This was a bigger project than I realized. The most valuable thing I learned was that I can
just free hand with my circular saw for cuts doing rough unfinished projects like this one
that doesn't require total precision
This all started with me planting a grape vine in Southeastern Pennsylvania that I thought had little to no chance of surviving. Yet it quickly outgrew it's mini Nursery trellis and then the larger one that I knocked together was destroyed in a recent microburst storm. That same storm destroyed a bunch of fences which provided some of the cedar planks I was able to use for the planter but the trellis itself is just Pine unfortunately.
This was a really fun project I learned Nerf cuts to create the saddle notches for the perpendicular beams on top and ended up combining a bunch of different materials that I tried to all make appear Cedar and hopefully weatherproofed enough to make them act like Cedar as well. I just don't think I realized what 10 feet tall was really going to look like until I stood it up and bolted it to the planter. So at the moment it just dwarfs everything else on the patio so I guess I just have to build another one!
OK here's the finished version of my first real project - custom workdesk + monitor stand. I posted this a while back but ended up stripping the sealed finish off the frame (nightmare lol) and redoing it. Lots of lessons/techniques/skills learned, my next one will be much higher quality and completed much faster.
Oak 3/4inch playwood desktop, with 1/2 x 2inch trim attached around the edges and then hit with roundover bit. Frame is all construction 2x4s. I installed steel wall hooks on either side for hanging stuff, installed a really nice looking (but extremely cheap on amazon) bronze gromet. Monitor stand uppershelf, I built a little housing for my 600w GaN Charging block and I installed LEDs under the desk. (I'll probably remove these, feel like they're tacky and zero utility).
Would love any feedback or any tips knowing I don't have a table/miter saw atm. I want to build a matching chest of drawers/printer stand to sit next to it.
What is all this junk!?
After mangling my new 1x8 red oak board (nicest piece of wood purchased so far!) attempting to cut my first dados with the hand router, I wasn't too thrilled. I did feel a little better after a little research and finding that having your router jump around, destroying a board, and realizing you need a jig, is almost like a rite of passage. I was trying to use the edge guide that came with the router but it was moving all over the place, and realized too late that with the big gap in the middle of the guide fence, I need a nother straight edge that extends out past my board. When the gap met the corner, that was all she wrote and I immediately understood all the advice around the importance of jigs, thats for sure and now that I've built one I'm pretty excited about the possibilities but there's an infinite amount of jig designs on the internet.
I built the most simple one I could think of, it should theoretecally work for any single router bit with this router, but then the more videos I watch, they all seem to be adjustable for different bit sizes and that only the router bit passes through the jig, while the router base glides along top. That way seems more likely to have a problem and requires either a fancier adjustable jig or different fixed jigs for each bit size. I can't figure out why anyone would do it that way instead of something like I made this extremely simple rectangle with right angles and exactly the width that allows hte router to snugly glide back and forther with zero side to side play. That leads me to believe I am just totally obvlivious to another disaster waiting to happen so wanted to check here first. Hope all fo that makes sense. Photos you can see the edge guide and the damage done, the jig, and the router sitting in jig.
Thanks so much for the help!
Ken
This is without a doubt the most complex and high-end peace that I've made over the 6 months but still only have a 5.5 in Ryobi circular saw to do all my cuts and I am getting much better with precision but still can be labor intensive and frustrating. Dreaming of a table saw or miter saw soon. This desk what did go to as planned I think I made the frame too big for the 48-in desk but it's definitely sturdy. The desktop is a oak plywood three-quarter inch and then I purchased half inch by 2 inch boards from Lowe's and did a trim around the edge to make the desktop appear sticker than just the three quarter inch plywood and also hides the plywood Edge and then I used a roundover bit and went around the sides with the router and it really Blended the trim into the plywood it looks really good from that regard..... however I learned so much from my mistakes finishing this project that I can't help but want to just try it one more time because I know how much better it would be with a few small adjustments
- and hoping the black stain/polly will get a little bit dollar and flatter as it continues to dry this evening