Ash

How to Shorten a Tall Dresser

March 27, 2018 by Ash 38 Comments

My wife is always coming home with new furniture – chairs, dressers, nightstands, tables. She loves to redo them, and they always turn out really nice.

Recently Eileen’s aunt and uncle gave her an old dresser from when her uncle was quite little. The dresser needed a little TLC, and so we had a plan to make it over with milk paint.

However, after watching a little too much HGTV, Eileen saw a couple of DIYers run a dresser through a tablesaw. So as Eileen was out in the driveway getting ready to paint the dresser, she got a vision of how nice the tall dresser would look if it were shorter.

Now, I’ve never had modify furniture in this manner before, so… challenge accepted.

How to Shorten a Tall Dresser

Here is the dresser in its original lanky self:

Eileen wanted the new height to be comparable to some existing dressers in our house, so I set my target height to around 34.”

There were a number of ways I thought to accomplish this. I settled on the simplest method of cutting a section off the bottom, and relocating some trim to conceal my work.

To make a quick prototype, I toppled the behemoth and lopped off its legs to get close to our target height:

Once we were satisfied with the feel of the new height of the shortened, it was time to dig into the details to restore the look.

At this point, it looked like a giant box with just the legs cut off:

To unbox the look, I marked out cutting lines with my golden trio – measuring tape, speed square and pencil:

My jigsaw made short work of cutting this dresser:

Here I extracted some trim for relocation:

Unfortunately, some of the trim had wood glued into some grooves that I needed exposed. So I clamped them down in my JawHorse and chiseled out the grooves:

In the process of shifting all the trim upwards, I exposed some more grooves in the new legs. I didn’t want to leave the grooves there and risk pieces of the legs breaking off.

So I filled in those grooves with scrap cut-offs accompanied by a generous serving of wood glue:

Once the wood glue dried, I trimmed and sanded the cut-offs with my random orbital sander, resulting in some solid looking legs:

All the trim was now relocated and the dresser reconstruction was completed:

We were so pleased with how the tall dresser was now shortened and couldn’t wait for the next step of the project – making it over with milk paint.

Check back next week to see the complete dresser makeover!

How to Build Ramps, Steps, and Custom Doors for a DIY Shed

March 22, 2018 by Ash 26 Comments

Almost any shed can benefit from a ramp and steps.

Such is the case with my shed.

If you’ve been following along with me as I built my shed from scratch, my storage shed plans included a spot for both steps and a ramp.

If you missed my previous posts, check out my Shed Project Phase 1 (how to build a shed foundation and framing) and my Shed Project Phase 2 (how to build paneling and roofing for a shed).

So back to my shed plans. My plans included having two entrances – a double door entrance for the riding mower and a single door entrance to access backyard storage and garden supplies.

For the riding mower entrance, my plan was to build a ramp, and then the steps were a necessity for the second entrance, due to how high above the ground the door was.

I built the ramp, steps, and doors from scratch. Keep reading for the details.

I originally wanted to put the ramp on the right side of the shed, but due to the slope of the ground, it wasn’t very practical anymore. So I adapted my plans to put the shed ramp on the left side and put steps on the right side.

How to Build Steps for a Shed

The shed steps for the single door were pretty easy to build. I bought 3 pre-cut step stringers from Home Depot.

Step stringers are the support pieces at the sides of the structure that hold up the steps you walk on.

I did have to measure the maximum height from the shed floor to the ground to buy the right length step stringer though.

It turned out that 3 step stringers were adequate.

As for the actual steps, I trimmed some 2 x 4s lengthwise with my table saw, and assembled them like a boardwalk.

I used 3 pieces of wood per step, with a little spacing in between.

To connect the stringers to the shed, I used a joist hanger. It’s just a U-shaped metal bracket that’s screwed into the floor joists on the shed, and each stringer rests inside.

As for where the stringers met the ground, there needed to be a solid foundation.

To achieve this, I buried some concrete blocks slightly below ground level and rested the stringers on them.

I also attached some 2 x 4 spacers in between the stringers and fastened them to the concrete using special Tapcon screws.

After I covered up the concrete blocks with dirt, you couldn’t tell they were there.

The concrete blocks gave the shed steps a really solid feel when you walked on them.

Here’s a picture of the completed shed steps:

The boardwalk style steps added a nice touch to the plywood shed.

Later on, I covered up the fronts of the steps with a thin piece of plywood, and then applied a good deck stain to protect the wood.

How to Build a Ramp for a Shed

The ramp construction was similar to the steps in that it used stringers and hidden concrete block supports. To learn how to build a ramp for a shed, read the step-by-step instructions below.

Determining the Ramp Angle

For the shed ramp, I first had to determine the angle of the slope.

If I made the shed ramp length too short, the slope would be too steep and cause me problems when driving the mower up. Either the bottom of the mower would hit the top of the ramp, or the mower would not have enough power to climb the slope.

Too long of a shed ramp would not look that great, and it would take up valuable yard space.

After some research, I decided to go with a 4-foot shed ramp. It was going to make a slightly steeper than normal ramp, but I was okay with this.

Five foot ramps seemed to be the most common length for a shed ramp. Yet, I wanted to compromise between functionality and aesthetics (be sure to keep reading this section to see how this turned out).

Once I determined my shed ramp length and angle, I cut 5 stringers out of 2 x 6 wood.

Leveling the Ramp Foundation

The next step was to set and level the concrete blocks for the lower foundation. The leveling took a little bit of time because I had to get each stringer to sit perfectly flat on the blocks while maintaining an even ramp surface.

Attaching Stringers for the Shed Ramp

Once leveled, I worked on attaching the stringers to the shed.

Instead of using joist hangers like I did with the steps, I needed something much stronger to hold the weight of the riding mower.

Based on my research on shed ramp design, I went with a ledger mount. This was just a piece of wood attached to the shed that the stringers rested on for primary support.

To make the ledger, I just bolted a giant 2 x 10 piece of wood to the floor joists.

Near the bottom of the 2 x 10, I bolted on a 2 x 4 for the ramp stringers to rest on.

While the ledger handled the vertical load on the ramp, I didn’t want any lateral movement, so I used two types of fasteners to secure the stringers to the ledger.

The first were some L brackets to keep the stringers in place (just one L bracket per stringer).

The second fasteners used were the 6-inch TimberLok screws I had secured the roof joists with.

Before I used them on the stringers, I wanted to secure the lower portion of the stringers to the concrete blocks first.

The TimberLok screws would really lock the stringers in place, preventing me from adjusting them on concrete blocks.

Building the Ramp Foundation On the Shed

Onto the foundation for the shed ramp now – just like the steps, I used some wooden 2 x 4 spacers between the stringers.

I attached them to the stringers with L brackets and used some more Tapcon screws to secure the spacers to the concrete blocks.

With the shed ramp foundation set, I ran one TimberLok screw per stringer at an angle through the top middle of the stringer, straight through the 2 x 10 into the shed floor joists.

This made a very tight connection between the stringers and the shed.

There was going to be no lateral movement here. The whole ramp for the shed was extremely solid at this point.

Here’s a picture of what the shed ramp looked like so far:

Here’s a close-up of the stringer foundation where I used a Tapcon screw to secure the spacers to the concrete blocks:

And, here’s a close-up of the stringer/ledger connection where I used an L bracket and a 6-inch TimberLok screw:

Completing and Testing the Shed Ramp

To finish the ramp, I screwed on some sheets of ¾” thick pressure treated plywood, as seen in the picture below (I would also later apply a coat of deck paint to protect it from the weather):

At this point, I was very excited. I could finally drive the mower into the shed using the ramp.

So I wasted no time and retrieved the mower from the garage. I positioned it carefully at the bottom of the shed ramp, put it into gear and slowly drove up.

Everything was looking great….until I made it halfway up the ramp.

The mower did not have the power to drive up the shed ramp at my current speed. I should have gone with the 5-foot ramp design with a more gentle slope.

So I tried a different approach to getting up the shed ramp. I reversed down the ramp, put the throttle on max, and let go of the brake.

The mower shot up the shed ramp and successfully made its way into the shed.

This is how I park my mower today.

It took a little bit to get used to, but I have to drive up the shed ramp at near full speed, with care not to drive into the shed wall at the back.

Installing Windows and Building Doors for the Shed

At this point, I was almost finished building the shed.

I just had to attach some more trim to the shed exterior, and install the windows and doors on the shed.

How to Install Windows on a Shed

The shed windows went on easily. I first used window flashing tape to seal the window frame and the siding.

Then I ran caulk along the shed window perimeter (on the flashing) and placed the window in the opening.

The caulk held the window in place long enough for me to drive some nails through the window nailing strips.

Then I covered the flashing and nailing strips with trim.

Here’s a picture of one of the completed windows that I installed on the shed:

How to Build Doors for a Shed

For the shed door, I custom built the doors following the steps in the shed design plans.

I needed 3 doors for the shed – a single door by the steps, and double doors by the ramp.

They were constructed with a rectangular frame of 2 x 4s sandwiched between two sheets of T1-11 siding.

For the trim design, I did some research online and found several patterns to show Eileen.

She has an eye when it comes to design and picked a pattern she liked. It looked fancy but was very easy to cut with my miter saw.

Eileen primed and painted the doors for me to match the shed.

To install the shed doors, I put them in place and spaced them properly in the door frame with some wooden shims.

These were some seriously heavy doors, and as such, needed some heavy duty hinges (3 per door).

I screwed the hinges onto the shed door frame and the shed door (making sure to hit the wooden frame inside the door).

Once all the door hinges were installed, I removed the shims, and voila – the shed doors swung open nicely.

To wrap up, I screwed on a door handle and a bolt lock.

Here’s a picture of the double doors installed with my fancy trim work:

Adding Lattice Under the Shed

Almost done with the shed now! Time for some final touches.

Since the shed foundation rested on concrete blocks, there were large gaps under the shed where animals could enter and reside.

Because I did not have any future plans to open my shed up for tenants, I wanted to seal up the underneath area.

We have groundhog problems, and they live under the sheds of our neighbors.

I came up with the cheap and easy solution of using plastic lattice fence.

