Actually it was the other way around. My Pergola had seen its better days so I replaced the beams and the perpendicular boards. That was a project all on its own. Just the pre-staining of the boards took several evenings. But when it was finally done, I was left with a decent pile of already stained cedar 1×4 cut-offs. So after thinking what I could build with them, the result was these planter boxes.

I first went to orange and picked up the plastic ‘liners’ and made the whole project to fit around them. The top frames are mitered and biscuited together. The vertical members of the case are two boards buiscuited together to make a corner that is 2 inches wide across both faces. The rest of the case is done with pocket screw joints. The paneling boards are rabbeted on the top and bottom to fit against the frame and then glued and pin nailed onto the frame. The supports holding up the plastic liners are cedar 2×4s that were left over from another project and pocket screwed and glued to the frames on three sides. I had put in pocket holes to hold the top frame on but unfortunately there was no way to use them. So I ended up having to face screw the top frames in place.

I have been wanting to make an air filter for a while. I couldn’t find a design that I liked until recently. The ones with multiple 1” filters and all the frames to hold said filters in place was more work than I wanted to put into this project. I finally found this one and knew that I had a design that made sense for me. So here it is. I originally wanted to hang it from the ceiling but this presented some major challenges. First I would have had to go up in the attic and sister some 2by lumber to my 1by rafters to have a strong enough place to anchor some eye screws. The second problem that I saw was that with the filter pointing downwards, some dust might fall out after turning the blower off that would pile up and then have to be cleaned up. So at the last second, I found some small casters in the drawer and put them on. Everything else is pretty basic just a 5/8” plywood box, biscuited together. The frame is made of window casing that is also biscuited and held on by a piano hinge and two draw catches. The filter is 20” x 25” x 4”. A 1 hour mechanical timer controls the motor.

I made this step stool/seat for my niece for her first birthday. It is made out of poplar and painted. My mom got the letters and stars and painted them. I secured them with pin nails and some glue.

The plan is from the August 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking. http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/i-can-do-that-step-stool

This was my first commissioned piece. The requirements were that it had to fold up for easy storage, have a shelf underneath and a way to hang the banner. With the exception of the lower shelf, the whole project is made out of one sheet of 3/4” plywood. I made it to table height (30”) and the counter is just under 18”. So those two pieces combined accounted for the full width of the 4×8 sheet. I did some mockups with small scraps of plywood to figure out the nesting arrangement of all the various pieces. And I was able to use up some scrap door hinges that I had laying around to keep the cost down. For the banner, 3 sticks of 1/2” electrical conduit, 2 couplings and 4 eye screws did the trick. The finishing was done by the new owner who plans to use it at all her neighborhood yard sales.

It is always fun to combine hobbies. I have fixed a couple old tube radios so I thought why not build some test equipment and use up some scrap wood in the process? The result is a shop made dim bulb tester and a test speaker. I had the speaker and grille in a box of parts so I figured I needed a way put it to use. I reallize that the dim bulb tester probably would not meet UL approval, but I figure since it is only used while being watched, I should be ok. Now all I need is another radio to fix!

I made this out of scrap from my outdoor dining table so it would match. I started with just the box but realized that it needed something to keep the napkins from blowing away. I tried using a rock but that was cheesy so I made a flapper out of more scrap cedar. My rudimentary wood hinge functions ok using a couple wire nails as hinge pins. The handle is a chunk of cedar that I cut to be approximately round on the band saw and sanded to a semi smooth finish. The finish is tung oil.

I made these a while back to use up some scraps and add some flair to my stereo rack. Both pieces are done with oak plywood and edge banding. The CD storage just wraps a black plastic CD organizer that I found lying around. The finish is polyurethane.

I made these based on a couple different designs here on LJs. The top is a mitered frame with a rabbet to receive a 12” floor tile (glued down with construction adhesive). The tiles themselves look like slate. They came from the HD- Folkstone Atlantic Beach to be exact. The top and the legs are solid red oak. The rest of the pieces are scrap oak plywood to keep costs down. Pocket screws were used for the joinery. The finish is two coats of tung oil.

I made this a couple of years ago for my portable heater that I got as a christmas present. The heater worked great for my garage shop but was always running out of propane supplied by the two small cylinders held on the sides of the unit. Then I saw where a special hose could be used to connect the heater to a 20# propane tank. So this solution was devised to hold the tank out of sight and make the whole thing movable around the shop on casters.

For Christmas I received a Milwaukee M12 driver to match the drill that I have had for a couple of years now. So as I was unloading my loot to the garage, I realized that I need a way to organize all of this stuff so it wouldn’t junk up my work surface. And here is the result… A simple organizer to hold both drills and the extra batteries. It is 1/2” birch ply for the top and sides and 3/4” birch ply for the base and a little edge banding for good measure. The drill holes are 2 1/8” and the battery holes are 1 3/4”. Overall it was a fun project to use up some scraps and get to play with the drill press, table saw, and band saw.

I made this footstool to use around the house. It is based somewhat on the project featured in the January 2002 issue of FWW. The dimensions are 11.25” L x 15” W x 12” H. Instead of doing M&T joints, my base is biscuited together and uses pocket screws to hold the top on. The feet splay out at 10 degrees and are also beveled at 10 degrees. The finish is two coats of clear polyurethane.

