This is probably the most common woodworking project that people want to build. Who can’t use more storage? The best part about this project is that you can use standard size wood (2 x 3’s) for the main framework and it can be put together without using complicated joinery.
Construction
Tools required: Jigsaw, sander, drill, router or dado blade
Wood required:
…continue reading A Simple Shelves Plan
This particular feeder is designed to take bird seed, rather than the more typical left-over food scraps. The advantage of this style is that it can be filled up infrequently as it can store several weeks’ worth of food at a time. The bird feeder is made out of pine and is stained to suit its locale. You can also paint it to fit your style and taste.
Construction
…continue reading Bird Feeder Plan
This chest was designed to have a dual purpose: firstly (and most obviously) as a storage unit and secondly as a coffee table in a small living room. The shape is very basic, but is the most functional for storing toys and games in.
In order to improve the aesthetic appeal of the chest dovetail joints would be used to join the sides. Details of how to create easy dovetail joints has been included in the Joints section. However, it is not necessary to use dovetail joints: any form of jointing, such as dowel joints or butt joints could be used.
Construction: The base unit
…continue reading Storage Chest Plan
Building a magazine rack is a relatively easy project that you can complete in a weekend. It doesn’t require much wood so you may even be able to make it out of the odds and ends lying around in your workshop.
Rita writes, “Does anyone have some free plans for a wheel barrel planter?”
I have not built on yet, my yard is a little too small especially with three young, growing kids running around in it. This will be a nice weekend project to build. I found a couple of sites offering free wheelbarrow planter plans that look really nice and are easy to build.
When you have completed it, send me a couple of pictures of your completed project and a commentary on how your building experience went making this project. Will gladly show them off here on the site.
With the passing of my wife’s grandfather, he was 85, and a World War II veteran. Got me thinking about a display case to store the triangle folded flag. The design is a simple triangle case whose inside dimensions are the same as the folded flag. The edging of the case walls will be a 1/4 round over on the glass facing side and a decorative bit on the outside.
This case can be built out of any solid wood. Most cases that I have seen have been built out of oak. If I where to build a case for my wife’s grandfather’s flag, I would make it out of mahogany.
The inside dimensions for my case are 23 3/4 by 11 3/4 inches, which is suitable for a large flag. Fold and measure the hypotenuse and the sides of the flag and adjust the inside dimensions to fit your flag. …continue reading Burial Flag folded display case plan
Merry Christmas! Here is a great gift for your weekend wood worker, free plans for all kinds of projects around the house and yard.
I just came across a really good resource for woodworking plans. They have a wide selection of project plans from bed room, furniture, to yard art. And the price is just right, free! Most of the plans are from woodworking journals such as fine woodworking, weekend woodcrafts, and others. The site as several hundred plans!
Most all of the plans contain materials list, tools required, and cut lists. Some of the plans include pictures of various assembly steps to help understand what they are attempting to describe in the plan’s text. Most all of the plans are Adobe PDF files. Some of the plans are embedded in the html of the page. Kind of a pain, but you can easily save the web page to disk. Another option for dealing with these html embedded plans, is to copy and paste it into your favorite word processor. From within there you can edit out the images and stuff that does not apply to the plan.
What are some of the plans that you are interested in building? Feel free to leave a comment!
Click on the image to enlarge it (a second browser window will be opened up with the image in it).
Here is the first draft of the child’s easel that I am planning on building for my godson. It is a basic design. I am still thinking about the art supply storage bin. I am leaning toward building a tray below the art drawing board. May putting a little bit of a lip around it so that it hold the pencils, crayons, markers, water color paints, etc. I am considering a lip height between 2 to 3 1/2 inches.
Click on the image to enlarge it (a second browser window will be opened up with the image in it).
I need to find a supplier for the ‘locking arms’ that will be mounted on either side of the easel to keep it locked open. What I am looking for is the same / similar device that is used on a step ladder to keep it locked open. Hopefully I can find it in one of the local home improvement stores.
So, what do you think of the rough draft of the plan? Feel free to leave comments about the plan, improvements, and suggestions.
Construction notes:
The legs are beveled at 75 degrees. On the chalk board side of the easel, the legs are attached to the cap with 1 1/4 inch screws. The art board side the legs are attached with 1 1/2 inch wide butt hinges.
The legs are 3/4 inch thick stock by 2 inches wide by 48 inches long.
The tray is is constructed from 1/2″ thick stock. The front and back panels are 2 1/2 inches by 22 7/8 inches. The bottom is 2 inches by 21 7/8 inches. The end panel is 2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. The tray is attached to the easel with screws that are driven in from the back side of the leg into the tray. Counter sink the screw head.
Use a 1 inch thick dowel rod to hold the role of art paper. Use a forstner 1 inch drill bit to cut the recess for the dowel rod. The recess needs to be 3/8 inch deep. Take a chissel and cut out the top side so that the dowel rod can be dropped in with the roll of paper.
The chalk board side of the easel is 1/4 inch birch plywood. I found chalk board paint, spray can and brush on, that can be applied to just about any solid surface and turn it into a chalk board. I used the spray can version so that I would not have brush strokes in the chalk board.
Cut the plywood to size. Sand the plywood smooth with 280 grit sand paper. I used a random orbital sander. Then spray on three coats of the chalk board paint allow each coat to thoroughly dry. Once the paint is completely dried continue with the assembly of the frame and insert the chalk board into the frame.