These came in 2’ x 8’ strips which I cut to fit using my table saw. The lattice was already white and matched the shed trim.

Installing Lighting on the Shed

I also wanted some lighting for the shed when it was dark. I opted to use a solar panel motion LED light.

So I mounted the lights in between the shed door entrances. Then, I positioned the solar panel on the right side of the shed where the most sunlight was available.

Here is a picture of the completed DIY plywood shed. You can see both doors and windows, with the solar panel on the side:

Time and Cost of Building a Shed from Scratch

Finally, I completed the shed!

It took about 2 months for me to single-handedly build the shed, and it cost about $3000.

I did my research online and estimated that a pre-built shed this size and quality would have been more than $7000. Building it myself netted huge savings.

The shed freed up a lot of space in the garage too. The riding lawn mower, push mower, wheelbarrow, gardening tools, and other large items fit in there with lots of room to spare. It definitely provides a lot of storage space.

We even put all of our summer patio furniture in there during the winter – with space left over.

It was definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

With no construction background, and never having built anything close in capacity to a shed, I impressed my wife, my neighbors, and myself by building a shed.

Future Shed Plans

My work on the shed isn’t over yet though. I still have some interior plans for it.

Down the road, I plan to install shelves and other organizational units. I also want to install another solar motion light inside the shed too.

Additionally, I envision a partial interior wall to provide more wall space for hanging tools (in case the four shed walls weren’t enough), and possibly utilizing the roof rafters for some storage.

The sky’s the limit, and you can bet there will be a blog post to tell you all about it!

If you missed Building a Shed Phase 1 (Foundation and Framing) or Building a Shed Phase 2 (Paneling and Roofing), be sure to check them out.

Building a Computer from Scrap Wood

February 25, 2018 by Ash 30 Comments

I’ve tinkered with the idea of a garage computer for some time.

I use 3D design software for a lot of projects, creating designs on my office computer and then making printouts with handwritten dimensions.

The problem with that is I can’t rotate the objects in the printouts – or zoom in to see more detail.

It would be nice to just have a computer down there in the garage so I can view my model data in a more real-time and interactive format. I could definitely see it boosting my productivity during projects in the garage. It would be like having an interactive garage assistant.

Technically I could just use a laptop down there. However, a workshop filled with sawdust is not ideal for me to bring my laptop in and out of.

So, a dedicated computer customized to better suit my workshop would be superb.

Unique Twist on a Custom-Made Computer

Being a computer guy practically my whole life, I’ve built a lot of computers from scratch. Once you’ve built one, the task becomes pretty straightforward and repetitive.

For my garage computer idea, I wanted to try something different.

Besides, my garage was already full of unique inventions (see my folding workbench or sliding storage shelf project). So, becoming an addition to my garage requires a certain level of oomph.

Here’s what a weekend of work resulted in:

The insides of a computer are fairly standard and not that exciting to look at. To garner attention, you’d want to focus on a fancy exterior.

So for my garage computer to earn an admission ticket into the garage, I decided to figure out how to build computer case out of wood – something I had never done before.

Simple Intro to Computer Design

Before I jump into details of my project, it may help a bit to know a little about how computers are built today. So, here’s a quick primer on computer design, in case you’re not too familiar with the topic.

A barebones computer system contains the following parts:

Enclosure (case)
Motherboard (with memory and CPU )
Hard drive
Power supply
Cooling fans

Computer Case

The case just houses all the components. Technically you could build a computer without a case (which I have in the past – you can get pretty creative with a bunch of computer hardware and a milk crate), but leaving all those parts exposed increases the likelihood of physical damage.

Motherboard with CPU and Memory

The motherboard is a large circuit board that almost every part plugs into and allows all these parts to talk to each other. Parts on the motherboard are typically fixed and non-customizable, with the exception of the CPU and memory.

The CPU is the brain of the computer and performs most of the calculations necessary for you to surf the web or do your taxes.

Memory is a necessity for the computer to operate. In general, the more memory you have, the better performance you’ll see, as more programs can run simultaneously.

Hard Drive and Power Supply

A hard drive stores all of your programs and documents. The bigger your hard drive, the more data you can keep.

A power supply distributes power from your electrical outlet to the various components inside the computer. Without a power supply, your computer is just a large paper weight.

Keeping It Cool

Cooling fans help maintain a proper operating temperature inside the case. Ideally, you have a fan pulling cool air into your case (where it is heated up by different parts – mainly your CPU) and another fan exhausting the hot air.

That’s it for minimum requirements for building a computer.

Now that you are enlightened, unto my custom build.

How to Build a Computer from Scratch

For this homemade computer, I wanted to make the case as small as possible, so I focused on using small parts to fit the bill. Now that you have a basic understanding of computer parts, here are the parts I used for this DIY computer.

Choosing the Right Motherboard

After some motherboard research, I settled on a Mini ITX version. These are small boards meant to fit in small cases.

There are lots of Mini ITX motherboards on the market. The one I bought came with a CPU already. Actually, it was a CPU/GPU hybrid chip (GPUs boost the graphics performance on your computer, like how smoothly I could rotate my 3D designs in tinkercad), so that was a nice bonus.

Passive Cooling

Even better, my motherboard came with a passive cooling system. Most CPUs get really hot and need a metal heatsink (a metal block with lots of fins) and fan directly on top to dissipate the heat.

This extra hardware equates to more space needed in my case.

A passive cooling system ditches the fan for just a low profile heat sink, and relies on the case doing a good cooling job. Passive cooling really only works on low powered CPUs, such as the one that came with my Mini ITX motherboard.

Additional Components

As for the rest of the components, I had a 4 GB memory stick lying around from previous builds that would be adequate for my usage.

I also had a spare 64 GB solid state drive (SSD) that I was able to reuse. An SSD type hard drive was a must-have for this build. They are a lot more reliable than alternative mechanical hard drives, and also take up a lot less physical space.

Here’s the hard drive and memory stick I used:

Finally, for cooling fans, I used spare ones lying around my office:

How to Build a Computer Case from Wood

Once the computer was built, I was ready to move on to building the computer case out of wood. It was a pretty simple process.

Assembling the Case

Constructing the case was pretty easy. Using the measurements from my design, I cut various shapes and lengths of wood. Then I used a combination of wood glue, screws and finishing nails to secure everything together.

Power Supply Holder

Here’s the power supply section coming together:

Motherboard Risers

Here I have motherboard risers in place (six wooden pegs that the motherboard will rest on):

Here’s a close-up of one of the risers, showing a screw that will secure the motherboard to the case:

Cooling Fan Brackets

Next I made plywood cutouts for the cool fan mounting brackets:

Almost Done with the Case

The case design was mostly completed at this point:

Installing a Plexiglass Window

To complete the design, I needed a piece of plywood for the cover. To give the case some more character though, I decided to put a plexiglass window in the cover.

Here I am using a Forstner drill bit to make rounded corners for the window:

Next I used a jigsaw to cut out the rest of the window:

To install the plexiglass, I cut it slightly larger than the hole. Then I attached it to the cover with some screws.

Here’s what the plexiglass looked like from underneath:

Here’s what the cover looks like from the outside (I had given the cover a coat of yellow paint by now):

Applying Paint and Polyurethane

With the whole case spray painted yellow, I decided to give it a few coats of polyurethane to make it shine.

Look how glossy a little polyurethane make things:

Installing the Electronics

With the case was completed, I could install all the electronics:

Shining Light on the Situation

For a final wow factor, I added some yellow LED lights to the interior.

Here is the case lit up at night:

Mounting in the Garage

To install in the garage, I built a simple wooden mount for the computer and attached it to the wall:

Controlling My Garage Computer

To control the computer from anywhere in the garage, I’m using a mini wireless keyboard with built in touchpad.

I also use a wireless trackball mouse too for when I need extra precision.

This was a really fun project to work on. It put a nice twist on the mundane task of building a computer.

Not only does the computer look really cool in the garage (especially in the dark with the LED lights turned on), but its been a huge time-saver for me.

I just have to look up at the screen when I need measurements for cuts or to plan out last minute design changes.

Time and Cost

In total, the project took a weekend to complete (mainly because of the paint/polyurethane drying times). Final cost was around $150 for the electronics.

No cost for the case as it was made from scrap wood lying around the garage.

Have you built a computer of your own? Share your design with me!

How to Make an Oversized Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle

January 21, 2018 by Ash 42 Comments

Looking for a fun DIY project to work on? If you have some wooden boards lying around and a saw, here’s a one hour project that’s sure to be a puzzling hit with the kids.

For our little one’s recent birthday, Eileen and I decided to throw a puzzle theme party. We had the idea to make a giant jigsaw puzzle as a fun yard activity for the kids.

My son is always watching (and pretend helping) me build projects around our home, so I thought that he would love that I was working on a special project for his birthday.

So, I made a 3-foot tall custom-made puppy puzzle.

It was a cute puppy with vibrant colors and caught all of the kids’ eyes. It was really easy to put together too. But most importantly, my son loved it.

When assembled, the puzzle was even firm enough to be a standing toy dog. So, it worked as a fun prop for photos too, especially since it was almost as tall as the kids at the party.

How to Make an Oversized Wood Jigsaw Puzzle

When figuring out how to make an oversized wood jigsaw puzzle, I started with some 10” wooden squares, each ¾” thick.

Making the squares was easy as I just bought a piece of 1 x 10 x 6 board from Home Depot and cut it into five 10” pieces (well, technically 9.25” pieces as that was the true width of the board).

Then I laid out the boards and sketched a simple outline of a dog.

I used silhouettes from dog images online as inspiration for my own design. After I was happy with the sketch, I moved to the garage to complete the puzzle.

To cut out the design, I tried both a jigsaw and a scroll saw. The scroll saw worked out to be the easiest method.

Funny thing about this scroll saw is that I picked it up from the local Habitat for Humanity store for $5. It looks like it’s from the ‘70s too, but it worked like a charm.

If you don’t have a jigsaw or scroll saw, a regular hand (or hack) saw can work just as well, just a bit slower.

After the pieces were all cut, I placed them in a clamp and sanded the edges smooth.Next I had to attach all the interlocking pieces. One disadvantage of cutting my design out of squares was that the interlocking puzzle connectors would need manual attachment.

