Get some work done!

I really enjoyed my two week break between classes this time around. Usually I'm itching to get back to it, but I managed to get some relaxation in, including some projects around the house.

One thing I got done was adding a gate under our deck. Of course this is an area the dog was instantly curious about, and I needed to close it off. While there was still snow out I just put the old screen door in front of the gap, but now that it's a little nicer I thought I'd close it off in a more presentable fashion.

So I brought home a lattice and some pressure treated 2x4s and got to work. That lattice was a pain in the ass. Of course HD wouldn't cut it, and I understand why, but that meant bringing the whole 4x8' thing home on the roof. Dammit.

Thankfully I could fit a gate in there with one side being 48", so I only had to make one cut on the lattice. For the 2x4's, I moved the blade down on the table saw to do some pass over cuts and carved out a nice groove to drop the lattice in once I had a frame, which I mitered together with glue and kreg screws.

This was solid, but I had some small hinges I hoped would do the job. They seemed to work. And yes, this was when the dog decided to freak out about someone walking by, when I was trapped under the deck. I got out eventually.

I had some bigger screws to put the hinge on the deck post at least.

The boy was also out, and he wanted to help so I let him finish putting a hook & loop on the gate and wall to keep it closed.

Good to have those little hands around. 

Voila, one finished project. Man I needed that, b/c classes have started back up and I'm back to having no free time for the foreseeable future.

new couch arm tables

We moved around some stuff over the winter, and my arm table going over the couch and chair arms no longer fits anywhere. But it was so handy! So I had some time a little while ago to cut some scrap into tables over a single arm; here's hoping they are just as useful with the kids and dog jumping all over the place.

Simple glued miter joints instead of kreg screws for a butt.

The trick to finishing these was finding time to well, finish them. The last one saw a lot of wear so I wanted a couple of poly coats, but can't do them when we're running on the treadmill. And tiring out the dog seems to occupy just about every spare moment I have.

What I ended up doing was giving these a quick once over when I was getting the kids ready in the morning. Take their bags to the car, stop to sand the last coat or put a new one one. A week of that and these were ready to go.

So now the dog has something else to be told not to chew on. I love her but she's kind of driving me crazy right now.

It's just a box, it shouldn't be too complicated.

And yet, I almost didn't find time to finish my housewarming gift in time for it to go on its delivery. Almost.

It cost me not doing a second coat of lacquer, but I thought the box was in good enough shape looking at it last night that I decided to get some of the hardware on. I taped the hinges to the lid so they'd be lined up properly and then messed with making sure the plastic and magnet would both fit and still close. It took some playing around but everything worked.

So this morning I glued the glass on and put some felt on the back and viola, one shadow box. I tested it out with some help in the shop...

and then took it upstairs to see how it looked on the wall. But it looked a little empty, so I added some more friends.

The wife did not approve of that one, and didn't want me to get any ideas about decorating the living room with more of them. Oh well.

But it's on its way to Colorado now, hopefully it's sturdy enough to make it out there while bungied to the backseat of a goldwing. I'm sure it is, and I'm enjoying feeling like I've at least done the social minimum for a family member who's just had a big event happen in his life. Good enough for me.

Quick and easy housewarming gift

My brother and his girlfriend just bought a place out in Colorado, and since my dad is stopping by the house this weekend on his way out to a motorcycle rally, I thought I would toss together a housewarming gift for him to drop off on his way.

I didn't have much notice though, so I wondered what kind of gift I could toss together quickly and have it look halfway presentable in a couple of days. A shadow box sounded feasible, so with a quick research trip to look at plexiglass I got started.

I found an 8x11 sheet of plexiglass for just a couple of bucks, so this project was officially a go. I had a bunch of 1x3 and 1x2 scrap around, so I built frames out of both to see which one I liked better for a box size, and framed up a lid to go around the plastic to lid the box.

The 1x3 seemed like a better option. A little bulkier, but he's a brewer so that way he could maybe put a can or bottle in there. Nailed some 1/4 inch plywood on the back and viola, a box.

After picking out some hinges I chiseled mortises out for them and primed the box with spraypaint, then used some of the leftover black I had around. The lid got stained in oak and a couple of coats of spray lacquer.

 

This has been a pretty quick and sloppy build so it's not perfect, but it's coming together pretty well. Good enough to give as a gift at least. There's a handful of final steps; I need to add the felt backing to the box but want to lacquer everything again. I still need to add the magnet clasp, attach the hinges and the plastic, but I can hopefully get the detail work done in the next day or two, in time for my dad to take it with him after Friday.

A spill and a scrap arm-table

I spilled a glass of water on myself the other night; I left it on the arm of my chair and forgot about it until I went to stand up and knocked it into my lap and then the floor. Which wasn't as bad as it might have been, considering it was a plastic cup and I usually have my tablet or laptop with me but this time I did not. But the thought of drenching my surface had me hunting through my scrap bin for something I could turn into a table.

Typical set up: balanced but dangerous

Lots of scrap to use.

Thankfully I still had a good chunk of 1x10 left over from the desk, so with a few quick measurements I had the dimensions for a top and two sides that would span a pair of chair and couch arms. I needed just over 13' to span the arms, and then split the leftover equally for the two sides. I added one last bit of scrap to make one side longer to hopefully keep things steady. Time will tell.

