Last year's Christmas, I made a wooden tote for beer bottles for my brother in law. It was really a pretty random idea for a gift and made it fully out of scrap that I had lying around in the garage.




Also got him a 6 pack of those mix and match bottles of different brands.

While I was at the barn tonight, I took pics of the 2x tables I made for my in laws specifically for their barn. Nothing special, they just wanted a couple tables to put in there but the clear coat polyurethane really made the grain contrast pop nicely on the surface which is what I'm hoping will happen when I do the same with the clock this weekend.







Final picture of the night. Just took a random pic of that wood pile that I get to pick through whenever I need to make something. Took a fair chunk out of it for the bed frame/headboard.




Hopefully, I'll have a few pictures after this weekend. At the very least, of the completed clock but I'm expecting to put in some hours on the bed frame although every piece of wood will have to be sanded to some degree so I'm not sure if any actual building will get started.

Didn't expect it to be 2 weeks since my last update. I'm sure you were all waiting with bated breath. So that weekend of the 19 and 20th, I ended up spending the Saturday doing yard work, raking, blowing out gutters etc so nothing got done then. I completed the queen headboard on sunday and finished up around 5-6 pm only to get a text not even an hour later from my brother in law saying that they were going to get a king bed so that was 3-4 hours of work down the drain. The following week we had to pack up for a 9 hour drive out of state for Thanksgiving with family from Wed afternoon - Sat night so nothing got done that week/weekend either but I've been hard at work since getting back.

My wife finally got around to putting in the numbers on the clock tonight and even went as far as using a protractor to measure the exact placements of the numbers/dashes.




Numbers on the clock. She used an interesting new method to transfer the numbers; she actually used a wood burning tool to imprint the ink into the wood. We'll take the clock mechanism off to put a clear coat of polyurethane on.




Four hours of work to create a queen headboard, one hour to disassemble. I had no intention of letting those planks go to waste and pretty much just deconstructed everything then added more to make it king sized. Standard king mattress is 76" wide by 80" long.

I decided against making the headboard exactly like the inspiration picture and went with a different design but overall the idea is similar. Headboard measures 76-78" wide by 5 ft tall. This thing is heavy as fuck, probably pushing 150+ lbs. It has solid 2x6 planks around the perimeter on the back along with one across the middle left-right as the top and bottom parts are actually 2x sets of 30" planks and not a full length. Those kinds of woods were running low at the wood pile so I was using up the shorter scraps. The planks are the types that interlock with each other with tongue and grooves which is nice for making things like these and tables. I expect the mattress to take up no more than the bottom 1 foot so it'll be a tall headboard that allows for the installation of light scones that won't bang on their heads if they want to sit up in bed.

The footboard is pretty much identical to the headboard except half as tall at 30" tall. The board is actually "upside down" and the V shape will be turned around to resemble an X if viewing the headboard and footboard together.




As for the side frames, my wife showed me a picture that her brother sent her saying that his wife was just talking about how she liked the design. I don't have that picture and my 10 seconds of googling is failing me but essentially it's cubicles to put crates/drawers in. Honestly, I didn't wanna freaking do it just because I knew it'd be that much more work and calculations involved but alas it was to be done regardless. I made it so that each cubicle (except for the front ones) measured pretty much 15" all around. Each of the protruding dividers are like that so I can attach the planks that will hold the mattress up.




Another angle on the side frames. Pictures just don't do it justice, I was giddy as hell finishing it up because it looks pretty good in person.




So the bed frame is nearing the end! Tomorrow, I'll *hopefully* finish it completely (not including stain/poly) by adding the posts which will be attached to the head/footboards and holes to be drilled into the posts and side frames to allow attach/detachment by bolts. I got free leftover bolts from the barn too, I mean, massive 10 inch bolts. I'll assemble it fully and get the semi-final picture.