I cut the interlocking pieces out of the adjacent pieces. Then I opted to use pocket hole screws for attaching them. My Kreg pocket hole jig made this a super easy task. This was the fastest method for me, and also made for a very sturdy connection.

Here I am drilling some of the pocket holes:

I also labeled each connection so I would not attach the wrong piece on accident, and put some alignment marks to make sure they were in the correct position (or else the puzzle would look misaligned).Soon all the connectors were attached and the puzzle construction was complete.

The last step was painting. I used kid-friendly acrylic paints that Eileen had on hand. As far as colors, I used various bright colors.

The puppy puzzle was all done. I tested it with our little one and he loved it. He quickly put it together and started petting it.

This project fast, easy and cheap. It took only an hour to make, was a simple design and cost $11 for the board. It can easily be extended to other designs too.

How fun would it be to have a zoo of puzzle animals!

How to Make an Amazing Robot Scarecrow

September 7, 2017 by Ash 21 Comments

With fall around the corner, there was a local scarecrow festival coming up. Eileen and I check out their scarecrows every year and always talk about making one when our son was old enough to understand and be excited about it.

Well, this was the year to actually do. Even better, they had a new “Out of this World” category which was right up my alley. I love anything outer space related. So I put my thinking cap on to come up with an idea.

Then, as my son was singing nursery rhymes one day, inspiration struck when he got around to “Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle..”

I was going to make a robot cow titled “Moo-bot Over the Moon.”

Unlike your traditional scarecrow made from straw, I planned on ditching the straw in favor of sheet metal – a more robot friendly material. I also envisioned an interactive scarecrow. In all our years of visiting this competition, I’ve never saw a scarecrow that invited you to interact with it.

So, to make my robot really stand out, I wanted a button that people could press. The button would wake up the robot and he would start telling some cow related jokes. Who doesn’t like some good cow humor?

How to Make a Robot Scarecrow

Here’s a video of Moo-bot in action. He’s an interactive cow that has blinking eyes, a moon that lights up, and plays through a reel of jokes every time the button is pressed.

Pretty cool, right? So here’s how to make a robot scarecrow. First, I started with the robot body, and then I housed the electrical components. After that I worked on the robot head and then I covered everything with sheet metal to make it weather-proof.

Next, I added some cow accessories, and then I mounted it to the post with a moon – completing the play on the nursery rhyme – “Moo-Bot Over the Moon.”

How to Make a Robot Body

To start, I needed to come up with a design. After a few pencil and paper drawings, I relied on TinkerCAD to assist with the design.

Here is what I came up with (I made the body semi-transparent so you can see what the inside looks like):I designed Moo-Bot to be easy to transport. So it separates into three parts – the body, head and post. Each attaches to one another securely with a large bolt and wingnut.

Constructing the Robot Cow’s Body

First I started working on the body. I constructed a frame using ¾” strips of wood cut from my table saw. I did use some 3.5” thick pieces for extra rigidity though. The body frame needed to be strong as it would house all the electronics. I connected all the pieces using construction adhesive and wood screws.

Here is a picture of the completed frame:

Constructing the Mount

At the bottom middle of the frame was a mount to insert the post. The post would have a hole drilled into it. Once the post was inserted into the mount, a bolt would run through both of them, making a very secure connection.

Here is a closeup of the mount before I attached it to the body:

How to House the Electrical Components

With the body done, I added in some of the internal electrical components as shown below:

The top left contained a removable board hosting some circuitry for the brains of our robot cow. The top right contains the speakers, and below are eight D sized batteries, split into two sections.

For the speakers, I MacGyvered the power adapter below:

The speakers supported four AA batteries, but I wanted to power it from eight D batteries. So I saw an area in the battery compartment to insert some wires, and secured them in place with some metal washers. I then drilled a small hole in the compartment lid for the wires to stick out.

To activate our robot cow, I added this on/off toggle switch:

Even though the switch was located inside our robot cow, it was positioned so I could access it from underneath.

Building the Robot’s Head

The next part of Moo-Bot I tackled was the head. The design was really just one rectangular frame sitting perpendicular on top another identical frame. Here’s what the finished robot’s head looks like.

Similar to the body design, I made the frames from more strips of ¾” wood. I connected the pieces together with construction adhesive and my finishing nail gun.

Here’s a picture showing the individual frames:

Here are the frames assembled to form the iconic robot cow’s head:

Wrapping the Robot’s Head with Sheet Metal

Next up was the sheet metal wrapping.

I first did the sides of the head, as those were the easiest. Using some metal shears, I cut pieces out to match the outline of the side of the head. Then I clamped the pieces down and attached to the wooden frame with some screws.

Here is the first cut piece of sheet metal:

I had to be careful with the sharp edges and corners. Most of the time I wore thick gloves to protect my hands while cutting.

Flattening the Metal

Occasionally, I would get slightly warped cut corners due to the shears pinching the metal. These warps and bumps needed to be flattened for a proper finish.

I found that my Kreg face clamp did an amazing job flattening uneven pieces of sheet metal, as seen below:

Making the Robot Weather-Proof

For the next pieces, I had to think carefully about which ones needed to be bent and overlap other pieces. This was a critical step in making a rainproof head.

All pieces of sheet metal cuts that left a crevice or opening for rain to run inside the head needed an overlapping sheet to divert the water. I was essentially wrapping the head in flashing.

The next cut of sheet metal was the face piece where the eyes were. This part needed some bending at the bottom to divert any rain water, as well as an eyehole cut.

To bend the sheet metal, I used this nifty metal bending tool.

Here’s a picture showing the bent robot face piece:

After cutting the face piece, I worked on the eye holes. I etched an outline with my utility knife and cut a hole with my jigsaw (using metal cutting blades).

Unfortunately, I didn’t do such a great job cutting and the hole was a bit jagged. So I masked my mistakes by wrapping the cut edges with some black weatherproofing tape. It actually turned out to be a really nice visual touch.

Here’s a picture of the finished face piece:

It sort of looks like a welding masking. It was perfect for a robot.

Adding Accessories and a Mount to the Robot

The next step of the process was adding accessories to our robot cow.

Finishing the Robot’s Eyes

For the eyes, I first attached a piece of plexiglass inside the head. This would keep rain out.

Next, I came up with this clever design for positioning the LED screens for the two eyes:

Here is a picture of the partially completed head, sitting next to the body:

Moo-Bot is really starting to take shape at this point.

Mounting the Robot Head

Here is a picture of the mounting mechanism I used to secure the head to the body (you can also see my fancy ears made from springs and pipe straps):

Next, I attached the mouthpiece containing the interaction button.

Creative Robot Nostrils

Also, I wanted to add some sort of decoration representing nostrils.

I dug around the garage looking for inspiration when I came across some rubber washers. I think they were meant to be used in a hose. Regardless, they would be perfect for nostrils.

I stacked four of them together, and attached to the mousepiece with a regular metal washer for a cool robotic nostril effect.

Here’s the completed head capped off at the top:

Giving the Robot Head a Plug and Play Design

Since I wanted the head to be easily detachable, I needed a quick way to disconnect/reconnect the wiring.

I really didn’t want to have to plug back in all the wires from the body to the head when I disconnected the head. So I came up with a clever custom made adapter, as seen below:

These adapters are actually for a computer power supply, but I repurposed them into cow robot adapters.

Here is a different view of the adapters:

The wires on the right plug straight into the body and the head. The cable on the left connects these two adapters. This setup allowed me to literally plug/unplug the head without the hassle of managing different wires and risk mangling my setup.

Fabricating a Sheet Metal Enclosure for the Robot Cow

Next came the fun task of building the sheet metal enclosure for the body. The enclosure was essentially two boxes, joined at a slight 15 degree angle. Each box was made from a long strip of sheet metal, bent twice to form a U shape.

So first I had to cut the sheet metal to size. I didn’t want to use my metal shears because it would take too long, and I probably would not get too accurate of a cut.

So I used some scrap wood and clamped the sheet down to a table, and made the cut quickly with my jigsaw (using a metal blade).

Here is a picture showing my cutting station:

After the cuts were made, I re-used my cutting station to also perform the folds:

Here are the completed boxes:

Here I am assembling the boxes at the 15 degree angle:

Bending the Robot Body

I could have just left the robot cow with a straight body without the slight bend (and a lot easier to build too), but aesthetically it would have looked boring. Also, I wanted an intentional bend in the body to highlight the fact that Moo-Bot was jumping over the moon.

I connected the overlapping boxes with small nuts and bolts, as seen below:

When the two body segments were joined, I needed to do something about the ridge they created at the top.

If left this way, our DIY robot would be very vulnerable to rain seeping in. So I made a simple ridge cap and attached it, as seen at the top of the picture below:

I also reinforced the ridge with some weatherproofing tape underneath, just in case rain still managed to find its way in:

Cutting Out an Access Panel

It was finally time to join the enclosure to the body frame. However, I had one remaining task to cut out a large hole in the back of the enclosure to serve as an access panel.

The hole would normally be covered by a rectangular cut piece of sheet metal, attached to the body frame with several screws. Then to gain access to Moo-Bot’s insides, it would just be a matter of removing those screws to take off the access panel covering.

Below is the access panel hole cut for the robot cow:

Here’s a picture showing the access panel covered (you’ll also notice that I added some wooden legs to help support our robot cow):

Adding in Robot Details

Here are some little feet I made for our robot cow scarecrow (springs would be inserted into the holes and attached to the wooden legs above):

Here’s a close-up of them dangling off the cow:

Making the Cow Spots

Eileen made some laminated decals for Moo-Bot’s cow spots. She drew them, printed them on our printer, and ran them through a laminator. The results were awesome, and would last in any weather.

Here is the laminator at work:

Cutting and Reinforcing the Scarecrow Post

Finally, it was time to work on the final piece – the scarecrow post. Per the competition’s instructions, the post had to be a 1 ½” square post. It also had to allow for about 18” of clearance at the bottom to be inserted into a metal stake secured into the ground.

So, I cut the post from a 2×4 piece of wood using my table saw. Next, I reinforced the scarecrow post with some metal bars.

