Community Brag Posts

Love making it!!!

This coffee bar is build with three different kinds of wood. The top and bottom shelf are floor boards from a 150 yr old barn. The front and side panels are siding from a 200 yr old barn. The legs were cut from a tree on my property. I used an Alaskan chainsaw mill to get them to thickness and a table saw to square them up. Assembled with nails, where visible for the antique look and a screws where not visible. Natural finish for natural appearance. - David Girard - (G-rod Enterprises)

I wanted to build an L shaped outdoor bar with a 2 post pergola over the grill.  I couldn't find any plans online that would fit the space I had, so I decided to build it myself with custom dimensions.  The top bar is approx. 7'3" across, and 15" wide, while the distance from the right edge (next to the house) to the end of the bar is approx. 9'1".  

I framed it with PT lumber and the 2 pergola posts are sitting on top of the pavers and supported internally within some of the framing studs.  Since the pavers sit on top of concrete, I didn't feel the need to dig up the existing pavers and achor them in the ground.  

I used hardiboard for the exterior and tiled the lower section of the bar.

For the actual high bar top, I wanted to do something unique, and found a 900 year old scrap slab of Cypress at a local lumber yard.  One side was smooth, but underneath was gouged out from different saw cuts and very uneven.  I screwed a piece of 3/4" PT plywood underneath and trimmed it with 1-1/2" Cypress.  I stained the whole thing with a dark honey colored stain and put a generous amount of poly on it once it was dry.  There are a few cracks and nicks on it, but once it was stained, it looked awesome.  

I used cedar and treated 2x4 and painted them with exterior paint. Love the way it turned out.

Jason Stump

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.

Fabulous home gym by Nailgun Nelly!

*Incorporated and modified the grand waterfall console plan

 The project was used using the same plans but I extended the floor to be 6 feet wide vice 4 feet the additional 2 feet provided the perfect amount space I wanted. I also added an extra windows  to get cross ventilation.    I also insulated the coop and put paneling on the walls and lenolium on the floors.  I dropped the back wall sheeting 1.5 inches for additional airflow since the shed doesn't have a ridge vent.   The plans are easy to follow and easily adaptable.   

This is a fun project even for beginners. If you have an interest in building a sandbox, and have some tools, I'm sure you can make this easy enough!

I used 2" X 10" wood for my sides instead of the 1" as the plans call for. This gives extra strength and more depth. When you use 2" wood, you will have to turn your 1 X 4's the other way to match the 47½" width, because with the added width of the 2 side boards, your new width is now 49¼". It's not difficult, you just have to match your 1 X 4 X 47½ boards to the proper width. It will turn out fine, they just won't match the plans or pics of those using 1 X 8's for sides.

Sorry, I'm delivering this to my grandson's house for his birthday present, so no sand, but use landscaping cloth under this sandbox, then fill with sand.

One other thing, I'm toying with the idea of matching the angle the backrest is at and re-cut new pieces of 7½" arm rests. I think that may look a little better than the rectangle blocks.

My added pics are as follows:
1. The side boards all cut, and sizing up the frame.
2. All other boards are cut; I laid them out for fit before screwing the pieces together.
3. Using a square will help you keep everything at the correct angles. Also note in this picture and the next where I used two ½" pieces of wood I ripped to keep the ½" spacing uniform. Just rip any wood to the ½" width, make 2 pieces and butt against the next board on both sides, then screw them down. Makes it VERY easy to keep a uniform gap.
4. This picture shows me using the same "spacer" when putting the hinges in place. The red arrow points to the wood spacer.
5. The first bench is complete, and working fine!!

With the wood I used in my project, I used 2½" self tapping deck screws for the frame and attaching the 1X4's to the frame; I used 2" galvanized for attaching the 1X4's to any 2X4's; and for the hinges, I used ¾" wood screws. Using these sizes prevented the screws from coming through the other side.

I bought everything needed in this project at Lowe's and it was under $90 in costs; this is all the lumber (upgrading to 2 X 10's), hinges, screws, and handles.