"Huh. It's a little small."

Yeah. That's what she said. Unfortunately.

The wife apparently wasn't thrilled with the L-shape instead of a straight up rectangle, but it was an easy enough build that I could easily add more length to either end if she needs more space. I should probably just do it anyway before things get planted so everything can get planted at the same time. There's plenty of room and these were an easy build.

Great. Now let's go dirt shopping.

Anyway, there was a break in the clouds this afternoon and I was able to beat the evening rain and get a liner in today, and I'm actually starting to get a little excited about what we might plant in this. May is just around the corner, and that means it will be time to get pumpkin seeds in the ground soon...

Workshops are controlled environments

Or at least more controlled than outside. Leaving the garden box in pieces made it easy to move out to the yard, sure. Even if my back was feeling slightly out of sorts. But putting it together in the yard turned out to be slightly more challenging than getting everything together in the shop with it's nice and level floor.

Placing them was deceptively simple...

But even with some challenge they came together okay.

With the help of some clamps to keep things together, the box eventually came together, albeit not quite as cleanly as it might have in the shop. It was too nice to work inside that day anyway.

Looks good, let's get some dirt. 20 cubic feet worth I guess.

This was a bit of rush, I was trying to beat the rain that was on its way in. Rain that hasn't left yet, since it's been raining pretty steadily since then, delaying getting any grass out or weed barrier down.  Again, that's a positive of working in a controlled environment. Oh well. The list of plants and veggies planned is getting pretty long, so hopefully the weather breaks again soon.

Spring, is that you? Time to garden.

It's almost time to get back outside, and that means convincing the kids not to run full speed off the landscaping around the fire pit. I think the wife asking for a garden box might be a way to also make them find another part of the yard to play daredevil.

I felt bad getting a request though, since it was one of the things on my list that I didn't get to last summer. But with the weather on track to get a little nicer now is a perfect time to get one ready. And an extra day off means I have a chance to rectify that sooner rather than later.

And since I had already meant to do this project, I had a list of materials in my head already, so a quick HD trip meant pretty soon I was unloading a bunch of cedar fence pickets, a pair of 2x3s, and some screws. Off to the races.

6-foot pickets, in decent shape.

Cut the 2x3 with a wedge to sink them into the ground.

We don't really know where to put these though, so I left things modular so I can move them out once we have a plan. That meant they came together really quickly, and with the extra time I could give them a light sanding before I sealed the exterior sides. These cedar pickets should be fairly resistant, but a little poly won't hurt either.

Test fit worked great at least.

They needed some sanding before getting sealed though.

The L-shape is to both help close out the fire pit and make things easier to walk around. A big rectangle means a lot of reaching, and with little arms planning on helping with the gardening an L-shape means direct access to anything that gets planted. Of course that's planning I'm more than happy to leave to the people with greener thumbs than mine.

coasters from scrap

One last thing about "Good Clean Fun," at least for now. I might have a few more small projects in me further down the line.

One of the shop projects they go over in the book is the coasters you can buy from the OWS. I have plenty of scrap laying around right now, and since I also had lots of time waiting for poly and lacquer to dry on the desk, I figured why not cut a few slim squares out of something and try my hand at making some. They turned out acceptable.

Get the grit out.

I cut these out of a strip from a 4x4. Not the actual 4x4, mind you, but a strip of about a quarter inch that had been trimmed off it so there was lots of sanding that needed to be done. Since it was trimmed with the circular saw and not a table saw, the strip itself was very uneven. After trimming it into square pieces, I chiseled things relatively flat. Then each one got clamped down and sanded with 60-grit to get more flat, then with 160 to get a little smoother.

Okay, fairly uniform in shape and smooth. Good enough.

Smooth enough that the stain didn't show many grit marks.

Out of everything I've made, I keep coming back to the finish on the patio table as the one I've liked the most. So I stained these with the gunstock finish and got two coats of seal with what was left of the spray lacquer. I may not have liked the fumes, but that stuff does leave a good finish.