The cow robot scarecrow was not that heavy, but I was worried that strong gusts of wind could snap the post. So metal reinforcement was essential, as seen below:

Constructing a Wooden Moon

To make the moon, I needed an 18” diameter wooden circle to attach to the post. I had a lot of plywood lying around, but I knew that the plywood edges would not fare well in the rain. So I needed to use solid boards.

Since boards didn’t come that large, I started with two 9”x18” boards as shown below:

Next, I joined them together with some pocket hole screws (using my Kreg pocket hole jig), forming a single 18”x18” square wood.

To form the circle, I simply used a 9” piece of wire, a pencil and a screw, as shown in the picture below:

I tied one end of the wire to the pencil and the other end to the screw.

Then while holding the screw down in the middle of the board, I ran the pencil around the board (with full extension of the wire), drawing a nearly perfect circle. Pretty nifty, right?

Next, I used my jigsaw to cut around the perimeter of the circle:

Once the complete circle for the moon prop was cut out, I placed the piece in a large clamp to sand down the edges really smooth:

After I sanded, I dusted it off and spray painted it outside with an exterior off-white paint.

When the paint was dry the next day, I got some help attaching it to the post:

Finally, I wrapped some LED lights around the moon, and quickly fabricated an adapter to plug into the body.

This is similar to the adapters used for plugging in the head.

As a side note, the LED lights I used for the moon were self-powered with their own batteries. The Arduino simply turns them off and on.

So, I didn’t have to worry about these lights competing with Moo-Bot’s batteries.

Wiring Up the Inside of the Robot Cow

The goal was to make the robot cow interactive. My thought was for Moo-Bot to play a friendly greeting when you pressed the button. After that, I compiled a series of cow-related jokes, such as the classic interrupting cow joke.

How did I get the robot to talk?

So, I had to include speakers for the sound and I decided to include two LED displays for the eyes. I got a little fancy and had the the moon light up too.

Since there would be no electrical outlet to plug into at the competition, our robot cow would also need to be battery powered and be capable of at least 2 months of continuous operation.

In order to do this, I made Moo-Bot’s brain a programmable Arduino microprocessor. This is just a simple device that made it easy for me to sync electronics up to a script.

An Arduino would be perfect because it was really easy to use, very cheap to buy, and extremely conservative on power consumption.

Here’s a picture of the Arduino:

How to Use the Ardunio Processor

Using the Arduino is simple. You plug it into your computer with a USB cable.

Then, use the free Arduino IDE software to write a program and upload the code to the device. The Arduino has a number of ports you can plug things into. Some carry power to accessories, while others receive and transmit information.

For example, when someone presses the interaction button on our robot cow’s face, that button sends a signal to one of the Arduino’s receive ports. My code detects that signal and sends a message (through a transmit port) to a mini MP3 player, telling it to play some pre-recorded audio.

I also programmed the Arduino to go to sleep every 60 seconds of idleness. This was to conserve on battery power. The robot cow only wakes up when the interaction button is pressed, then goes to sleep if no one presses the button again within one minute.

Sleep mode cuts off power to the speakers and lights, and turns off a majority of processing on the Arduino. While in sleep mode, only minimal battery power is used to check when the interaction button is pressed.

Moo-Bot’s Script

Here’s the exact script that Moo-Bot follows when woken up by the interaction button:

Plays “whirring” startup MP3 and the eyes open
Plays “introduction” MP3
Waits for button to be pressed again
On every button press, cycles through a number of pre-recorded MP3s telling cow jokes
30 seconds after no button press, plays, “Did you forget about me?” MP3
20 more seconds of no button press, plays “I am getting sleepy” MP3 and the eyes close
10 more seconds of still no button press, plays “goodbye” MP3 and Arduino goes to sleep

With the sleep logic in place, and powered by eight D sized batteries, I estimated our robot cow capable of lasting 3-6 months on battery, which was more than enough for the scarecrow competition.

The Robot’s Circuitry

Here is a barebones prototype of our robot cow’s circuitry and code in action:

The Arduino is on the far right. On the left is a circuit breadboard, where I have a number of accessories plugged in. The breadboard allows you to quickly connect electrical components without the need for soldering. The Arduino also has a limited number of ports physically available, so I use the breadboard to expand those ports.

I plugged into the breadboard above is a mini MP3 player (with an external speaker plugged in), and I used two LED displays for the eyes.

My favorite part of Moo-Bot are the eyes. The eyes are animated, randomly blink, and open really wide when you press the interaction button. They added a nice touch of character to our robot cow.

Here is a schematic of the complete circuit, if you are interested:

Finally, here is the electronic parts list if you are trying to make something similar yourself:

Entering the Robot Cow in the Competition

The day finally came when Moo-Bot had to say goodbye to my garage and join the rest of the scarecrows at the competition. We drove out there anxious to see our designated spot and to set up our robot cow.

I quickly got our robot cow setup (thanks to my modular plug and play design) and had him entertaining the crowd.

The robot cow scarecrow is all decked out in decals and fancy foot wear (below):

Moo-Bot was a sure blast to work on and everyone misses him here at home. We plan on visiting him regularly to make sure he is still fully operational, and wish him the best of luck in his competition.

Good luck Moo-Bot!

How to Make an Amazing Box Kite from Scratch

August 20, 2017 by Ash 22 Comments

There are few things more thrilling on a windy day than flying a nice kite that you built yourself. But, I’m not talking about ready to go kits that you snap together in 10 minutes. I’m referring to designing and building it yourself from scratch.

There’s so much satisfaction from watching your homemade handiwork take flight in the skies. I remember growing up making kites from just fishing line, sticks on the ground and plastic bags.

I wanted to relive those days, and build a kite for my son – so that’s exactly what I did 🙂 Here’s how to make a box kite from scratch.

Planning the Kite Design

This time around, I wanted to go beyond the standard diamond shaped kites that I used to make as a kid. My craftsmanship has significantly improved since I was 10 years old, and I wanted to construct something that was up to my present standards.

After some kite design research, I settled upon the box kite. If you are wondering how to make a box kite, it’s an easy project to work on.

It’s an elongated box frame with fabric wrapped on two ends, leaving the middle exposed. It also has two attached strings (with specific offsets to give the kite a better aerodynamic tilt during flight) which converge to a single string to control.

How to Make a Box Kite

Here is a TinkerCad sketch I made of my proposed design of how to make a box kite. I love using TinkerCad because it gives great 3D visuals of my DIY projects.

It just so happens that a few days before my birthday, Eileen was on the phone with one of her sisters and mentioned that we were planning to make a kite.

Her sister stealthily went on Amazon and ordered a few kite-making materials as a birthday present for me. So we lucked out with some nice wooden dowels, table cloths, and an awesome spool of string for the box kite. 🙂

Materials for the Box Kite

Here’s the list of materials we used. A few were sent via Amazon but most are easily found around the house.

⅜” 4 ft wooden dowels (5 of them)
Brightly colored lightweight plastic table covers
Fishing line
Stiff thin wires
Electrical tape
Shipping tape
Spool of string

Step 1 – Preparing the Wooden Dowels

Here’s a picture of the wooden dowels. Little do they know about their high flying adventures to come 😉

I only used four of the dowels. The extra one you can use to keep pets away from chewing your sticks while working on your kite 🙂

My kite is made of 4 long 36” dowels, and 4 short 12” dowels. That means I can just take my 48” dowels and cut them at the 12” mark, and I’m set.

Here is one of the dowels marked at 12” and clamped into my handy workbench vice, ready to be cut with the hacksaw:

Several cuts later, here is the end result:

Add some string to that and I could sell it as a kit online!

Step 2 – Constructing the Crosses

To make the crosses, I first marked the center points of each 12” dowel. Then I notched out partial holes using my Dremel. If you don’t have a Dremel, you can use a hack saw.

The notches allowed two intersecting dowels to form a lap joint for a rigid connection.

Here’s a picture showing the notches I made with the Dremel (and a high-speed cutting bit):

Here are the dowels intersecting via the notches:

The ends of these crosses were going to be in contact with the long 36” dowels. To make for a better fit, I opted to carve the ends of the crosses slightly with a concave cut. This would allow the crosses to rest nicely against the long dowels.

Once again, I used the Dremel to make the cut below (boy was the Dremel helpful in this project):

To make a strong connection between the crosses and the long dowels, I used wire that I inserted into small holes drilled into the dowels.

The wire would be twist tied and strongly pull the dowels together. So holes were drilled into each 36” dowel (where the crosses were going to be in contact. Likewise, matching holes were drilled into the crosses (to line up with the holes on the long dowels)

Here’s a picture showing one of the holes I made in a cross:

Step 3 – My Strengthening Process

The lap joints I made for the crosses were just the beginning of the strengthening process I used for maximum durability.

First, I put a dab of construction adhesive in each joint. Wood glue was another option, but in my experience, wood glue tends to be a lot more runnier. Construction adhesive is thicker and starts to give some tackiness almost immediately.

Then, I assembled the crosses with the glue in place, and started reinforcing the intersection by repeatedly wrapping it with some fishing line:

Finally, I used strips of strong repair tape to repeatedly wrap the intersections:

Here is one of the finished structural crosses (it’s very sturdy at this point):

Step 4 – Assembling the Kite Frame

Now it was time to start connecting the crosses to the long wooden dowels using wire and the holes I drilled earlier.

Here’s a close-up showing how the connections were made:

The wire ran through a hole in the cross, and a hole in the 36” dowel. Then it was twist-tied.

Here is the kite structure nearly completed with the crosses attached via wire:

The wires made for a very strong connection between the dowels. However, the structure was still a little wobbly. To remedy that, I wrapped all the wire joints with electrical tape:

The kite structure was now complete and very rigid. It should have no problems standing up to strong wind forces (and inevitable crashes).

Step 5 – Wrapping the Fabric

Next up was wrapping the ends with fabric. You can be very liberal with what type of fabric you use. Some people use garbage bags. Others use construction paper. I used plastic tablecloths that my sister-in-law sent for our kite-making. You can pick these tablecloths up at the dollar store too.

Here’s a picture showing one side of the kite wrapped:

I also made sure the fabric was wrapped nice and tight around the structure. Then, I used a lot of shipping tape to help secure and reinforce the fabric.