On mine I build the frame with the plywood in the frame and then applied the chalk board paint. What a pain that was! I had to mask off all of the frame so that it didn’t get painted with the chalk board paint! The other problem is that over time the plywood shifted just a little bit and you could see a faint line of unfinished plywood exposed at the edge of the frame. Had I followed the steps above all you would have seen is chalk board.
Oh well, learn from my mistakes.
I stained it with mahogany oil based stain. The top coat was three coats of Tung oil. Tung oil provides a very deep finish. The nice thing is that it is easy to repair when kids accidentally scratch the finish. Sign up for my free weekly wood finishing tips newsletter. It covers a wide range of wood finishing tips including how to get a super smooth finish without using steel wool.
Update:
I have successfully found the locking hinges at the local big box home improvement center. At my store they placed them in the same aisle as the picture frame hardware and hinges and cabinet hardware.
I made this easel for my god-son as a Christmas present. He loved it!
No, I am not talking about new power tools for the shop. Instead, I am talking about making Christmas gifts for your kids, friends, or family. In my case, I am working on a design for an art easel for my six year old godson. His mom is thrilled about the gift! It will be an interesting race against time to get it done. In a future post I will post the project design and cut list.
My wife has wrangled me into this project! She was talking to our godson’s mom and she said that her son is into painting and drawing. My wife then turns to me and asks how hard it would be to build an easel for him. My response was that it is not that hard, it is a question of time. Do I have the enough time to design and build it before Christmas? I for warned my godson’s mom that it might turn into a new year’s gift.
I just started a shop furniture project. I am replacing a couple of tables with a fixed wall to wall work bench and a set of shelves that will be mounted either side of the window. So, now I need to complete this project before I begin the easel!
In a previous post about picture frames I mentioned that I had built a set of picture frames for my wife’s birthday with a close up picture of each of our children. Fast forward a year later and I am looking at the pictures and want to give her an updated set of pictures of the kids. The problem is the original set of picture frames where constructed from purple heart and it will not be easy to replaced the pictures.
I could continue to make picture frames, but eventually I will run out of wall space in our bedroom! So what to do?
I recently purchased raised panel door router bit set. The grove where the raised panel fits in is 1/4” wide, just the right width for the glass, mat, picture and backer. Using mahogany I routed a set of rails and stiles for each frame. I glued and nailed two stiles and the top rail together. The bottom rail I fastened with flat bar strip of metal that I picked up at the local home improvement store.
Anytime I want to replace the pictures all I need to do is remove four screws add slide out the bottom rail!
And by the way, my wife loves the second set of pictures of the kids. With both sets of the pictures next to each other it is neat to see how the kids have changed over the past year.
I typically work alone in my wood shop. Often when I am cutting long stock and sheets of plywood I need a helping hand. For Christmas my wife gave me a nice set of three adjustable folding metal roller stand. They are nice, but they have a significant draw back, tipping over. If the stock dips a bit lower than what the roller stand is set for, the stand will be pushed back and knocked over.
This is a huge problem especially if a long, 8 foot or more, stock is being run through the table saw. More than once I have messed up a cut because the stock hit the roller and did not go on the roller rather knocked it down.
Norm Abrams from The New Yankee Workshop has an interesting design for a roller stand in the ‘workshop helpers’ episode. His design has four rollers on the stand. The stand’s base is as wide and deep as roller head. It is designed to be constructed out of basic materials that are available at your local home improvement store.
I will be building at least one of his roller stands. Now, where will I store it in the wood shop?
Making a picture frame is a nice small scale project that allows you to showcase your talents while framing a beautiful picture.
There are a variety of different techniques to build a picture frame, from using off the shelf molding to milling your own molding. The first picture frames that I built I used off the shelf lip molding. It works, but the choices of wood types are pretty limited. At my local home improvement store carries molding made from white pine and red oak.
Building picture frames out of scrape wood helps me reduce the scrape wood pile. I only have so much space in my work shop!
A little over a year ago I built a collection of three simple picture frames for my wife’s birthday. I took a picture of each of our children’s face. The picture is just the face of each child. I saw that on Extreme Makeover the Home Edition show. For one family, Ty hung in the master bedroom a set of close up face pictures one for each of their children.
The picture frame is a simple design. It is 2” wide with a rabbit grove 1/4” by 1/4”. A 1/4” depth allows me enough space for the glass, matting, picture, and backer board. Depending on the species of wood I typically use glazer points to secure everything into the frame. This technique works well for softer woods and once you put the picture in you are not planning on changing it.
The first set of frames that I made for my wife’s birthday, I build them out of reclaimed purple heart. It was the first time that I worked with this wood. My Delta bench top planner chewed through it fairly easily. Granted I was taking of 1/64” per pass! However, cutting the rabbit with my stacked dado head cutter…. That was a challenge. It took several passes to mill out the rabbit. My dado head cutter is not the greatest, more on that in a future post.
My joinery for the frame itself is still on the low end of the skill set. My main method is to nail the joint with 18 gauge brads. I have contemplated using biscuits in the joint.
Most of my picture frames are variations of 2” to 3” by 3/4” thick.
Some other variations of the frame that I have done are:
Take a look at the tools and router bits in your shop and use your imagination. I think you will be very pleased with the neat new ideas that you can come up with for picture frames!
Oh, by the way, my wife loved the pictures.
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