Children’s Table and Chair set

Wow, I think I always post on Tuesdays! I just realized that. Happy Halloween! Not one of my favorite holidays but oh well, let’s move on….

  

 

I started making the table yesterday, got all the pieces cut and today attached almost all of the legs and aprons. I was hoping to have that part done but I ran out of time. It went pretty well, just making sure it’s square before attaching the last leg. Then I’ll attached the table top. My pocket holes seem to be working well, so that’s nice. I am counter sinking and screwing in on two sides because I don’t trust using only pocket holes for that. And then I’ll cover up the holes with the button plugs. I just love those things! I will also reinforce the connection with wood corner braces. More soon…

Have a great Halloween!

~Michele

 

 

Bench #4 Done!

Happy Tuesday! I am done with the bench! The process went pretty well. I have some things to make note of when I type up instructions. So the next time I make this I’ll be all set! 🙂

I am going to build another one but before that I’ve decided to build a child’s table and chair set. So I’ll be working on that next. I’ve decided to do what I did with my kitchen table, which was stain it with coffee and finish it with tung oil to make it as non-toxic as possible. I also have a few workshop items to build so more to come very soon!!

~Michele

Great work days…

Don’t you just love it when you have great work days? One of mine was today. I love it when it’s pouring rain outside and I’m in the garage, doors open, dogs roaming, radio (Pandora) blaring, working on my project. Although it’s getting cold out and I think I’m going to need a space heater in there. Another thing I realized, I need more clamps. It’s amazing how many clamps you need! I used to think it was strange that some workshops have as many clamps as a hardware store. But now, I’m realizing, I can’t get enough! 🙂 I wish I had a picture to share but I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked. So no pic. But there’s always tomorrow! I’m pretty sure rain is in the forecast! 🙂 Gotta love the northwest! Happy hammering… ~Michele

Dog Seat and toy holder!

I made this dog seat awhile ago and I’m finally getting around to sharing it! I will type up basic instructions as well.

Basically this is used as the “Place” command in dog training. You say Place or Spot or in my case, Take a Seat! and the dog goes right to it. My friend turned me onto this and she had a friend make a box for the dog to sit on. Of course I was all over that! Ideas started popping through my head immediately! 🙂 My poodle mix loves it and both of my dogs stick there head through the curtains to grab their toys. Now if only I could teach them to put them away! 

         

When I first built it she was smaller, but it still works! 🙂

Bench update

Hi guys! So I don’t want to bore you with the rest of the bench process so I’ll make this short. I finished almost everything except sanding. Leaving the worst for last! I did use more pocket holes. Did I have trouble this time? Yes, of course. But as I type this, I just thought about what I might have done wrong. Can you go into a 1x when it’s perpendicular to another 1x? (see picture, I have two pockets holes in this, one is underneath.) Maybe that’s not supposed to happen? Anyway, the stretchers don’t feel that secure. I have never used pocket screws on this part before. aarrgghh, well, I’ll test it out once it’s all together, it might be strong enough. Live and learn! ~Michele (trying out colors, I need to upgrade my site at some point, I can’t do anything!)

Bench Work

Happy Tuesday! And it really is a happy Tuesday because it’s double punch Tuesday at my local growler place! 🙂

This is the 4th time I’ve made this type of bench. The first one is our swinging bench, which I love! The second one was made as a regular bench, so I added legs. The 3rd one I decided to make a little smaller and not so chunky using not 2×4’s and 1×4’s but 2×3’s and 1×3’s. I usually change it every time and haven’t really written this information down, so now I’m having to reinvent the wheel! I’m going to record and type up all the measurements so my 5th bench should go together rather quickly. You can see these benches in my photo gallery.

Mitered corners. I started doing this on my 3rd bench. Much nicer not having the rough edge. However, mitered corners are hard! I forgot that I had made a sacrificial fence, after doing some research on how to do better mitered cuts. This does help but they still weren’t perfect. But that’s the thing, they are hard to get perfect. The picture below shows the fence I made attached to my miter saw. (There are two cuts but I messed up on one so I made another one.)

 

 

 

 

 

Pocket Holes. I have a love/hate relationship with pocket holes. I love the idea of them because they hide the screws but every time I do them, I have trouble. Today I used them to attach the two inside 2×3’s on the bench seat. It worked pretty well. I really need to go check out Saws on Skates because I know Scott has some great information on pocket holes!

Tomorrow, I’ll work on the bench seat, back rest and arm rests and that’s it! Actually, no, I’ll have to do a lot of sanding, arrggghh, I do not like sanding! That’s the problem with using this type of wood, there’s a lot of sanding involved. 😦

More tomorrow! See you then, Michele

 

Benches, lots and lots of benches!

So I know it’s a been awhile, much to my dismay! But now I’m back and ready to work! I am currently working on a bench for a raffle item for our local church. I do this every year now. Which is fine because every year I work to improve on my last one. I’ll send some pictures soon. I wanted to do a totally different bench but I don’t have the time right now so I’ll do the one I know.

After this bench I think I will make two more. I would like to start selling some furniture (if I can) so I’m starting with the bench and moving onto kids toys just in time for Christmas! I’ve been a stay at home Mom for years and now I would like to get back to work. And it would be awesome if I could build AND make some money! 🙂

I’ll update more tomorrow and send pictures. Happy building!! Michele

Outside Bench

This is the bench I made for my parents. I printed out several different styles online and they chose this style. It’s made of Hemlock. I wanted to use Hem-Fir but the place I get that from was out. Mainly because it’s less expensive than the big box store Hemlock.

This was pretty easy to make and I got to use my nail gun which I love! I used pieces of poster board to set the gaps between each one of the slats. Also, I have no visible screws on the outside, other than tiny nail gun holes towards the bottom of each leg. The plan for this particular bench had the 1×3 slat supports underneath going vertically and I wasn’t sure how I would attach the slats that way. Definitely didn’t want to do that many pocket holes. So I decided to turn them horizontally and screw up from the bottom. Everything is glued for extra strength.

Now lets just hope they don’t ask me to finish it!! Up next…..Industrial Style Coffee Table!

TV Cabinet and outside bench

Hello and Happy Spring! The sun is finally starting to stick around here in the northwest, which is great, especially since we’ve had a very wet winter!

So I was able to route my TV cabinet doors but I ended up getting a new piece of glass and getting both pieces of glass cut professionally. It was easy and not expensive so I’m pretty sure I’ll use this local frame shop again if I need any glass cutting!

Then a tricky part was how to mount the glass into the doors. I researched different ways of doing this and decided to go with clear silicone. I have temporarily placed the glass in the doors so we are using them but I need to get the silicone to adhere them properly. But I’m happy with it and moving on to my next project….

The bench for my parents.

I’m going to use hem-fir for the whole thing because it’s so straight and smooth and even has mostly rounded edges. My parents will paint or stain it themselves once they decide what color they want. That’s absolutely fine with me as I can not stand doing finish work. I’ll post again once I start, which will hopefully be next week!!

Happy woodworking!

~m

 

 

 

Folding workbench!

 

I just finished my folding workbench and I love it! It’s going to be great having a nice big table to work on rather than the garage floor! I found this design from Ask This Old House. It was on an episode about small workshops.

 

  

Now I can finish up my TV cabinet update. Got the glass cut at a frame shop this time! More soon…… ~m