My view on Toys

Now that my boys are being boys, the toys I have made are getting a little more abused and showing wear.  It is a lot of fun to watch them play with the toys.  Unfortunately there are times where the play is a little too rough and the toy breaks.  Here are some of the casualties of being a toy:

There have been others.  I knew that toys would be broken.  The nice thing is that most of these can be repaired.  I do not have any yet that have to be thrown out.  My pride and joy is not, nor will it ever be, the completion of a perfect toy that looks too good to play with.  My joy comes from seeing kids play with and enjoy the toys. 
Here is a warning to all those how have received or will receive a toy from me either through purchase or gift.  If I see it on a shelf for display not for play you will never receive another wooden project from me again.  This would be an insult to me and I would take it personally because the toys are meant to be played with.
I do not nor will I ever make a model for display.  It does  pain me to see these toys broken however it warms my heart to see kids happy and smiling because of them.
 My furniture is purely functional.  When it has lost its function it needs to be replaced.  As in the post with the desk, I do not have a problem throwing stuff away that has outlived its usefulness.  Now I did keep the hardware.
I like what I do and I love the smiles I receive.

Fail...Maybe not so bad

In the words of my son "FAIL." The Internet lied or maybe I have a different mattress.  I was so proud of the design and worked hard on making this bed come together nicely.  However I failed on several different fronts.

My son knows to measure twice and cut once

Screwing together the foot board

Adding the drawer glide rails

My son put all the screws in the holes and helped tighten them in

He was also the strength test

Have to check hiding spaces

Adding drawers and yes I was a little frustrated

Drawers pass quality check. 100  lb rated glides are a wonderful thing

Too bad the crawl space was filled with drawers

He wants an addition to his bed

 Was this project a complete waste, no.  It turned out nice despite the fact that I can not measure and follow my own design.

Completed bed with drawers showing

Sectioned drawers.  All three are the same

So here are the problems with the bed:
First I had originally built the bed upside down.  The thinner rail needed to be on the bottom and I put it on the top.  This error caused the drawer rails not to fit how they were designed.  The plan was to be able to disassemble the bed with the drawer glides in the rails.  This error was fixed but at a great cost.  Glue bonds are stronger than wood, so on disassembling the front of the bed chucks of wood were also removed.  The good thing is that all the damaged areas are not visible when the bed is assembled.
The mattress is two inches too narrow and two inches too short.  I designed this bed off of dimensions from the Internet.  So either the Internet lies (that is obvious) or I have mattress made for a trundle.  I think both statements are true.  The mattress is on loan to us currently.  So if anyone has a real twin that they would like to donate to us it would be much appreciated.  I am cheap.
Last major fail, the screws for the hardware are too short.  The drawer is supposed to have hardware and the screws are in, they just do not show through to the other side.  On one of the drawers I did not check be for I drilled it and it shifted 1/2 inch down.  Oh well I can fixed that problem too.

Now for the fun stuff.
The project was actually good for me.  I used some different methods to join wood.  For the most part, when I followed the drawings there was not very many problems on assembly.  All the parts came together and will come apart.  I probably should have protected the threaded insert when finishing.  Some of the screws needed a little more than gentle persuasion to go in.
Here are the specs.  All of the visible face material is pine.  It is cheap and works well for kid furniture.  If it gets ruined no big deal.  The drawer rails are out of beech and oak.  It was a long board I had which was not delegated to a project.  The drawer boxes are out of pre-finished plywood. A very cheap grade with one almost clean face.  Loved the stuff.  It had a nice smooth finish that I did not have to do.  It did tend to chip out on the cross cuts. I had to slow my cutting down a lot to keep the cut clean.  This was the best discovery of the project.
The part that I am most proud of is the ability to assemble and disassemble the bed.  All main rails and top and bottom are screwed into place using threaded inserts and screws.  There are 28 holes that had to line up perfectly.  Half were one size and the other half another size.  The header and footer holes had to line up with the holes on the sides.  All the drawer glide rails had to be at the same height so the assembly was universal.  For these 28 holes I probably sent upwards of two hours on setup.  This was not easy but it came out perfect.
Two drawers are mounted on 22" ball bearing glides and the middle drawer is mounted on 24" ball bearing glides. I have to admit I really like ball bearing glides.  They have a load rating of 100 lbs do they hold up to kids standing on them.
The plans did take some time to work up and figure out all the potential problems.  The fun thing was I was working in 3D space.  This allowed me to find out some of the problems before  I encountered them in the build. 

