The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

Tag: wood

  • Toy box

    A couple weeks ago I used Google SketchUp to layout what I wanted to do for the toy box I wanted to make for David.  Saturday morning we made a quick trip to Lowes to purchase materials and decided to give it a shot.

    What do you know, it’s Sunday evening and the box is sitting in the basement, essentially completed.  All that remains is a piano hinge, some sanding, and I’ll hand it over to Ana for some decoration (ie. paint/staining and whatever else she seems fit).

    I think I used just about every tool I have at my disposal to finish this thing, and I did so without any extra trips to the hardware store for more wood.  That’s definitely a first!

    Anyway, here it is.  Notice the pretty cool little inset shelf for some of his books.  I can’t wait to see the finished product!

    Use your imagination and picture a hinge there:

    Here’s the inside, sans lid:

  • Google SketchUp

    My next non-computer project is to design and build a toybox for David.  I’ve put off actually thinking about the plans because I didn’t feel like finding graph paper and a pencil, and I hadn’t really looked for software to assist in the design.

    But this afternoon was going a little slow and I ran across Google SketchUp again.  I say again, because I recall hearing about its initial release and trying it out.  I didn’t thing much of it at the time, and promptly forgot all about it.

    Little did I know cool and easy to use it is.  I watched a few short tutorial videos and I was up and running.  If you’ve got a need to make to-scale models, you should check it out (it’s free).

    Here are a couple initial views of the toybox I’m going to try building, stay tuned!

  • Yard work

    I did some yardwork this morning and made a little platform for the newly completed garden utility box to sit on – level even. Here is it, painted and in its final resting place. Some paint touch-ups are needed for areas not touched during the initial paint spraying.

    I like it, and Ana has starting filling it with her garden tools!

  • Garden Storage Box

    Tonight I pretty much finished the storage box for the garden I mentioned earlier this week.  I’ve been able to work on it for a couple of hours every night this week after David has gone to bed, so quite a bit of progress was made.  All that’s left is to find a suitable latch for the front doors and then get it painted/stained/sealed to endure the outdoors.

    It has been a fun little project to help me get more comfortable with this type of work.  More photos are available.  I’ll post more photos once it’s all painted and moved to the garden.

  • Busy Saturday

    Today turned out to be a pretty busy day.  I made a quick trip to Lowes to get a pair of 12′ pieces of crown molding to finally finish off David’s room.  It has taken entirely too long to get it completed, but I can’t exactly be in there with a nailgun while he’s sleeping.

    I only had one 10′ section of wall left, but decided to buy two pieces of ample size so that when I inevitably screwed up the first piece I could just laugh, set it aside, and try again without having a trip in the car piss me off.  The most amazing thing happened, though – I didn’t need the second piece because I didn’t screw it up. Wooo!

    After getting that piece in place I had to putty, sand, touchup paint, and caulk around the room which took a lot longer than I expected.  But, it’s finally done and looks really good to my untrained eye.  To top it off, we also finally got the pictures up in the room.

    Sometime in there I also cleaned my desk(!) and mowed the lawn.  Busy day.  I’m tired.

  • Another Project

    Here’s this weekend’s project, the white thing above the window…  more photos available.

    I also put Ana’s shelves up, but we decided to put them in the office to match the new window feature.

     

  • First Project

    This weekend I used my new saw for something a bit more delicate than the workbench.  Decorative shelves for Ana’s sewing room!  So they wouldn’t look too crappy, I also had to buy a router this weekend (the non-electronic kind, who would have thought…).  I’ve never used one before but it turned out quite fine.

    Here’s one of the pair.

    More photos available.

  • Workbench Completed

    More photos available…

    I really like how it turned out. 

  • Project

    Ana gave me a compound miter saw for Christmas, so I can now attempt a few projects around the house like crown molding.  I’ve never really been very good at building things, but I suspect that’s mostly because I: 1) just don’t try to often and 2) never have the appropriate tools. So, needless to say, thus begins what should be an interesting little adventure.

    Yesterday I discoved that before I can actually properly use the new saw I need to mount it to a table/workbench.  Well I don’t have a suitable table.  Much to my dismay I learned that the solution to this is to… build one.  So that’s what I did tonight – I built the frame of what is a very simple yet sturdy work bench.   All that’s left is the table top and shelf and it’ll be ready to accept the saw and other tools.  I was really surprised that it’s actually looking and feeling like a real, sturdy workbench!

    I used this website as a guide, and will be making a few additions such as built-in electrical power with a switch to turn off the whole table.