I've completed the bed frame as much as I'm going to do for a while. We'll be leaving the wood unstained and gift it to the brother in law and his wife so they can pick on a stain color. The family xmas on my wife's side will be on Jan 1 so the fully completed frame picture won't come for a while. Without further ado, the bed frame:










I've also taken it upon myself to finish up the clock with the clear coat as my wife is doing other crafty stuff for gifts so I'll do that this weekend and get a final pic of that too (wonder how many times I've said that already). My actual sister hit me up a couple days ago and asked me to build her a lil entry room table with spaces for baskets/drawers that she can put in her hallway by the entry door where she also keeps their dog bowls. She wanted something that would beautify the space and be functional instead of just seeing dog bowls. Something along the lines of 50"x20"x42" tall but I doubt I'll bother starting that this weekend, maybe collect the woods for it at least.

My in-laws family xmas came and went on Jan 1st and all those gifts went out. Glad to have gotten all those things out of my house. My brother in law's wife was pretty ecstatic about their king bed frame and she chose some charcoal grey wood stain which apparently, you get the stain in the same way as getting a color paint. We had to buy a clear stain base and have the store worker add the grey coloring. Today, we applied a little bit to an inconspicuous area on the bed and I thought it looked like crap tbh; halfway between a stain and actual paint. Don't have a picture of that with me but we showed the wife how it looked and we'll see if she wants to go through with it or not. Overall, I don't care much what they want to do with it as it's not mine anymore and they can do w/e they want with it.

I also realized that I haven't posted the end result of clear polyurethane to that clock so here it is. It doesn't look overly different but the darker grains are definitely more pronounced. I only wiped on a couple coats and it prob would've gotten better over a few more coats. Apparently, those 2 barn tables with highly contrasting grains were coated 7 times which I didn't know since I didn't do that part. Compare to the unstained clock picture earlier in the thread.




My parent in laws got me a planer for xmas too. Fuckyeah.jpg




I've never used a planer and I never fully knew what to expect from using one but the results made me one happy sumbitch. I started a small shelf for my wife's grandma who ran out of space for all her grandchildren photos and whatnot and I had a couple of really nice wooden slabs with excellent grains that I'm going to use as the 2 side walls but it was super rough and after sanding it for 10 mins, I was all "fuck this shit." So I unboxed the planer for the first time and put those slabs through and that shit worked like magic. Not only did the slabs get cut down beautifully but the level of finish on it was amazingly smooth. I didn't get much further than beautifying the 2 slabs but will post when I finish that up. Should be about 40" tall x 48" wide with 3 shelves. Two slabs of wood 40" long, it wasn't until after I planed most of it that I realized how much sawdust comes out of a planer. I took a picture of that mess for you all here.

All those xmas gifts might be done but I have many more projects coming up now. Quick note before I forget, I did build that little entry table for my sister a while back but left it unassembled and unstained so they could transport it back out for their 9 hour drive back home. Expecting a picture from them when they get that done.

Project 1 is to build the little shelf for my wife's grandma which is underway, hopefully to be done within the next couple days if not tomorrow. Project 2 is to build another moving work bench for my garage to leave the planer, drill press and nailgun air tank on top. I ordered a new stereo system to use for my tv room but our 2x current shelves besides the tv stand have short shelves for the receiver so project 3 is to build 2x matching shelves to replace those which will be moved to other needed shelving areas around the house. Project 4 will be to build a cat tree for the two kitten that I got my wife for xmas, we have a nice corner nook space for one so I'm pretty eager to try that out. Lastly but not least, project 5 will be to create that sun art that I posted on page 1.

Inspiration picture for the 2x shelves that I'll build. It probably won't be quite as robust looking as this, also with 4 shelves instead of 3. 60" tall x 36" wide.




Inspiration picture for the cat tree. It's not really a cat tree but something that will go up against a wall; not sure if there's a phrase for that. The end result should also be fairly different as I'm working with a specific space limit so I'll be maximizing what I have.




That's all I have for now, should be pretty busy over the next month as I move through these.

Finished up a couple of the smaller projects over the last week; the bookshelf and moving tool table for the planer and such.

