the wood for about 11000 yen, paint for 1080 yen, hinges 800 yen, and door knobs for 2880 yen. Grand total of basically $200. I found that it is not cheap to buy supplies over here. I modified the plan and made 16 "drawers" instead of 20 due to the height of the space where I am putting the table. I used the plan for finishing with the distressed coffee stain. I really like it in our room.

Tools:
Miter Saw
Table Saw
Jig Saw (b/c my bandsaw is down)
Oscillating Spindle Sander
Orbital Sander
Router
1/8" roundover bit
1/4" roundover bit
Kreg Jig
Tape Measure
Tri Square

Materials:
S4S Poplar
Kreg Screws
Kreg Stain Grade wood plugs
3" panhead screws with matching washers and wingnuts to attach basket to rocker.

This is my third "Ana" project. I've built her baby changing table and the child tower thing for toddlers to stand at a counter.

I built two of these rocking stands for the Moses Bassinet (found on Amazon). The first was a prototype and joints at the rockers were just straight pieces of wood cut at the angle of the rocker. I built it out of pine from the big box store and used my Kreg jig for the pocket holes.

The second one (featured) I used S4S poplar which cost more but came pretty well uniform. I still had to find boards that were free of twist and bows, but that just took time and was easy to do. I use a "lay it on the floor" method and flip it to see if it rocks, twists, etc.. It works for now. I still find myself cutting around imperfections though. With this second rocker, I molded the sides into the rocker-bottoms./
I'm saving to buy a planer, which will be the last major tool for the wood shop (garage), so then I can mill my own lumber and be done with HD and L's.

Just some observations and steps I took:

To make the rockers and other parts of the project uniform that had curves which needed to be parallel to each other, etc., I used double-sided tape and put the pieces together when cutting and sanding. I recommend using the least amount of tape as possible. I learned the hard way and on the prototype rockers, I covered the entire surface of the pieces with the tape. It took an act of God to get the pieces to release after I had spent an hour or so cutting and sanding the edges. It nearly failed to come apart and I would've had to start over because it was the 3 major components that were taped together like this. On the second run with the featured rocker, I used a couple small pieces of double-sided tape. This held together through cutting and sanding without any issue.

I rounded some of the edges w/ a 1/8th or a 1/4" roundover bit on my router. On the pieces that weren't hit by the router, I just broke the edges with sandpaper, to keep hands from getting splinters, etc.

For finish I used Minwax wood conditioner, oil based stain and polyurethane. I first sanded the entire piece to 320 by hand. I applied the conditioner as instructed. It's a must on softer wood such as pine, poplar, whitewood, etc. Otherwise, you will have blotches. After that I applied one coat of stain. I applied a coat of poly with a foam brush. I didn't like the results. I sanded it down w/ 320. I then went and bought a "nice" brush for polyurethane at the big box store for like $8.00 and applied another coat. This one came out better. I sanded it with 400 grit and applied one final coat with a fine cotton cloth.

I followed the plans on here for the most part. They are complete and were easy to follow. Thanks Ana!

I used Ana's plans for this entertainment center. I wanted tour pride my husband so I built it while my he was out of town. When he got back into town and settled in to watch television I heard him say "oh wow.....where did you buy this, it's gorgeous"! He thought I had bought it.

thanks Ana for providing easy to follow plans!

My wife wanted a table to seat 12 and she liked the looks of the 4x4 Truss Beam Table from Ana White.

So we modified the plans, our table is 54 inches wide (not 37) and 98 inches long (instead of 87). The legs are 4x6 not 4x4. The lower center beam is 4x6. The plans call for 2x4 aprons ending at the legs, we used 4x4 aprons and extended them beyond the legs to within 3 inches of the end of the table. Finally, we laid the tabletop across the table with a combination of 2x8, 2x10, and 2x12 boards.
We built this all with cedar. The cost is a little over $1,100 for materials.