Woodwork
Raised Garden Beds
Raised Garden Bed + Bench
To add some more garden space to the pool deck as well as some extra seating we decided to build some raised garden beds using some prefabbed corner blocks and some 2x6's. The corner stones made the whole process similar to putting Legos or Kenex together, making the cuts of the wood the only part that I had to worry about. We used pre temped wood in hopes that it would result in longer lasting beds and minimal warp over time exposed to the outdoors. In line with longevity the boards are all also fixed together using wood glue on top of pocket screws making for a rigid bond between all the pieces. The bench uses the corner stones for some support but is mostly held up by planks spread out between the stones with a small backing added to the bench to avoid pool water running off into the bed itself.
2 Tier Raised Garden Bed
On the opposing side of the pool we decided to space out the raised beds by breaking them into two different beds while also adding a second tier to the beds. the second tier provides a better viewing angle of the plants growing in the bed as well as more vertical space for the roots of the plants on the higher tier to grow making for a more suitable environment for those plants. Adding the second tier to the beds meant that some space would be lost as a result of the divider between the tiers so the width was increased by ~6 inches. The sides of the bench where done in a semi-Herringbone style as a result of the off cuts of the wood from a previous design plan resulting in the right height for the second tier of the bed when placed in this pattern.
Children's Craft Table
A week or so before taking a trip to Ireland with my brother I got a call from my sister requesting a small craft table for my niece's birthday. Realizing I had some 2x4 foot pieces of plywood in the shed I attempted successfully to build the whole thing using just one sheet of it.
Using some paper and pencil to make stencils and a general idea of how tall the table should be I got to work cutting out the table top and creating holes to fit the containers to be held in them. I wanted to make the legs a fun and interesting shape that could go with other kids furniture that my niece had, so once I was happy with a shape I was able to duplicate it 3 more times.
The only real issue I ran into with this build was that using one leg as a stencil for three others resulted in the three others being slightly longer. To fix this I could have sanded down the 3 legs to match the original but I decided to take some scrap wood and glue it to the bottom of the shorter leg as it seemed simpler and just as effective as the difference was not noticeable to the eye.
Picnic Table Repurposing for a Trellis
During spring cleaning I realized that there was a falling apart picnic table in our possession as well as a desire for a trellis, so I thought I would repurpose the former into the latter. This was a pretty straight forward one day build, since I didn't have my screwdriver on hand at the time I used nail and hammer to construct it.
A bench from the picnic table was used as a base to hold multiple potted plants as well as the vines that would eventually grow up onto the trellis. Boards from the table top of the table were used to create a frame surrounding the bench that had holes drilled into it to later allow threading clear cable through to make a grid. Supports were added behind the trellis due to a concern for high winds possibly knocking the structure over once a substantial amount of flora had grown.
Living Room Furniture Set
Preparing to move into my first apartment in college me and my roommate to be decided to build some of our furniture rather than buy it from the local Ikea. Using my families work shop we set out to build a media center to fit specific devices, a large coffee table, and two side tables for either end of a couch.
Having basic plans together for each piece of furniture and a YouTube guide for the side tables we got to work. This being both of our first wood working projects some oversights in planning would result in a good amount of on the fly figuring for measurements and cuts down the line. The legs of the coffee table were made out of 2x4s cut square and tapered towards the bottom. the media center was made to be two pieces so that it could be more easily moved and fit through passage ways of a building.
Overall the build was successful with minimal issues in the resulting furniture, a less than 2mm difference in height between the media center pieces and some imperfect fit pieces in the coffee table were most notable. The coffee table would eventually come apart due to improper glue bondage but later repaired using mainly screws to hold it together this time.