I applied tape inside to help keep the fabric attached to the dowels. I also used tape where the fabric overlapped itself and on all the exposed edges of the fabric.

Here’s a close-up showing how the edges of the fabric were reinforced with tape:

This last step with taping the edges was especially important to prevent the fabric from ripping as wind gushed through the structure. It would also help during landings to prevent tearing.

Here is the kite with fabric applied to both sides:

Step 6 – Stringing the Kite

Now to make the string connections. String attaches to the top of the kite, and then again about ¾ down the kite. Then a final string connects to this one, and will be used to control the kite from the ground.

To attach string securely to the kite, I once again drilled some small holes and used more wire. The wires made a hook for the string to tie onto and not slide around.

Here’s a close-up of one of the wire hooks:

Here’s a picture showing how I attached the second string to the one above:

My Fancy Birthday Spool

That fancy metal clip connects to a string wrapped around a spool. The spool will be held by the kite flyer and reeled in and out as extra length is needed.

This nice kite flying spool came with a cool lightweight clip to quickly attach/detach to kites. If you aren’t so lucky, you can just wrap a long string around a stick and use that instead.

Here is the completed kite with spool of string:

Ready for Take-Off

The kite was now complete! We went to the park for a nice open area and really lucked out with a windy day!

Zeus had been wondering what we were working on and was overjoyed for his trip to the park. He got to run along with the box kite and enjoy a windy evening outside.

The homemade box kite was a really fun project to work on. It only took a few hours, and didn’t cost much to make. I can’t wait until my son’s old enough to create his own designs with me. His interest is already peaked – we are definitely a family of engineers.

Now when we have windy days this summer and fall, we have our hand-constructed box kite ready to go 🙂

If you have been wondering how to make a box kite, these six easy steps will have your kite ready in no time. All you’ll need then is a windy day.

It’s a great family project, kids activity, or couples activity – and who doesn’t love a great DIY project?!

How to Create Amazing Craft Room Storage

July 5, 2017 by Ash 82 Comments

Anything you could ever want, for any project, resides in Eileen’s craft room.

Ribbon, paint, pipe cleaners, card stock, felt, sewing materials, hot glue. Not to mention all of the kids crafts and holiday materials.

However, there was no room for any kind of craft room organization and storage. I usually found Eileen behind a mountain of fabric or sitting amidst a pile of felt scraps. The closet was packed with those plastic drawer organizers filled to the brim.

With hopes to organize, and perhaps even empty the closet, Eileen wanted to add storage to the walls. It was a great idea because there was tons of wall space that was barely being utilized.

She had her office desk and computer in that corner, so she envisioned being able to spin around in her chair and easily access any of her materials.

Her craft room organization and storage vision included pegboard, shelving, and wall-mounted cubby storage.

Creating Craft Room Organization and Storage

In designing a plan, Eileen was thinking that she would have pegboard in the corner, using hooks and mini shelves to hang up craft supplies that she used a lot – scissors, tape, paints, brushes, etc.

Then, above that she would have two long shelves that would hold a bunch of fabric storage bins. She also has a large supply of those fabric storage bins, as they are all over our house. She keeps holiday decorations in them, learning activities for our son, party supplies, and a lot more. The more bins she could fit on these shelves, the better.

Last, and the part she was most excited about was the wall-mounted cubby storage. These would be little cubbies that could hold all kinds of things – bins of felt scraps, stacks of card stock, envelopes, and little bins of office supplies.

Time for me to get to work on a design for all of this craft room organization and storage.

Making a Design

I took Eileen’s ideas to the drawing pad and sketched out some 3D designs in TinkerCAD. Here is what I came up with for her craft room organization and storage:

The black box is the filing cabinet. The aqua panels on the wall are the pegboard. The semi transparent block in the center represents the dimensions of Eileen’s desk chair.

The craft room organization and storage project was going to be fairly easily to get done. The pegboard and shelving was straight forward. The only slightly challenging piece was the cubby storage. I had never made cubbies before, but it didn’t seem too hard.

Must-See Before & After

Here are a few before pictures of the mess. The first one is of the corner that is now transformed. The second is a messy closet filled with plastic storage drawers filled with crafting materials (that were then emptied onto the storage cubbies, shelves, and pegboard.)

And, here was the final result.

The craft room organization and storage project truly turned a messy, wasted corner of space into a crafter’s dream.

All of this craft room organization and storage completely emptied 5 bins/dressers/plastic storage containers worth of materials. Crazy, right?!

Planning

To embark on this craft corner project, I started off with a quick trip to Home Depot.

The craft room organization and storage project was very modular.

There were three unique pieces (pegboard, shelving and cubbies) that could be worked on and installed independent of each other.

Part 1: The Pegboard

I chose to work on the pegboard panels first. They were the simplest to get done.

Pegboard needs a backing frame to ensure there’s enough space for pegboard hooks to be inserted. Most people usually use furring strips for the frame. Since I didn’t have any, I started by cutting some 1” backing strips from scrap wood with my table saw.

Here’s a picture of my self-made furring strips:

To assemble and join the strips into a frame, I used pocket holes. Here’s a picture showing my Kreg pocket hole jig in action:

Here’s the framing coming together.

When the pegboard frame was completed, I secured it to some wall studs using deck screws.

I later built another smaller frame on the right to make the pegboard paneling hug the corner.

It was now time to paint the pegboard. Eileen picked out a crafty color from Benjamin Moore. She and our son had a fun trip to the paint store, where our son picked out his favorite color paint chip and got to bring it home 🙂

Prior to rolling on the paint they picked, I laid out the pegboard on some 2x4s in the driveway. Then I rolled on two coats of paint.

The pegboard was ready to attach to the mounted frame. Here’s a picture showing the final result of the craft room pegboard:

To secure the pegboard to the frame, I used pocket hole screws. They were perfect because they had built in washers and would prevent the pegboard from ripping through the screw heads under load.

Here’s a picture showing one of the pocket hole screws:

The first part of the craft room organization and storage project was checked off my list.

Pegboard Organization Tips

Below is a picture of how Eileen organized it all. The craft room pegboard completely emptied out her plastic desk organizer and more.

On the pegboard, Eileen used a collection of various pegboard hooks that I had, as well as some awesome little plastic buckets from Dollar Tree (3 for a $1). I did order some fancy pegboard organizers from Amazon, but I kept them for my own pegboard since she was happy with her organizational system.

I have to admit – I have already benefited from the pegboard organization. When making a few measurements upstairs, I easily grabbed her measuring tape. The scissors are found easily without digging through a drawer – and I just used the fishing line to make a kite with our son – without having to ask for where they were or dig through storage containers.

Part 2: The Cubby Shelves

Now for the cubbies.

Eileen was really excited about the cubbies, knowing they would bring a lot of organization and storage to her craft room. She had so many little paints and other crafts that would fit perfectly onto cubby shelves.

So, I looked online for ideas and came across two popular designs for cubby shelving. The first design used pocket hole screws to hold the cubby shelves in place. The second design used routed dados for the shelves. I went back and forth about which design I wanted to use.

The pocket hole method was the fastest and easiest to do. I am also a huge fan of pocket holes.

However, I felt that these cubbies needed a bit more craftsmanship. After all, they were going to be in the same room as our recent window seat bookshelf project. So I opted for the routed dado design.

As for the wood, I normally just use the common pine boards sold at Home Depot for most of my projects.

However, the cubby shelves needed an upgrade. Common pine boards are full of surface imperfection and knots. So I opted for their “select” pine boards. It was twice the price of the standard boards, but there was a huge difference in the quality.

I was excited to work with wood of this quality. It was a rare treat for me.

Cutting the Dados for the Cubby Shelves

Now on to the construction of the cubby storage shelves. First, I had to calibrate my router to the correct depth setting. I used a scrap piece of wood and made repeated cuts with varying depths until I got the 3/16” depth required for my dados:

Next, I outlined the dados with a pencil and ruler, and clamped down a piece of scrap wood for a router guide.

Now let the routing begin:

I was a little disappointed with my first dado. I’ve done many dado cuts in the past, but for some reason, this one was slightly wavy. The edges were not perfectly straight like I was accustomed to. I started to worry that something was wrong with the router. Then after closer inspection, I realized that my scrap wood guide fence had small imperfections along the surface.

Thinking this might be the root of my problem, I swapped out the wooden guide fence with a metal ruler, as seen below:

I re-ran the router through the cut and success! The wavy edges went away. I guess scrap wood isn’t the solution to everything. I had to be careful using my ruler as a fence for the rest of the cuts though. It provided a very small surface for the router to move along. The router risked slipping over the edge of the ruler and ruining the boards.

So very carefully, I cut all the boards and produced the following:

Here’s a top-down view showing how I cut dados on both sides of some of the boards:

The boards with dados on both sides were going to sit vertical inside the cubby shelf. Then square shelves would be inserted into the dados to form the cubes.

Adjusting the Cubby Design

At this point, I took a look back at my design, and suddenly remembered something that I had forgotten.

Eileen wanted some of the individual cubbies to be long enough to hold standard printer sized sheets (8.5×11) for her large card stock collection. I had intentionally gotten 10” wide boards for the cubbies to account for this. However, I forgot to factor this requirement into the rest of the design.

The dados were all cut to allow perfectly square cubbies, approximately 8”x9”x9.25”. This would result in the 8.5×11 sheets hanging off the edge slightly.

I didn’t want this to happen, so I needed to make an adjustment to the design. With the dados already cut, I really didn’t want to waste any wood. So I thought really hard and came up with the adjusted design below:

Two of the vertical boards could be cut right where the bottom dado groove was made. Then a longer horizontal shelf could be inserted spanning two cubbies.

This would result in the two end cubbies at the bottom being long enough to hold the 8.5×11 sheets easily. It also added a nice aesthetic touch to the design, breaking up the repeating squares. Both Eileen and I were very happy about the design modification.

Assembling the Cubby Storage Shelves

With that little hiccup out of the way, I proceeded to assemble the shelves. I used deck screws, construction adhesive and 90 degree wood clamps. Also, I used a countersinking bit with my drill for the deck screws. I didn’t want to risk the wood splitting.