Glued & screwed

Lightly sanded

Stained and poly'd

One thing I didn't think about until I was already staining was that adding that third piece means the long arm has grains going two different ways. It's a neat enough seam that with some sanding you can't feel the difference, but you can definitely see it. And it has cut edges on the outside vs the other pieces having finished edges that match so the stain is darker on the outside bottom edges. It's a little unsightly but you don't really see it once it's on the couch.

Ta da! New phone pic too.

Nothing like a quick scrap project to scratch my project itch. I'm starting to wonder if I should try my hand at some joint-work eventually. For now, nothing wrong with the simplest solution. Pocket screws, a little sanding, stain, poly, and we're done. Will this survive the rigors of a living room that's home to two rambunctious little ones? I honestly don't know. But it can get stashed on the console table when no one is using it. I look forward to putting my coffee and surface on it during my next day off.

Scrap wood crates

Since my initial plan to use plain 1x4s for baseboards didn’t pan out, I had a bunch of 6 footers laying around as scrap in the garage. Granted they were pretty nice scrap, but still scrap. I didn’t know what to do with them until I was coming home from work late last week and saw the horrible mess that had become our garage shelves. The idea of slapping some crates together seemed like a good idea, and a quick glance at the scrap bin said I had plenty of material around. So I snuck some time while the Bears were on to throw some together. 

Okay, that looks like it could work.

Sizing them up with some other scrap looked good, and since the garage shelves are 17” deep then I had dimensions to work from. 5 6-footers meant I had plenty to chop up, I was shooting to get three crates out of everything.

Lots of cutting, lots of noise w/the kids napping.

These were pretty nice scrap to be working with so things came together pretty cleanly. There were some off joints on the first one since I used two other scrap pieces for the front and back but they were still sturdy.

Hmmm, I don't think I planned those bottom kregs too well...

Thank goodness I had the other scrap too, b/c I ended up with enough to have bottoms and sides for three crates but only front and back for one. The other two got other scrap, and even got nails instead of screws b/c I ran out of those too. Nothing like going into a project and finishing with what you find lying around.

Glue and two nails, good to go.

It’s not like these crates are going anywhere, so as long as they can hold what I put in them and keep them semi-organized we’re good to go. These will help on the organization front but the shelves themselves probably need a second or third look at how to get cleaned up.

Jeez, an hour's+ work and barely a drop in the bucket.

But now all the random tools I’ve got for specialized jobs like painting, drywall, and tiling all have a specific spot, which sounds like it would be pretty important to staying organized.Hopefully I can finish the fireplace without buying any new tools.

scrap wood stool

This was a fun build from a few days ago.

I could not be happier with how much the kids love playing in the sandbox. It gets them outside, they use their imaginations, and it does us good to do the same. But I’m old, and my body can’t sit there forever with them. Especially if they’re out there after I’ve spent the morning mowing or adding a fence gate or drywalling or god only knows what other kind of physical labor. Thankfully, I have tons of scrap wood sitting around after all these builds and some of it was the perfect size to try and put a stool together to leave outside.

That looks like the start of something at least

This really seemed to come together quickly thanks to necessity. One minute I was in the garage looking for something else, the next I had a flash of inspiration and was slapping this together. Even had my phone in my pocket to snap a few pics real quick. Chopping a spare board, a quick 10 degree trim on the miter, trimming the back legs to length, sanding the corners down, and that’s it. Easy.

I can sit on it, so it's done.

The seat could have used some additional shaping but (butt?) it’s sturdy and that’s all it really needs to be. Doesn’t add much to the ‘pretty’ side of the equation but it can support my 220 lbs when I need it to. Using scrap from other projects means the only cost to this stool was time, and it was well worth it. That’s my kind of project.  

The fortuitiousness of extra materials

Boy that’s a fancy title. 

I have a felt banner from college that I never had a good way to display but have always wanted to put up somewhere. It doesn’t help that the banner never wanted to lay flat on anything and curls up from the bottom when it’s on a wall. I had it stashed on a shelf in the garage with the intention of getting around to it someday.

Thankfully, I bought more 1x2” than I needed for the two floater frames, and had a moment of inspiration when I realized I was possibly looking at a solution to how to hang this banner. It seems the banner’s “someday” had finally come. 

Quickly eyeballing a frame, with some glue and joiners this was an easy build. The trick, like always, is in the details. I went with the gunstock stain b/c I still love how the table looks, and not everything in the house has to be walnut.

That was quick.

A few quick poly coats for shine and voila, the frame is done. 

late-night staining after everyone else has gone to bed has become a regular event

Without plans I wasn't sure if this would work, but the top and bottom of the frame got two additional runners across to give the banner something extra to anchor to. In the end it wound up working pretty well.

Do I turn a room in to a Notre Dame room now? Probably not.

To get the banner up I went low-tech. I thought about stringing picture wire across the top to hang it, but instead just taped it to some cardboard cut smaller than the frame and then taped that to the top of the frame. The wife immediately noticed it doesn’t quite fill the frame (and pulled the whole thing off the frame, thank you very much), but again I think that’s b/c the banner itself isn’t square and wants to curl up. It's stapled in now and hasn't moved since. In any case, it’s a step up from being balled up on a garage shelf, now I just need to get a thumbs up on somewhere to hang it.