Recycled Cheerios box as improvised painting area.

Scratching a table wouldn't be good.

Staining and sealing turned this small project I started while the desk was drying into one that took several days on its own while I waited for them to also dry, but in the end they turned out pretty well. Once dry I added felt to the bottom, since our dining table is already in rough enough shape, and now we have three classy looking coasters to use upstairs. These were so easy, and I have so much scrap around the garage right now, there are definitely going to be more in the future. Not a bad little project.

crib desk progress, start to finish

That was a fun two-month project. Now all we have to do is move it, and find the right chairs. I'm not making those.

Two months gave me a lot of time for other stuff in the garage too.

This cut was the decision I was most nervous about. Thankfully things worked.

Primer is always worth it, as proved by the first coat of paint.

Second coat, thank god.

I'm not an engineer but these seem to be doing the job.

I love my kreg jig.

Test fit, this might have been enough at this point.

Shelf and finish on.

Finished! Now I just have to get some help moving it.

 And that's it.None of these were with the panoramic lens either, so glad I picked that up.

Finished crib-desk

After liking how the plain boards looked against the blue paint, I went with a natural stain and then sealed it for a finish. Two coats of poly looked okay, but for some additional protection I used up most of the spray lacquer I had left. Lots of fumes, but a shiny, smooth desktop was worth it.  We'll see how long it stays that way once the paint and markers come out.

Ta da!

With the cable grommet caulked in, I think that's about it. Now all we have to do is find some chairs the kids won't fall out of, and figure out where we're going to put this for now. Eventually it's going in the boy's room, but it's not like he's got homework to do. It'll get more use as an art table for now.

I can't believe this took two months to get done. Actually I can, between getting sick, starting a new workout routine, and not having much time off recently that doesn't leave much extra project time. But I like how it turned out, and more importantly the kids do too.

Crib-desk getting the little details

Now that everything's sanded down, things are getting pretty close to done on the crib desk. I found enough evening time this week to add a shelf and choose a finish, now all that's left is the detail work.

Used the leftover 1x10 & 1x6 pieces to make the shelf.

Tried to get this as square as possible...

Of course adding a shelf was trickier than expected. Adding a cross-support to the cleats meant having to cut out room for the sides of the shelf for the rest to be flush to the bottom of the desktop, and then made getting everything properly attached a bit of an adventure.

Eventually I figured out I should measure and test fit the sides and back, and then attach the bottom separately. That seems to have done the trick.

Sanding, sanding, & more sanding.

Glued in. Decided on a natural finish after testing on a scrap.

Right now the desktop is just glued onto the cleats; it might not be a bad idea to add some screws from underneath since the crossbar is there. With the shelf going on around the crossbar anyway that will also help keep in place. While figuring out that, I sanded, finished, and sealed the bottom so I wouldn't have to work in a confined area once it was all put together. Based on how much trouble I had putting it all on that was the right decision.

Getting everything on & ready for stain.

With the grommet hole in and shelf attached, I think we're ready to work on the finish. Not always my favorite part but I like how this had come together. Hopefully the kids feel the same way.

Upon further review...

Huh.

Taking a closer look at the table top after a run at the end of the day, it looks like I could have been a little cleaner on how the back board was joined. Some slight chisel use and a not-insignificant amount of sanding seems to have taken care of that though.

Looks pretty good...

With some flaws when you get the macro lens out.

I would like to get a hand plane eventually, but for now I'll settle for just beating everything level. At least it's a chance to learn my way around a chisel. One drawback is it takes longer, especially when you're working on things a little at a time. If I run after the kids are down and manage to go straight to shower/bed, I can get to sleep by 11 PM. If I get distracted by something in the shop, it's usually much later. And I get distracted. A lot, as you might be able to tell by how quickly I decided to add a bottom shelf earlier in the day.

Still sanding, after trimming the boards and testing the fit.

But who can keep their hands off a good looking piece of lumber or a half-finished project just waiting to be worked on in the shop? I know I can't. Especially when I'm getting this close to being done. 