Here is a picture showing the wood clamps in action:

Construction adhesive was essential to a sturdy design that wouldn’t wobble over time:

Here I have the 4 main vertical boards secured in place:

The cubby shelves are starting to take form here:

I used construction adhesive for all the inside shelves too, I didn’t want them moving in the dado grooves over time. I also used some deck screws where possible too (like on the end pieces).

Here is some more progress made on the cubbies (see how I also had to use some bar clamps to pull the inside shelves tightly into the dados):

Using Ratchet Straps

When all the inside shelves were placed into the dados, I saw that the top measurement of the cubby shelf didn’t match the bottom. Little gaps here and there in the dados were adding up and making the top of the cubby wider than the bottom by about an inch.

When I squeezed in one pair of dados with a bar clamp to eliminate a gap, another gap would open up slightly somewhere else. It was getting a little frustrating.

Then inspiration hit me. Maybe I could use some ratchet straps to pull in all the shelves tightly at the same time. It seemed a little silly at the time to use ratchet straps for this project, but I gave it a shot:

Guess what? The ratchet straps worked.

As I tightened each ratchet, I could hear the satisfying creak of the dados squeezing together tightly.

I checked the upper measurement of the shelf and it was finally in agreement with the bottom. I secured the final top board and attached some strategically placed boards in the rear to help mount the cubbies to wall studs. The cubby build was pretty much complete.

Here is the cubby shelf so far. It looked so nice – and Eileen loved it. It was the perfect answer to her craft room organization and storage problem.

All that remained now was to wood putty the screw holes and paint.

I used one coat of primer and one coat of cabinet enamel paint. I had some enamel paint left over from previous projects, and thought it would be perfect for the cubbies.

Since I didn’t want items sticking to regular paint over time, the enamel based paint would eliminate this concern.

Here is the painted cubby storage shelf eagerly awaiting installation:

Cubby Organization Tips

Here is the completed shelf – including Eileen’s organization.

She used the cubby shelf for a lot of card stock, construction paper, and felt organization. That emptied an entire cart worth of messy piles. She used little bins and mason jars to organize things like paper clips, tacks, paint brushes, pom-poms, kids scissors, and popsicle sticks.

Keep reading to see how I attached the cubbies to the wall.

She does a ton of kids crafts with our son, including lots of card-making and letter-writing. With this cubby organization, she can easily access his collection of stickers which are grouped in a bin as well as card stock and envelopes.

Part 3: The Storage Shelves

Last on the list for the craft room storage project was the regular shelves above the pegboard.

Eileen wanted to use fancy decorative wooden shelf brackets. The only one I could find in stock at Home Depot was decorative and had a max weight capacity of 10 lbs.

However, the wood itself felt pretty sturdy. The low load capacity stemmed from the cheap keyhole hangers in the rear. The shelves were going to be secured to the wall with lag bolts, so I could ditch those keyhole hangers and just reinforce the brackets.

Here’s a picture of the wooden bracket (also called a corbel):

There are lots of ways to put a shelf on the wall. Depending on the design and load bearing capacity of the shelf, you can either attach directly to drywall (with toggle bolts or other drywall fasteners), attach to wall studs (with lag bolts), or a combination of the two.

My shelves needed to be able to hold a lot of weight, so pure drywall attachment was out of the question.

I had initially planned on bolting the wooden brackets directly to wall studs. However, the placement of the wall studs was not practical for the look of the shelves. Either the brackets would be really close together, or one side of the shelf would extend very oddly past one bracket. I could attach one bracket to a stud and the other to drywall, but I wanted a more sturdier design.

A Shelf Design that Worked

So I came up with an elegant alternative for the craft room shelves. I would bolt a 2×4 directly to the wall studs, spanning the length of the shelf. This would hold most of the load. Then I could position the wooden brackets however I liked, as they would rest directly on the drywall (regardless of stud position).

This design was essentially replacing the cheap keyhole hangers (that came with the brackets) with a beam bolted to wall studs.

Here’s a picture showing the final design of one of the shelf mounts (it’s upside down right now):

Once turned right side up, the surfaces currently facing you would be pressed flatly against the wall, and lag bolts would secure the 2×4 to wall studs.

See how the vertical surface attached to the wooden bracket wasn’t flush with the 2×4? It’s because this shelf mount was going to rest directly on the pegboard. So even though the 2×4 would be bolted to the wall, the wooden brackets would sit on the pegboard.

Eileen requested this design as it looked really good visually. So I had to offset the brackets for this mount to account for the depth of the pegboard. This wasn’t an issue with the second shelf mount, as it would rest entirely against the wall.

Assembling the Shelves

For the construction of the mount, I used construction adhesive and deck screws. It was critical to pre-drill all the screw holes with a countersinking bit.

Here’s the shelf mount turned right side up (you can see the shelf behind it waiting to be attached):

I attached the shelf to the mount with more construction adhesive and deck screws:

Here are the two shelves primed and painted (again I used the enamel based cabinet paint for the shelf surface):

I had used a ¾” Forstner bit to make a hole for the lag bolts. This would prevent the lag bolt heads from sticking out past the surface of the wood. For an even more aesthetic touch, I planned on covering the holes with some mushroom head screw hole plugs.

In no time, the last construction part of the craft room storage and organization project was completed.

Shelf Organization Tips

I purposely built the shelves so that four storage bins could fit on each shelf. Below is how Eileen utilized these shelves.

She picked up six fabric storage bins from… the dollar store! She should really take stock in that company. Each bin has a purpose – kids crafts, her crafts, sewing accessories, holiday decorations, felt scrapes, and extra office supplies.

Eileen was in awe at just how much these bins held and how organized – and easily accessible her materials now were.

Installing the Cubbies & Shelves

Since all three elements of the craft storage corner were completed, they were ready to be installed. The pegboard was already mounted to the wall. I just needed to hang the cubby storage and the regular shelves.

I started with the cubbies first. Unfortunately, the size and weight of the cubbies was too much for me to just hold it against the wall while I attached it.

So I attached a temporary 2×4 to the wall studs for me to rest the cubby on. This would allow me to position it perfectly without breaking my back. It would result in some small screw holes in the drywall after removal, but I could easily patch that up with drywall compound.

Here’s a picture with the temporary brace in place (I made sure it was perfectly level):

Here is the cubby storage shelf mounted to the wall:

The other shelves were very easy to attach. I rested the lower shelf directly on the pegboard and inserted the lag bolts. Since the pegboard was already level, I didn’t have to worry about this shelf being uneven.

Once in place, I used some 12” spacer 2x4s to hold the above shelf in place while I attached that one as well:

How did it all look?

The pegboard, wall shelving, and cubby storage all came together really nicely, providing a plethora of storage space in Eileen’s craft corner.

And here, my friends, is the end result of all of this new craft room organization and storage:

Here is how Eileen put all the storage to good use:

Here’s another shot after some creative uses of pegboard hooks:

And most impressively…

With the amount of new storage created, Eileen was able to empty out tons of storage containers. She emptied three storage towers, one cart, and one dresser. She completed underestimated the amount of space all of the new craft room storage gave her.

Here’s the impressive ensemble of containers she emptied with this project:

I was sure happy to see that black dresser emptied out. I tossed it to the curb that very day. It had been in closets for the past eight years and before that was my old college furniture. That poor dresser had long outlived its purpose.

Time & Cost of the Craft Room Storage

This was a relatively short project to work on, and it provided so much craft room organization and storage for Eileen. I accomplished everything on a weekend, which always puts a smile on Eileen’s face. The final cost was around $250.

Don’t forget to download our free plans for this craft room organization and storage project.

The new craft room storage made a huge impact in Eileen’s craft room and office. She emptied out so much space in the closet, which can now be a linen closet.

All of that wall space that was wasted before was now holding an incredible amount of craft and office supplies. Her craft room organization and storage problem was solved. And, all of her craft materials were easily accessible, rather than shoved in bins and bins in the closet.

Eileen’s craft room and office is her absolute favorite place in our home, as she has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a window seat on one side and a highly organized craft corner on the other side. It’s truly her dream room.

It was well worth the time and investment.

How to Build Pull-Out Drawers & Custom Handles

June 1, 2017 by Ash 30 Comments

With my garage getting a little disorganized again, I’ve been working on building rolling worktables. As I was working on the custom-built drawers, and thought I would share my process. At some point as a DIYer, you might come across the need to make some drawers yourself – and it’s really rather simple.

If you are wondering how to make DIY drawers, there are many ways you can do it. In the end, it’s just a rectangular box with a floor and a handle. Among the many techniques out there to accomplish this, the three top methods that come to mind are dovetail joints, pocket holes and construction adhesive with nails.

How to Make DIY Drawers – Adhesive and Nail Method

The glue and nail technique has come to be my favorite. It’s super simple and very strong.

Basically, I cut the four box sides (usually ¾” boards), apply construction adhesive to the ends, and secure in place with finishing nails.

Then I use more glue and nails for a ¼” plywood bottom. I have actually built a number of generic boxes in the past with this method, but hung them on the wall with French cleats (see my project about finding hidden storage in your garage).

Turning one of these basic boxes into a drawer just requires a handle, and possibly some sliding hardware, depending on how you are going to use the drawer.

Some drawer designs also benefit from a decorative faceplate. The faceplate will additionally hide any visible joints made from the box design.

How to Make DIY Drawers – Video Walkthrough

I outline all of the steps that I took in this tutorial on how to make DIY drawers, but if you would like to see a video walkthrough, here is one which shows the whole DIY drawer-making process.

Speed Things Up with a Nail Gun

I happen to own a 16 gauge finishing nail gun, so drawer construction with glue and nails is extremely fast for me.

However, I started off with just nails and a hammer and got the job done just as well (albeit a little more time taken).

If you have the budget for a finishing nail gun though, you should seriously consider getting one for your DIY projects. Target the 16 gauge ones though. I think they are the most versatile.

Higher gauge ones are really only practical for applying trim. Lower gauge ones similarly also limit the scope of projects you can work on.

I find that 16 gauge strikes a fine balance between the two ends of the gauge spectrum. I use it to install most types of trim, while being able to quickly prototype ideas and fabricate projects.