Plans are located two posts below this.

My Saturday

It was a cool (cold for Californians) morning at Irvine lake.  It was overcast and even a slight drizzle of rain occasionally.  You would think this is going to be a nice peaceful post about being out in nature and seeing some of the beautiful things our God has created for us to enjoy.  However the picture does not show the blaring music, announcers, or the noisy cheering from the volunteers.  It has been about fifteen years since I have competed in a race.  Yesterday was the Irvine Lake Mud Run.  I do not know my time but there were several things that I remembered or learned in this race.
My work put together a large team for this mud run.  The better thing was they paid the registration, so I was in.  I had about three months to train which was plenty of time to prepare for a 5k.  My wife also ran but she ran in the individual race earlier.  She did well.  I do not have any pictures of her in this post.  She will post on Facebook  or maybe her blog about her experience.  This blog is not about my family and out of respect of my coworkers I will not mention their names even though I ran with six of them.
There are no pictures of first part of the race because it was up a hill and really not a lot of good obstacles.

I am at the top of this 20 ft hill.  At the bottom is a deep water hole

The last mile had about 25 of these mud pits.

First of five mounds in this obstacle.  I am a little tired.

The bottom of the mound

This is one of the last obstacles before the finish line. No mud but the mind thought there was.

 

The vary last obstacle was going through a tube.

After the run.  I was a little dirty

 

Other obstacles included walls, ramps, cargo nets and the worst was running in a simi-dry clay lake bed.  Runners lost shoes.  I sunk knee deep and could not get out. There were parts where it was like running on a water bed.  I have been asked if I would do it again, yes I would.  Maybe not this year and not in March again.  It was a lot of fun.
I am going to bore some of you with things that I have learned from this race.
First, I had to prepare.  I was not going to be able complete this run if I was not going to get in shape for it.  In order to accomplish this I need to have a goal.  I would not be running again if there was not a goal insight.  Several times I have wanted to train for a marathon.  I figured it would take about a year and a half.  I would start and get discouraged and stop.  I have found that it is a lot easier accomplish smaller short term goals to accomplish a larger goal.  Now I need a 10k in about 6 months.
The value of a team is important even though running an individual sport.  It was nice to run in a group.  I did not know how well I would do or even if I would be able to run the entire 4 miles.  There were six of us that would be within eye site of each other.  So many times we are focused on our part we forget that we need to encourage the others around us.  They help us and we help them.  I will have to admit.  I ditched the four person team that I was on.  We were a group of all different running capabilities and decided to run at our own pace and in groups with similar capabilities.
Encouragement has to be honest and sincere.  The volunteers were here to help and guide the runners and they were a great help and energetic.  There were a couple at the last mile that were saying the finish is only a quarter of a mile left.  Runners mustered up more energy to finish strong.  In reality, a quarter of a mile ended face to face with a 20 foot tall dirt mound with water before and after this obstacle.  This is more discouraging than encouraging.  Focus on the good that has been accomplished and sense of accomplishment after.
Somethings just cannot be done on your own.  In mile three there we ran over half a mile in a clay lake bed.  This was freshly wet from recent rain and the water table underneath.  Two things I was not doing.  Looking ahead.  I did not see what people ahead of me were doing.  I was not looking at what I was currently doing.  I made it five feet before I sank to my knees in clay and fell forward and sank to my elbows in clay.  I was suck.  Looking ahead no one was running the path.  They were running on the out side where the clay was not so soft but very slippery.  This was the hardest part of the race.
Showers are ok but a fire hose is better.  They had a set of outside showers to rinse off, then they had a person with a fire hose on the other side.  Once numb the cold water was not too bad.  Good water pressure and lots of it removed the mud faster then the showers.  There are times were we cannot just lightly put in the effort, we need to come at a task with full effort and force.
Last, there is great power in the mind.  I was lucky in the first couple of obstacles I was able to break free from the main group and insert myself in the lead pack of my work's team.  I did not imagine I would ever be able to keep up with them but I was in a good pack.  After two miles I was ready to give up, but through encouragement and keeping a positive outlook I stayed with the group. 