Pulaski Day is project day

Pulaski Day is primarily a Chicago holiday, named for Casimir Pulaski. Whether or not you get it off can depend on where in the area you work, but I've had it off since I started working on the south side and I love it! No complaints about an extra day off in March, regardless of who it's named for.

Last year I used it to get started on my patio table. This year it dedicated to getting a desktop together for the crib and getting ready to put it on so we can call this project complete. Of course this is after seeing Logan, since I couldn't get out of the office Friday to see it. Unfortunately, it was an idea a lot of other people had too, including the couple in front of my with their approx 15-month old. What? Oh well. I still really love a random day off.

This project has been great to work on a little bit at a time. I find myself really looking forward to carving out an hour here or there to work on it and it's gotten my excited about what else I have in mind for this spring and summer. Which is great, b/c if I was reading "Good Clean Fun" without something to work on I think I would have gone crazy.

Digging through boards at Menards today really drove that home too. Even if I did end up getting more expensive boards b/c the cheaper ones were all in lousy shape. One thing I would do very differently if I re-did the projects from a year ago - start with better boards and put them together with more care. So I don't mind paying $50 instead of $20, especially on a project for the kids. They looked good once I trimmed them and line them up on the crib at least.

Trimmed but not cut to fit yet.

I know there are better joinery techniques I could be learning and using for something like this, but some simple kreg joints and wood glue work for me. Clamp 'em up, get the screws in, and leave them alone for a while and they'll be good to go.

CLAMPS!

And inspiration has struck...

Leaving them alone is difficult though, b/c looking at the leftovers, and at the boards...do I have enough to add a lower shelf to the desk? Hmmmmmmmmm, I just might. Might want to put a cable grommet in there too in case things are still using power cords by the the time the kids are using this for homework. And suddenly I just added more work to something I thought I could finish today. Not sure how that happened. Still, I should have known better. Still have a lot of sanding, staining, and sealing in my future anyway.

If you're going to take photos, take good photos

Of course, it's not always as simple as just taking good photos.

Talking about diy projects is always more interesting when there are pictures attached, but I'm not always thrilled with my shoddy camera phone pics of whatever I'm working on. It was most noticeable working on the fireplace: I would try to get all the details I wanted in the frame but couldn't get it right. The convenience of the phone outweighs the quality most of the time. It's good to get a quick dozen shots of the boy at karate practice and hope one turns out, but not always great for a focused shot of something particular.

Anyway, that's a round-about way to introduce I was looking at a clip on lens and got one pretty cheap on Amazon. It's not great, but it did get some decent shots where I could fit more detail in.

the kit

I used one in the post about having to figure out how to fit the treadmill into the garage. Things usually aren't that curvy in real life. And if I work on something small, the macro lens will probably get better detail than just the phone itself.

without the lens

W/the lens. Believe me, things are straighter in real life.

There is an awful lot of distortion on the wide angle lens pictures though. Apparently there are fixes for this with photo editing apps but I haven't found one I like yet. So eventually, the pictures here might get better. I wouldn't hold my breath though, even as I get ready to post more crib-desk photos...

Words to live by

I mentioned a while ago that I finally got my hands on a copy of "Good Clean Fun" after hearing about it from the man himself at a book signing for "Gumption" last year. It's a fun read, but there's one passage in particular from the chapter profiling Mira Nakashima that hasn't left my head since I read it:

"In hindsight, it's easy to examine the arc of a person's life or career with a discerning eye, but when we are actually living through that life-span, its destination is not so clear. Luminaries and legends as well as abject failures are often just trying to make their rent or get kissed (or both.)"
                                                 -Nick Offerman, "Good Clean Fun," page 140

This was a good read, not surprising since I enjoyed his other books immensely. But for whatever reason this passage grabbed me and hasn't let go. A silly blog might not be the best place for headier conversations about life but I liked seeing this sentiment when and where I did. I'm just trying to have fun in the shop while I keep food on the table, just like a lot of other people.