So unless you’re a professional contractor who needs all the different gauge guns, as a DIYer you can compromise with a single 16 gauge gun.

Here’s a picture of my nail gun (with the 1.5″ finishing nails used for the drawers):

Materials for DIY Drawers

The current garage storage project requires me to make a lot of drawers. The key to getting it all done is efficiency. On my workspace, I just have the minimum amount of tools necessary to get the job completed. With my setup, I can bang out a drawer in under 10 minutes.

Here’s the list if item needed:

4 pieces of ¾” boards (for the drawer sides)
1 piece of ¼” plywood (for the drawer bottom)
1 drawer handle with screws
C clamp for installing handle
Long bar clamp for holding boards in place
Caulk gun loaded with construction adhesive
Square edge (for 90 degree joints)
Finishing nail gun (or a hammer and finishing nails)

Here’s a picture of my workspace, ready to build a drawer:

Assembling and Squaring the Sides

To explain how to make DIY drawers, I first placed the drawer boards roughly in position for speedy assembly. The next step is to apply construction adhesive to the board edges, as seen below:

The wood is then pressed together to form the box design. I use the square edge on the inside of the corners to make sure the angles are 90 degrees. Then I use the bar clamp to hold everything firmly in place.

It’s useful to keep some paper towels handy as the wood glue with squeeze out the sides of the joints and get messy. I also like wearing plastic disposable gloves so my hands don’t get covered in glue.

Here is the box clamped together and squared, ready for nailing:

Nailing the Boards Together

Here I am using the finishing nail gun to secure the pieces together:

My drawer height is about 3” for this particular project, so 3 nails at each joint would suffice. Deeper drawers will require more nails spaced out evenly.

You don’t need to go crazy with the nails though. Contrary to what you may think, a majority of this drawer strength comes from the construction adhesive and not the nails.

The nails do add some strength, but are mostly there to hold the drawer pieces tightly in place while the adhesive dries.

Here is the glued and nailed box design (with just the 16 gauge nails and construction adhesive, it’s already pretty sturdy):

Practice with your Nail Gun First

Here’s a word of caution if using the nail gun. If you’re relatively new to them, you may want to practice on some scrap wood first before shooting some nails into your drawers.

With ¾” drawer sides, you don’t have too much room for error and will need to fire the nails as straight as possible. This may just come with experience, so practice makes perfect.

Even I still fire some nails accidentally at a slight angle and the nail ends up protruding out the side. When this happens, it’s annoying because you will have to either break off the protruding end or pull it out completely. Then decide if you need to fire a replacement nail.

Note that if your wood is too hard, or if you’re firing into knots, your nails can still poke out the sides, regardless of how perfectly straight you fired it.

If this is the case, you can just use a hammer and nails (or reconsider the gauge of your nail gun).

Attaching the Drawer Floor

So the next step is to apply more glue in preparation for the drawer floor:

Be careful what side of the drawer you decide to install the floor on.

You want to use the side that’s perfectly flat so the floor is flush against the drawer. If your ¾” boards aren’t all exactly the same heights, then one side of the drawer will not be all flat.

Ensure you’re using the flattest side my flipping the drawer over and using the side that was resting against your flat workspace.

Once the glue is applied, press the plywood floor firmly against the box and use your fingers to align the edges. Then fire some nails to finish it off. I usually nail the corners first, and then put in some evenly spaced ones along the box perimeter.

If your nail gun has a depth setting, you will want to use a fairly low setting for the drawer floor. Since it’s only ¼” plywood, you risk firing the nail all the way through if using too deep of a nail depth.

Finally, try your best again to fire the nails as straight as possible (or else you’ll be pulling out those nails that poke out the sides).

Here I am nailing the floor on:

Save Money with Custom-Made Handles

Now for the handles. If you aren’t going to make that many drawers, you can just purchase them at the store. However, if you’re working on a large project requiring lots of drawers, you can pocket some nice savings by making your own handles.

There is a lot of handle design inspiration out there on the internet.

Personally, I prefer a super simple L shaped handle cut from 2x4s with my table saw. A single 8ft piece of 2×4 will yield around 30 six inch handles.

With the garage storage project I’m working on, I need 48 handles. My homemade handle costed around 15 cent to make. Considering handles in the store cost a couple dollars, that’s some significant savings!

Here’s a picture of one of my custom made handles:

How to Make DIY Drawer Handles

To make the handles, I rip a piece of 2×4 down the middle with the table saw, dividing it into roughly 2x2s. Then I set the cut length and depth to ¾” and again rip the 2x2s lengthwise. This cut a slot halfway into the wood.

Rotating the wood 90 degrees and ripping again made a perpendicular cut to the first slot.

The notched wood fell out leaving an L shaped piece. Then I just used a miter saw to quickly cut the 8ft piece into smaller 6 inch pieces.

The best part of using 2x4s for the handle is that the edges are already bevelled for you. No need for sanding or special routing to create smooth edges.

Attaching the DIY Drawer Handle

With the drawer box completed, you have some options as what to do next.

You could just leave the box as is and call it a day. After all, it’s a nice sturdy box with limitless potential. Depending on your project, you may want to install a faceplate on the front, and possibly some sliding hardware.

Then comes the final task of attaching a handle. For my current project, I didn’t need a fancy faceplate or even sliding hardware. So I jumped straight ahead to attaching the handle.

For handle installation, I measured and marked an offset so the handle would be perfectly centered. Then I used a C clamp to hold the handle firmly in place while I pre-drilled some holes and inserted two screws.

Here’s a picture showing handle installation:

I didn’t use wood glue for the handle. I definitely could have, but the screws already make a very sturdy connection.

Plus, I like to leave handles flexible in case I want to replace them in the future. Glue would make this difficult.

The Finished DIY Drawer with Homemade Handles

The drawer is now completed! Here is the final product:

Here’s a close-up showcasing the handle:

Finally, here’s a sneak peak of my awesome garage storage project (to be posted in the near future), showing the DIY drawers in action:

Time & Cost of Making DIY Drawers and Handles

With a nail gun, these drawers should take under 1o minutes to make. If you’re using nails and a hammer, then add on a few extra minutes.

These drawers are also very cheap to make. If you have some scrap wood, then they are free! If not, then I estimate around $2 per drawer (assuming you buy some wood in bulk to make a batch of drawers).

Also, if purchasing wood, I recommend maximizing the yield of drawer cuts as much as possible. This will give you be lowest prices per drawer. For example, I purchased some 4×8 sheets of 1/4″ plywood from Home Depot (to make the drawer bottoms).

To keep costs as low as possible, I calculated ahead of time how many drawer bottoms I could possibly fit on the 4×8 sheet. Then I factored in how I can get the 4×8 sheet cut at Home Depot to fit in my SUV (it was too large to transport whole sheet intact).

In the end, I was able to provide Home Depot with some simple cutting measurements and still maximize the yield of drawer bottoms from the 4×8 sheets.

If you have been thinking about how to make DIY drawers, just follow these easy tutorial and you’ll have your homemade drawers ready to go in no time.

I’m so pleased with the way the DIY drawers turned out. I also love how much money I saved on craftily creating my own handles. Check back soon for my garage storage project – which will show these DIY drawers in action.

How to Make a Useful Scrap Wood Storage Bin

April 19, 2017 by Ash 23 Comments

During one of my recent garage cleaning sessions, I stared at a pile of scrap wood and wondered what I could do about it. The pile of wood scraps was a real eye sore. Yet, I frequently dug through the pile looking for wood scraps for various projects.

Eventually I came up with a solution for my pile of wood scraps. I would make a scrap wood storage bin in the corner of the garage.

Here is a picture of one of the scrap wood piles (yes, there were multiple piles) and it’s lack of a good storage spot:

Planning the Scrap Wood Storage Bin

I didn’t put too much extra thinking into the wood bin design since I had a general idea of what I wanted of storage pen to look like. And, I had enough extra scrap wood lying around to make it.

I always like to keep an inventory of 8ft 2x4s on hand, stashed away somewhere in the garage. They are very useful for all sorts of woodworking projects.

Even among random cutoffs, I almost always lean towards the 2×4 ones. The cutoffs are especially useful for building impromptu shelving mounts in the garage.

So for the scrap wood pen, I had an idea of erecting an L-shaped fence in the corner of the garage, and I would only use only 2x4s for the fence.

Constructing the Scrap Wood Storage Bin

Working within my available space of about 36” x 18”, I first attached some 2x4s to the wall studs for this scrap wood storage bin. These were going to serve as the wall mounts for the fence.

Then branching out from those mounts, I just kept cutting and attaching more 2x4s (via deck screws) until I had a basic fence frame, with upper and lower railings.

Next I connected the railings with vertical 2x4s, approximately every 3 inches. This created a sort of picket-fence look, which would be perfect for the scrap wood storage bin.

Here’s a picture close-up showing how the 2x4s were coming together for the wood scrap bin.

Adding Scrap Wood Storage Bin Sections

To get the most functional use out of the scrap wood storage pen, I decided to divide the wood bin into 3 sections. The different sections of the scrap wood bin could be used for organizing various lengths of wood into small, medium and large.

At first, I thought I could get away with just running 2 pieces of wire at the top to make simple dividers. However, it turned out to be very ugly. Also the wood scraps started to mix together below the wire, rendering the wire useless.

So I looked around the garage for more scrap wood storage ideas for dividers.

My eyes settled upon some scrap wood ¼” paneling sheets. They would be perfect for the storage bin. I quickly obtained some inside measurements of the wood bin and cut 2 rectangular panels using my table saw.

The panels fit perfectly into the scrap wood pen to create 3 sections. To secure one end of the panel to the wall, I attached some scrap wood to some wall studs. Then, I screwed the panels onto these mounts. I did the same to attach the other end to the fence.

Here’s a picture showing the 3 compartments in the wooden storage bin:

The divided sections via the scrap paneling really added a nice touch, and would prevent smaller wood pieces from getting mixed up with larger sizes in the wooden bin.

Last, I have a folding table (soon to be replaced with a custom built organizing work bench) next to the scrap wood pen where I tend to work on smaller projects.

The last thing I would want is pieces of wood leaning over too far and getting in my way. So to better accommodate the larger lengths of wood towards the rear, I extended the height of the wood scrap storage bin at the back.