I am sure everyone has seen this before, but here is my version. I built this for my niece and my mom painted it. It is made with birch plywood and edge banded. The trim pieces are poplar. I got the dimensions from the following source which made it much easier than trying to guess by looking at the catalog.

http://web.archive.org/web/20100427000455/http://furniturehacked.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/plan-the-dollhouse-bookcase-knock-off-of-pottery-barn-kids/

I made this so my Weber Q 120 would have a place to sit. The stock carts were not suiting my tastes so I made my own out of dimensional Cedar. The cart is overall 29.5” tall. The top frame is 22”x14” and the bottom frame is 29”x14”. The legs are angled at 10 degrees. The slats are 1×3 cedar, rough sawn on the exposed side. There is a support brace in the middle of the bottom frame so that it can hold the weight of a 20# propane tank if I decide to go that route.

6 Month update (third picture): I finally put on a few finishing touches. I made a handle out of some scrap cedar. I applied a UV protecting deck stain that is clear with a cedar tint. I also went with a propane tank because the little bottles were always running out.

I made this several years ago as one of my first projects with the my PC dovetail jig. I needed a place to store my shoes that were piling up in the garage outside the door to the house. It also doubles as a place to sit while lacing up my shoes. I constructed the project with old pine 1×12s that were the original shelves in my closets before I pulled them out. The wood has an amazing old patina and thus I did not apply any finish. The back is just 1/8” hardboard. The overall dimensions are 30.75” wide by 15.25” high by 11.25” deep.

I made a bunch of these last year for office Christmas presents. I wanted something that I could mass produce easily with my mediocre wood working skills. I looked around the internet and found a commercially produced version of this. It was an interesting form and it seemed like a neat trinket that people would want to keep on their desks. I stared off with two red oak 1×4’s and one .25×4 poplar boards. All three pieces were laminated together to get the thickness I needed. I went to a friends house to use his jointer to make the edges flush and get down to the final width of 3.25”. On my table saw, I cross cut the long blank into individual blanks that are 3.25” wide by 3.25” high by 1.75” thick. On the drill press I drilled two 1.25” holes laid out symmetrically. The finish is just one coat of tung oil.

That was last year, does anyone have any good ideas for a small trinket like this that can be easily made in batches?

This is my version the open storage divider rack cabinets that are seen in many workshops. Typically these are mounted on the wall and hold nail guns and drills for quick grab-and-go usage. I don’t have room on my walls, but I still needed something similar as I got tired of all the fumbling around that I had to do in order to retrieve a tool from my cabinet. They were previously stored in their plastic ‘road cases’ and then piled into this cabinet. This was no fun because I had to pull out the plastic case and then remove the tool. The plastic case was then in the way for the duration of the time that I was using the tool. Valuable shop time was being lost!

Enter this solution… It was made from some basic 1/2” plywood. A little bit of dado-ing, glue, and a few pins to hold it together was all that was necessary to construct this. It is actually made in two pieces to facilitate getting it into the cabinet. I had to remove the top shelf completely, drop the second shelf down, insert the two cubes and then put the top shelf back in. The cubes were screwed together and then held up while I repositioned the shelf that they sit on back into place.

Now I have a place for my most used air/small power tools with incredibly easy access.. The plastic ‘road cases’ are now down in the basement for the .1% of the time that I actually need to take the show on the road.

I built this from plans (101 Best Ever Workshop Projects 2011). It provides storage, workpiece support, and a solid base to clamp the jig to the bench. It is made from a single 2’x4’ sheet of 1/2” birch plywood from the home center. The dividers are dadoed into each other but not into the base, just glued down. There is a minor problem in that I have a newer version of the jig that is a bit larger so it hangs off the back. The catches came from Lowes. I was lucky to find them there because the ones called for in the plans were from a mail order catalog. And that can get spendy on shipping when ordering just one item.

I made this desk to hold my three monitors on top as well as having a proper place for the tower, printer and a/v equipment. It is oak plywood with solid oak drawer fronts. The top is wrapped with select pine. The top shelf is just more oak plywood held up by pine corbels from the depot. The finish on everything is clear poly. One minor issue was that the whole thing started to deflect downward. This might have been prevented by having a board in the back connecting the top and both sides together. In the end I just made two small support feet out of plywood to go under the inboard side of each box.

Here is my bookcase based on plans from Wood magazine, issue 206 (September 2011). It is made with oak plywood and solid oak trim pieces. The finish is clear poly. I made this in part to match with my custom desk.

Here is my attempt at an outdoor bar/kitchen. The area that it is in is semi-sheltered from the weather which basically means it does not get rained on directly. The dimensions are 64” x 25” The carcass is 3/4” plywood that is skinned with osb siding which has a very convincing wood grain look. The door panels are 1×4 select pine rails and stiles joined with stub tenons and attached with euro hinges. The door panel is the same osb siding for a consistent look across the front. The tiles are adhered with thinset to a cement board screwed to plywood underlay and wrapped with more select pine as the edging.The sink is provided with hot and cold water and drainage by way of a window well/vent window into the basement where there just so happened to be supply/drainage connections from a long gone slop sink. There was also an external GFCI outlet on the wall that is now covered up. It provides power to the mini-fridge and weather-resistant outlets on each side of the cabinet. I know all of this is by no means code legal, but I don’t care since it is for my enjoyment, not the next occupants.