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.

Costume updates

I had a day off coming, so not only was I able to get some more tape, I also had a flash of inspiration on how to add a tail to the wings. There was plenty of scrap (hooray) foam board after cutting the wing out, and two of them looked vaguely tail-like.

So why not put them together and tack on a tail?

This tail ended up changing shape slightly; I added a dorsal fin to tape over and give it some shape, but I also trimmed the sides down so it was less of a bee sting and more of a flight stabilizer.

Of course, once this was covered in tape it was less useful. 

Cut out a little notch to put it on and once I had more tape, it was ready to go on.

All it needs now is some elastic straps as arm bands, a bit of flame on the end and viola, one charizard costume.

Did this cost more than a store bought? Probably. But I have to say these wings look a lot better than the store bought ones. If the kids are into it, might as well give them something that wows 'em and makes it hard to walk through doors.

DIY sign posts

If we're having a garage sale, one thing we need is garage sale signs. So I picked up some cheap ones, and spent a few minutes making some stakes with all the scrap I've got around.

I was tempted for about a millisecond to just buy a handful of the thin stakes in a bucket right next to these signs, but then I realized the whole point of a sale is making some extra cash getting rid of stuff, not buying more things I could easily do myself.

Six signs are perhaps a few too many, but I can double up on them and have them somewhere people can see them from both sides. Viola!

Between a few pieces of plywood and some split 2x4 chunks, I have plenty of stuff already looking vaguely stake-like. All I had to do was trim it and put a point on it.

With these in hand and most of our prep work done, I think we're nearly ready to host a sale. Fingers crossed we don't have to postpone a week b/c of rain!

I admit, it's time

Not cleaning up after two relatively big projects was pure laziness, I will admit. But obviously March kind of got the better of me, between work and classes I couldn't find the energy to clean things up. But I'm hearing the call of re-doing the patio table with a new top, and there's no way I can do that with the shop in its current state.

Add on needing to get the bike ready for a potential bike commute and things needed to get straightened up. Nothing like spring break to kick start a little spring cleaning. Of course, I couldn't help making a bit more mess to clean up too.

First things to go were the scraps from the desk. I'm keeping them for now in case I follow through on my pizza oven idea and need clean scrap to burn, but they'll probably just be firewood eventually.

Next the workbench got swept off, and then re-sawdusted by my chopping the old table top into 2x4's I could use with new sawhorse brackets I picked up. Nothing like cleaning up to get some inspiration for another quick project.

I could at least build something in this

There's still some additional cleaning that needs done; there are new boxes of Christmas lights now and the boy's birthday present bike to put together, but nothing that would really stop me from putting a new table top together. Here's to a productive spring!

I've been framed

I came across an old Empire Strikes Back poster that I'm always too sentimental to throw out the other day, and instead of putting it away again I decided it deserved its own frame. Thankfully I had a ton of scrap around still since I'm too busy to actually clean up the shop right now, and it came together really well.

The poster itself has really weird dimensions, which is why I've never put it in an actual frame. But something like that is a perfect chance to flex my scrap muscles. With the hard board I had left over from the desk, and plenty of 2x4 halves, I could have a pretty substantial frame put together, minus a glass or plastic cover.

I trimmed the hardboard to fit the poster, then trimmed a chunk of the halved 2x4 into quarter inch strips to fit around it.

Those got routered with a channel so they could fit around the hardboard with overlap to put everything together. Freehanding with that router is still a real adventure, but I couldn't figure out the right kind of brace. I'm kind of kicking myself for not picking up a router table yet. Oh well.

I basically freehanded the dimensions to get the channels around the hardboard, and viola, one glued up frame.

What kind of stain goes best with a yellow background? Why was this on a yellow background? Who knows. I went with the darkest stain I had around. After enough sanding and stain I thought this looked pretty good. Added a few coats of the wipe on poly and we're in good shape. Usually I wouldn't go with such a dark stain. It looks a bit rough, but it has a nice 'reclaimed' materials vibe that I like. It's more than enough to be presentable I thought.

I hadn't really taken into account how to put everything together, and for how thin I cut the frame this was a challenge. I ended up just hammering in some wood joiners. It worked, and I don't think I'll be taking this apart anyway. Added a wire across the back and snuck it on the wall.

The fam noticed it eventually, but it's still up a week later. Most b/c I've been too lazy to find a more appropriate spot, and the wife hasn't been upset to the point of taking it down herself so it stays for now. It felt good to get a small project done with classes still going on, and has me think I have a painting that could use the same approach before I take it to the office...