After a few hours of work, here is where the day led me. Not bad for scrap wood storage, right?

Extra Scrap Wood Storage Shelving

All my scrap wood was now beautifully organized and in storage. I even got creative and added some shelving above. This would store the extra small scraps that would easily get lost in a wood pen:

The storage shelf was a last minute addition to the project. Looking at all the organized scrap wood had my mind racing with ideas, and so I freestyled a shelf.

I made the storage shelf mounts with two L-shaped shelving brackets, reinforced with 2×4 scraps. I then attached them to wall studs using some lag bolts. The storage shelf platform was just some particle board I had lying around.

To maximize the storage shelf potential, I even made a sub-shelf right below the main shelf. It would be great for containers of wood putty, stain, etc.

Garage Ceiling Storage

My scrap wood storage bin accommodated 90% of the scrap wood in my garage. The remaining 10% of wood was placed on two storage U bars attached to the ceiling, as shown in the picture below:

As you can see, the U bolts hold my valuable 8ft 2x4s, and other large wood pieces that either don’t fit in the scrap wood storage bin or would be too awkward to store.

I’ve even got two doors up there – maybe I’ll turn them into a workbench!

Time & Cost

This scrap wood storage bin project was very cheap to build – it cost me nothing. I used all scrap or surplus wood left over from previous projects. Even if I didn’t have any wood scraps, I estimate about $20 worth of 2x4s was used to make the scrap wood storage bin.

You can make your own scrap wood storage box too using scraps in your garage. It doesn’t have to be a picket-fence style like mine either.

Depending on what you have lying around, maybe just erect a simple fence frame, and wrap it in paneling, or even chain link fence. The possibilities are endless for storage bins, especially when you have scrap wood and other scrap materials.

Making a DIY Planter Box for the Garden

February 14, 2017 by Ash 76 Comments

Tired of spending so much money for organic produce, Eileen and I decided to finally start our own garden.

Most of our backyard was filled with shade, so an elevated planter box would be ideal for positioning the garden in the most heavily sunlit area. We also wanted to use healthy, organic soil, so that was another advantage of using a DIY planter table.

Finally, we thought the raised planter box would help deter some of the wildlife from harvesting our crops. We had been plagued with groundhogs constantly eating up our sunflowers. We also have loads of deer as well as foxes running through the neighborhood – as well as a dog that jumps through the yard like a year.

Thus, we wanted a garden that none of these creatures could access.

So, a tall planter box sounded ideal for our first garden.

Planning the DIY Planter Box

I searched the internet for planter table design ideas since I hadn’t made a garden planter box before. I found a simple but sturdy design on Instructables. This particular design called for building both the DIY planter box and the stand, which made for a garden table.The planter box itself was 6 ft. x 2 ft, stood about waist height, and was made of cedar wood. The planter stand was made of regular 2 x 4s, but stained to protect from the elements. This would be perfect for us.

Except for the cedar wood, I had all the other materials required for building a planter table. Cedar wood was recommended because it is naturally very resistant to rotting.

I purchased several planks of it from Home Depot and quickly got to work in the garage building the elevated planter box.

How to Build a Raised Planter Box

Following the garden planter box plans I found online, I constructed the cedar box. The planks went together with lots of pocket holes using my Kreg Pocket hole Jig.

I recently discovered the world of pocket hole joinery, so this part of the DIY planter table was a lot of fun, and gave me a lot of valuable experience.

Here’s the garden planter box starting to come together:

You can see all the pocket holes used to join the side planks to the base of the planter box.

I joined the base with pocket holes. They are underneath so you can’t see them in the picture.

Wood clamps were a necessity for building a DIY planter box to keep the planks aligned while I fastened them.

Also, the cedar planks from Home Depot were very cheap and warped. I used clamps to straighten them (until the box shape was formed).

Here’s a picture showing one of the end corners of the garden planter box:

Note, all of the pocket holes were used.

I am also using my clamp here as a spreader to force the long end pieces apart. The cheap cedar wood so warped that I could not get the side plank in by hand. I needed the spreader for assistance.

Here’s a picture showing the nearly finished cedar garden planter box:

The pocket holes made the DIY planter box very sturdy. Also, despite all the warped cedar planks I used, the box came out very straight.

The warping was only frustrating during construction. Yet, my clamps and spreaders overcame that hurdle.

The cedar planks sold at Home Depot were not wide enough to create the ideal box depth. So, I had to extend the height of the garden planter box by a little.

It was a bit too shallow for adequate growth of roots. So using more pocket holes, I made another layer and attached it to the top of the box.

Here’s a picture of how I fastened the second layer of the raised planter box. I’m using a face clamp to keep the surfaces flush as I inserted each pocket hole screw:

How to Build the Planter Box Stand

Next up was the stand for the DIY planter box. Construction went along very easily as I followed the instructions.

The stand consisted of a cross shaped base to rest the planter box on, and 6 legs made of 2 x 4s (doubled up to provide the strength needed to hold the garden planter box when full of dirt).

I took the below picture while I was building the stand or table for the elevated planter box:

After the DIY planter stand was finished, I placed some square cedar cuts on the bottom of the legs. These served as feet for the stand up planter table.

They would help to keep the 2 x 4s off the wet ground, and to help prevent it from sinking.

Finally, I applied some stain to the whole planter table to help it’s longevity outdoors. The planter stand required a stain because I used regular 2 x 4s.

I opted not to use pressure treated wood because I didn’t want those chemicals so close to the plants. I used regular deck stain for the planter stand.

Technically, the cedar didn’t need a stain (because of its increased rot resisting abilities) but I chose to stain it anyway to get the most life out of the wood and enhance the durability of the planter stand.

It was important to use a non-toxic natural stain though.

Since we were going to use the raised planter box to grow organic produce, it was important to not use any chemicals in the garden planter box that could be absorbed by the plants. I had done my research ahead of time, and ordered one online.

Here’s a picture of the completed DIY planter box:

Notice the height extension for the box was reinforced by an outer rim. This rim also provided some visual flair.

Next I located an ideal spot for the raised planter box outside.

I decided to put the garden planter box of the way from daily backyard use, yet in a place that received the most sunlight for the amount of tree cover we have.

Unfortunately, the ground there wasn’t perfectly flat. So I dug holes in the ground for the raised planter box legs to rest.

I dug the holes at various depths so that the DIY planter box would be level once I inserted it. It was a trial and error process but didn’t take too long.

Here’s a picture showing the box stand, with the legs partially below ground to make the structure level:

And, here’s a close up of the raised planter box resting in the stand:

Here’s a picture of the raised planter box after we planted everything. We used mostly pre-grown, organic plants for a better odds since this was our first garden.

Fast forward a few months later, and our garden was thriving. We were happily surprised with the number of plants that fit in the planter table.

Tired of buying your produce from the grocery store? Trying to save money on decent organic produce? Looking to start living off the grid?

Think about building your own DIY planter box – you can definitely have a rich, plentiful garden with this box, and the raised aspect of it provides many advantages.

Our DIY planter box has stood up strong through all sorts of severe weather, and still looks the same as the day I put it outside. We had no issues with critters of any kind, and we got to use nutrient-rich organic soil. We later went on to create a DIY rain barrel to water our garden – which has helped our green goals.

In total, I spent around $50 for the cedar planks and natural stain for the planter table project.

The rest of the materials (mostly 2 x 4s, deck stain and pocket hole screws) were lying around my garage from previous projects.

Our garden certainly served us well this year, and we are looking forward to an expansion next year 🙂 This DIY planter box was just the start.

Skip links

Main navigation

Ash

How to Shorten a Tall Dresser

How to Build Steps for a Shed

How to Build a Ramp for a Shed

Determining the Ramp Angle

Leveling the Ramp Foundation

Attaching Stringers for the Shed Ramp

Building the Ramp Foundation On the Shed

Completing and Testing the Shed Ramp

Installing Windows and Building Doors for the Shed

How to Install Windows on a Shed

How to Build Doors for a Shed

Adding Lattice Under the Shed

Installing Lighting on the Shed

Time and Cost of Building a Shed from Scratch

Future Shed Plans

Unique Twist on a Custom-Made Computer

Simple Intro to Computer Design

Computer Case

Motherboard with CPU and Memory

Hard Drive and Power Supply

Keeping It Cool

How to Build a Computer from Scratch

Choosing the Right Motherboard

Passive Cooling

Additional Components

How to Build a Computer Case from Wood

Assembling the Case

Power Supply Holder

Motherboard Risers

Cooling Fan Brackets

Almost Done with the Case

Installing a Plexiglass Window

Applying Paint and Polyurethane

Installing the Electronics

Shining Light on the Situation

Mounting in the Garage

Controlling My Garage Computer

Time and Cost

How to Make an Oversized Wood Jigsaw Puzzle

How to Make a Robot Scarecrow

How to Make a Robot Body

Constructing the Robot Cow’s Body

Constructing the Mount

How to House the Electrical Components

Building the Robot’s Head

Wrapping the Robot’s Head with Sheet Metal

Flattening the Metal

Making the Robot Weather-Proof

Adding Accessories and a Mount to the Robot

Finishing the Robot’s Eyes

Mounting the Robot Head

Creative Robot Nostrils

Giving the Robot Head a Plug and Play Design

Fabricating a Sheet Metal Enclosure for the Robot Cow

Bending the Robot Body

Cutting Out an Access Panel

Adding in Robot Details

Making the Cow Spots

Cutting and Reinforcing the Scarecrow Post

Constructing a Wooden Moon

Wiring Up the Inside of the Robot Cow

How to Use the Ardunio Processor

Moo-Bot’s Script

The Robot’s Circuitry

Entering the Robot Cow in the Competition

Planning the Kite Design

How to Make a Box Kite

Materials for the Box Kite

Step 1 – Preparing the Wooden Dowels

Step 2 – Constructing the Crosses

Step 3 – My Strengthening Process

Step 4 – Assembling the Kite Frame

Step 5 – Wrapping the Fabric

Step 6 – Stringing the Kite

My Fancy Birthday Spool

Ready for Take-Off

Creating Craft Room Organization and Storage