cpt_hammer's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Honey Do List #4: Toybox Complete

cpt_hammer — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:19:02 GMT

I’ve finally completed the toybox and will post pictures of it hopefully tonight. I’ve also managed to knock out other projects recently including basement storage shelving, garage storage shelves, and finally hanging some drapes in the family room. the drapes was the scariest part since they are 17 feet long and I have to climb up on a ladder just to hang the rods for them.

So on my overall list here’s where I’m at:

Entertainment Center – designed to match our current coffee table and end tables.
Toybox with attached bookcase – COMPLETE
Executive Style Desk
Daybed with Trundle Bed -COMPLETE

Additionally, I want to build the following items:

Poker Table for the basement
Wet Bar area for entertaining.
Wall-to-Wall Bookcases for the office
Improve the kitchen cabinets with crown molding and interior drawers for cabinets
Wainscoting for the office
Workbench for the Garage (I use 1 car stall currently) – PARTIAL (Just moved elevated my computer desk for now)

I’ve been instructed that I must do the entertainment center next by Household-6 (wife, Household Commander). It’s not a full entertainment center as many might think, but a basic coffee table type design that is much taller and with side bookshelves.

Honey Do List #3: Toybox in Progress - Finger out of commission

cpt_hammer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:31:10 GMT

Well, I’ve been working on my daughter’s toybox for the past couple of weeks. I have the base and the bookshelf top assembled and now I’m adding trim pieces to hide the plywood edges and assembling the toybox lids.

However, this weekend, when I was attaching my Kreg pocket screw drill bit to the drill, I got my pinky between the bit and the sleeve (why was it still in the sleeve? Don’t ask). It took 4 1/2 hours in the ER at the local hospital to get 4 stitches, tetnis shot, and the best part, good drugs (antibotic and pain meds).

(I’ll insert a picture of how it was caught here later)

But anyway, after reading about other injuries lately including the loss of fingers by another member of LumberJocks. I think I’m going to start a forum discussion of past injuries to see how many have thought about shop safety.

In the meantime, my wife is looking for cute signs to give me a hard time about the whole thing. Something like “Cut wood not fingers, Sign of a good woodworker is missing some fingers, etc.”

Honey Do List #2: Good Source for Wood?

cpt_hammer — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:16:00 GMT

My wife has instructed me that I have quite a long list of items to be built. Much to my excitement, I’ve enjoyed looking at different designs and coming up with some rudimentary plans for these items. However, when I went out to my garage (shop), I noticed that my lumber supply is rather meek. Here is my sad list of lumber:

Oak: 2 – 1/2” x 12” x 36” plywood boards 1 – 1/2” x 6” x 60” solid board

Aspen:
3 – 1” x 3” x 60” solid boards
10 – 1/2” x 6” x 60” solid boards

Pine:
Several scraps of 1”x3”, 1”x4”, 1”x6”
1 – Rough cut 3/4 plywood 4’x8’ sheet (For the trundle bed base that I already made, but haven’t posted)

Birch Plywood:
1 – 1/2” plywood that is about 4’x6’ in size

Where are some good places to find lumber supplies? I’ve gone to Home Depot and Lowe’s and I’m not happy with the selection of lumber(only pine, oak or red oak, and popular for the most part), some of plywoods ( 1/4”, 1/2” and 3/4”), and even some MDF. These prices seem rather high and not that great of a selection. What kind of places should I be looking at and what about shipping if using the internet? I’d rather keep my lumber prices as low as possible and don’t want to be killed on the shipping.

Also, transporting the lumber can be a pain since I only have 2 cars and they can transport 8’ long boards if I put the back seats down. But I have to ask a friend or neighbor to help me haul plywood sheets which I hate to do.

Aspen

cpt_hammer — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:29:39 GMT

I received from a good friend of mine several pieces of 4” x 1/2” x 4’ long Apsen boards. I have about 6 boards of the stuff and 1 piece of red oak about the same size. I was wondering if Aspen would be a good wood for kitchen cabinet drawers to hold pots and pans and such? I was thinking also about making a drawer organizer for the silverware. Any suggestions?

Honey Do List #1: Planned Projects

cpt_hammer — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:53:34 GMT

My wife and I recently bought a new house after living in an apartment for the past few years. We have found that while our 1200 sq. ft. apartment was full of furniture, that same furniture does not fill a 3750 sq. ft. house as well. As a result my wife after recently discovering my love for woodworking as tasked with a very long honey do list. Here is a brief synopsis of the items she has tasked me to build:

Entertainment Center – designed to match our current coffee table and end tables.
Toybox with attached bookcase
Executive Style Desk
Daybed with Trundle Bed

Additionally, I want to build the following items:

Wall-to-Wall Bookcases for the office
Improve the kitchen cabinets with crown molding and interior drawers for cabinets
Wainscoting for the office
Workbench for the Garage (I use 1 car stall currently)

Since I’m a beginning woodworker and I have only built a few things since high school. My following blogs will show how I’m progressing on my projects. I look forward to any suggestions, comments, or advice anyone could provide me with. I also plan to posts my drawings of plans for each of the projects so that I can get some feedback before I build these items.

I look forward to hearing from all of you and sharing ideas with all you great lumberjocks!