ETA: I just realized I posted this on the first Pulaski day I've worked on in three years. I miss my extra days off, but I also feel good about not realizing this was one of them until the end of the day. I got so much done on those days though, that part is going to be hard to deal with.

Aha, something to build for the office!

I have a pretty great set-up in my new office: two big desks to spread out on, a table big enough to fit 5 people around, even a bookshelf for all my old books with some room to put pictures of the kids. Even better, it's all mine! Mine mine mine. Except when I have a meeting in it, which is quite often b/c I'm very important.

First day: I don't think there's any important detail in here. At least I hope not. 

Here's today's view from the other direction...it's nice and sunny out today.

Anyway, the one thing I wasn't crazy about right off the bat was the PC set up. I have a laptop on a dock that I can work off of a full-sized monitor from, and a wireless keyboard. But it's on a weird swivel tray, and my mouse kept falling off. At first I just moved the laptop to the other desk, which I also liked b/c I'm not crazy about not facing the door. But then I can't print and the battery life isn't great, so three months in and I still haven't quite nailed how I like to work yet. Not something to complain about though.

So I got fed up last week, took the tray off the desk myself and just put everything on the desk. It's flat, so it's a step in the right direction, but I need to raise the monitor a couple of inches. So hooray, scrap project time!

I still have not cleaned up from the last two projects. Yikes.

Ah, my favorite kind of project. Perfect to knock out in an afternoon and scratch the project itch. Between the new job and my classes, I was hoping to find something small to work on, and this definitely fit the bill. I had a few nice looking boards that didn't need much work, so I table sawed a few quick miters and glued them up. Easy.

Stopping point one: let the glue dry and it should be good. 

More wipe-on poly, man that goes on thin.

Maybe I should have tried dovetails on the joints here. Probably. Eventually. For now, miters were helpful for getting this done when I could find the time. .

Oops. Should have made it two boards wide. Oh well.

The perfect scrap project: glue a few cuts, a little sanding, and a coat or two of wipe on poly, some felt buttons on the bottom, and ta da, one easy yet functional monitor stand. It's enough work that I feel recharged, but it didn't take weeks to complete.

French cleat storage project

Turns out wanting to take a break didn't last very long. Who would have guessed that after spending all day on a PC at work I would get a little bored spending hours in the evening on a tablet at home going over course materials? Oh well. I'll just have to find some time to squeeze in DIY work to take a break. Speaking of which, things have really quieted down around the house and I'm kind of itching for a project. So when I got a little frustrated trying to get all the kids scooters and trykes organized I decided to try and add some french cleat shelving and change how things are organized.

This is definitely not working.

A long holiday weekend turned out to be perfect timing since I had an early interview last week, leaving me some time afterwards to pick up some supplies at Menards. Not as much time as I would have liked though, b/c since I already had the day off I scheduled a phone interview somewhere else for the afternoon. Yikes. Possibly changing jobs and starting school at the same time? Sure, nothing like piling on options for stress to hit. Nothing some 6" 1x4s, two sheets of plywood, and wood screws can't take care of.

This was also a perfect job for the table saw. For the cleats I just split two 1x4's into two long strips with a 45 degree miter. Then all four pieces went on the wall, putting them on studs plus a few drywall anchors just to keep things tight against the wall. Easy, right? Maybe not.

I ended up not quite sure where the studs were with the finder. There's obviously one in the door frame, and probably one by the switches. But the blue line is a pipe, you can see it between the drywall and foundation. And the red lines on the left are probably studs, but they're way off any standardized measurement I could figure out. Of course, just like everything else in this house.

Testing some cleat fit. Had to work around some stuff already on the wall.

At least I didn't hit anything electrical drilling into the wall, so I think we're all good. Unfortunately, the cleats are only going on the top half of the wall since I don't really feel up to adding masonry bits to attach more. But that might actually work out better, since I want to park stuff under the shelves once they're all up.

At first, all I really want to get out of this is more floor space to park the mower, and a custom shelf for my circular saw. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized these could hold my planes, the jig saw, the sander, the router I still haven't used...the list grew and grew. Plus, looking at it now putting the table saw under there would mean less carrying back and forth every time I use it, which would be pretty great. I love this project.

Plus some extra split 1x4's I think I'll use later.

With the other interview looming, even though the cleats were on I only had time to build a big shelf and try it out, but so far it looks great. Thankfully I have plenty of scrap for more shelves and boxes to store stuff with, and a long holiday weekend gave me some extra time to get back to them. More on that later. But a big thumbs up on this project so far. Not only is it helping with storage, each shelf becomes another gadget to put together for a custom solution. So good. 

Floating shelves for the boy

2x2 project number 2: getting the boy some shelves for even more flat surfaces for him to put his crap on.