I forgot to take an official completed picture and I wanted to capture the 2 side walls in all their epic grain glory-ness but alas. I have a semi-completed picture and a completed picture that was taken by my sister in law since she's staining the shelf and dealing with it after that.

Partially completed shelf. You can see the grain on the inside of the left wall which I thought looked quite nice.




Completed shelf. No good view of the walls here either. Also worth mentioning is that the top and bottom planks were 4x pieces of barn wood that were planed to perfection. Also meant to take pictures of the comparison of raw vs planed planks but that didn't happen either.




I threw together another tool table tonight to replace a plastic take-apart shelf that was holding the air tank, drill press and recycle bin. The table now holds all that and the planer and has wheels attached for dat mobility. I included the other table in the back into the picture just because I also built that a few years ago and haven't formally posted that here.




I have all the woods collected for the 2x shelves that I'll build but haven't fully decided whether I'm going to build those or the cat tree first. I'm also adding another small project to my list which will be a rolling cart for the air tank that'll allow me to store the nailguns and assorted goodies with it. Instead of creating another post for the one inspiration picture, this is the link to the plan. http://www.simplyeasydiy.com/2015/05/roll-around-air-compressor-nail-gun.html

This post was edited by AngryLink on Aug 7 2017 09:15pm

I got the king bed frame all stained last weekend but tonight was the transportation to the in-law's house and setting the light scones up. They decided they didn't like that grey stain as well and went with a darker "mission oak" stain which turned out quite nicely. Didn't expect the transportation and setting up to take 3 hours either. We didn't know they had the scones already so we stuck around and got that done.

Footboard




Side rails




Headboard with light scones. The scones have swiveling arms and they're set to angle outwards. They're also lower than I'd want but they wanted it low enough to turn on/off while lying completely flat in bed which I thought defeated the purpose of those as the "reading" lights in case they wanted to sit up but they're probably more likely to use it to illuminate the morning wake up anyways.




Not sure if the pictures really convey the look properly. Overall, it's a very nice looking bed frame and the grains show well enough through the darker stain. I am officially 100% done with that bed frame and a pox on anyone who asks me to build another one.

This post was edited by AngryLink on Aug 7 2017 09:17pm

Been pretty busy over the past few weeks with various stuff but the weekends were all jam packed with woodworking. I decided to make the bookshelves first as I thought they might be a little easier to do since I wasn't totally sure how to go about making that cat tree. I was mistaken. Don't get me wrong, the shelves weren't difficult to figure out but damn, so many details. They weren't going to be some simple bookshelves like 2 walls and some shelves in between but I guess I just didn't fully think about the amount of meticulousness involved. On the plus side, I ended up figuring out how I'll build the cat tree (which is a lot easier than I thought it'd be) so that should go over smoothly when I start.

Quick off topic picture; my wife's grandpa got that bookshelf and stained it himself and sent us a picture; probably used a potato for that. Looks nice for a simple bookshelf. Also looks like someone dinged the top there near the middle, that wasn't my fault.




I started with making the side walls of the bookshelves which probably took upwards of 70% of the overall time it took to complete the whole thing. Most of the details happened here, as the bottom 2 shelves are shorter than the top 2. I also didn't trust myself enough to mass produce each X all at once and expect them to fit perfectly each time. Instead, I measured the angle of each opening and adjusted the saw accordingly then cut a single X for that specific opening to make sure all the Xs were snug. Two of the walls are facing outwards and the other 2 are inwards so you can see the amount of pocket holes I created overall.




Using the tongue and groove barn wood for the shelves and also used the table saw to cut out a square chunk off each corners of the shelves so they could wrap around the posts. You can also look closely and see that the bottom 2 shelves have a couple of thin gaps from side to side. This is where I wanted to insert sliding doors to hide the ugly stuff that I had scattered around the previous shelves. This stain is generally my preferred stain for any furniture I create. Variations can occur based on what I might have on hand if I don't want to buy a specific stain for something.