I try not to be the parent always talking about how much better my kids have it than I did, but man oh man do my kids have it good. Without going into detail, let's just say our kids are not wanting for experiences or chances to explore what life has to offer. And the boy already has tons of trophies and medals to show for it. But along with the ridiculous amount of toys that show up any time the grandparents/uncles visit, all the trophies and medals are starting to clutter up his space. After stepping on some putting him to bed the other night, I thought it was time to make something to help get them out of the way for now.

Hence a pair of floating shelves, using all scrap from the media stand. 2x2's for the frames, boards for the actual shelves. Plus a few dowels to hang medals off of.

After the painters canvas I was pretty much down to some small scraps of the 2x2, so the two longest pieces dictated how long a pair of shelves would be. And I had scrap 1x12 and 1x10 to decide how deep they are, with leftover 1x3 to hang over the front. I was going to try and box the frames in completely but wasn't 100% sure the materials would be there. So I went simple instead. The frames would go into a stud, and I'd just lay the boards over them.

Getting a plan with lots of scrap to sort through.

I really need to clean at this point.

Kregged the 1x3 on with one edge needing a bit of a squeeze

Test fit from beneath

I added the dowels to one side of the bigger shelf to hang medals from, which had to get painted to match the rest of the frame. And since I was painting I lacquered the boards, leaving them natural.

Everything steady? Seems good...

Okay, think these will work for now.

This is my favorite part, obviously.

Getting these on was easy once we had decided how high and where to place them. They're each in one stud, with a drywall anchor too just in case. The shelf boards each got one screw in the back to keep it on the frame. Easy. I actually like how leaving them un-boxed turned out with the contrast and think these look good for now. They might not be permanent by any stretch but will do the job, and they'll be easy to replicate if he wants more later.


The last thing I want to do is just keep adding surface area for the boy to clutter up, but these are good for small stuff that's more for display vs playing with. Plus it's keeping his desk a lot clearer, just in time for school to start. Anyway, I think I've used up about all of my scrap now, so maybe I can actually get around to cleaning up which I keep putting off to do more of these small projects.

DIY painters canvas

As much as it pained me to change the media stand plans and not use the expensive 2x2's I bought specifically for the base, clearly I was going to hang onto them and use them for something else. Turns out I used them for TWO something-elses.

First, looking at the pieces standing up on their own, they seemed like a good size to make a canvas out of. I haven't had much painting time lately, but I do have a canvas drop cloth I've been holding onto for just this project. And a tall, thin canvas would fit perfectly where Vader currently is.

I started by cutting one of the longer sides at the 75% mark, and then set up a jig to make sure I trimmed the other piece at the same spot.

Then it was as simple as kregging the corners together, and viola, frame. I should maybe put a brace in the middle, or at least in each of the corners, but these are thick enough that if I get it square to begin with I think it will stay that way. It seems to be holding up so far at least.

Turns out it was just about the perfect size for the actual canvas, and I only had to cut along one edge to get it sized to fit over the frame. I did have to wash it though since the creases were pretty severe.

Eh, still not great but better

A few clamps and starting staples on one corner and things were ready to get stretched. This was exactly as difficult as I expected, since my obsessive/compulsiveness kicked in and wouldn't let me stop before I had stretched this entire things as taught as possible, but wasn't all-together impossible.

Not perfect, but tight and flat enough to paint on I think. Like I said, I've been preparing for this project for some time. So I've had some gesso just waiting to put to canvas. Of course, I had no idea how much was too much, or if I hadn't put enough on.

I swear, that's a different pic than the one up there.

At least, I think. Anyway, I left it to dry on my make shift easel until I find time to paint it.

It's about 18x42, really weird dimensions

In fact, it was so easy after this one was done I cut two scrap 2x3's to make a second similarly shaped rectangle canvas.

Cutting those in half still gave me an inch of material to work with, so I could still kreg the frame together. This one wasn't quite as clean on the corners, since there was a lot to cut off but I still kept things pretty tight.

This one's about 16x32

I loved this project for two reasons: I hated to see those 2x2s not get used, and I've been waiting to try putting my own canvas together for some time. Now I have two custom blank canvases ready to go and probably more in the future. I might not have saved any money technically on the first one since I was using expensive wood for the frame, but using actual scrap on the second probably put me back in the black. I can see this going much cheaper for future canvases. Of course, now that my summer hours are over and my workweek is back to 5 days I'm not sure when exactly I'll have a chance to paint but whatever, baby steps. Right now I have three ideas for two canvases, but probably only one that would get the wife's approval. Good to know how easy this is to put together.