I had lots of fun and was very dirty.  It was a little cold for me to do again in March maybe in the summer.

Bed part one

 Here is the bed frame.  I do not have the drawers completed yet but they are next.  It is actually turning out quite nice.  The entire bed will be able to be assembled and disassembled.  I am trying threaded inserts this time.  The two piece biscuits seemed to work last time but they seemed to come apart at assembly which made it difficult to assemble.  Screws and inserts will not come apart so easily.  I also made the drawer glide rails attach with screws.  The neat thing about this bed is I had to be extremely accurate.  If the holes did not line up it would not assemble.  Here are pictures of the dry assembly.  It went together perfectly.

This is the front of the bed

This is the drawer rail attachment.

End of the cabinet.  Sorry did not take a picture of the foot of the cabinet

 This bead will have some extremely deep drawers on full extension ball bearing glides.  I am excited to get this project finished.  Then I get to boot both kids into their own room.
The visible faces of the bead are pine (not going to make a maple bead for a couple of boys).  The inside is what ever I had that could be planed to the same thickness.  there is pine, beech and oak for some of the components.  If you would like the drawings they are located here.  Same rules apply for all my plans.  These are not for sale, use them as you like.

New Computer Desk

Another one of my original projects has been replaced. The computer desk is one of three pieces that I first designed and built. The first being the bookshelves and then I built the desk and the entertainment center together. The entertainment center now resides with my in-laws. The desk now resides in a landfill and the bookshelves are still in use. I built these pieces over ten years ago and they have served as building blocks for what I have accomplished now and what I am capable of doing.


The original desk was a very functioning desk and was great, but slowly became out dated and could not be modified to fit current needs. This desk was built to hold a big CRT monitor. Never would I have thought flat screens would be so affordable. I don’t think you can buy a CRT monitor anymore. The drawers and tower could not be child protected. This created a problem when small children arrived in the Anderson household. We did not have much of a problem with the computer freezing as much as we did with it randomly turning off because someone pushed the lighted power switch. It was a little rickety because I had not found a good way to brace the three pieces together. The main reason it was replaced was because it was big.

It is interesting looking back at the construction and how I built the units. The basic construction is out of ¾” plywood. This made the unit very heavy and over designed. It could have easily been made out of ½” plywood. I built it to look good and unique with a lot of storage. I think that I accomplished this purpose. The drawer boxes are what fascinated me the most. They were nailed together with a butt joint and the drawer bottom was stapled with a staple gun on the bottom. I do not remember making drawers like this. I thought I had at least grooved in the bottom. The main fastening system was pocket screws and brad nails. Not a bad way but not my preferred way anymore.

I used a lot of the things from this desk into the desk that I just built. I like the idea of having a file drawer in the desk and space on top to write things on. I did not like that it was so large that we could almost have dinner around it because it accumulated so much stuff. Some of the main differences are that this is only 15” deep and this is framed with overlay drawers. I saw no need to put a place for the tower because it is going to be integrated into the TV and I had a child locked door on the TV stand. All drawers now have a child lock on them.

Paper drawer

File drawer

Here are some of the specs of this desk. It is made out of hard maple and birch plywood. The drawers are full extension and ball bearing glides. The sides are ¾” thick because it was available. They really should be ½”. I tried some new things with the drawers and top. The drawers are all tongue and grooved together. My joints were not fantastic but it made it a lot easier to square things up. The top was a bread board style top. I took the plywood and cut a groove around the parameter. The wood banding has a tongue cut in it. It came out beautifully. I rounded the corners for safety reasons. Each of the drawers are child locked and the cords are out of the way along with the power switch.

Things I learned from this project.

• Don’t ever buy cheap ¾” plywood. I honestly do not know what I got. I think it was luan or Russian birch. The veneer was thin and chipped out even on rip cuts. When I was finishing parts of it lifted and bubbled. 
• When buying several glides make sure they are all from the same manufacturer. Out of six sets of glides two of them were from a different manufacturer. You would think they were interchangeable. They were not. 
• Bottom panels are not always needed. In the dresser I used a way that removed the bottom panel and with these drawer banks I only used a corner brace. 
• Make sure you know how to install the locking mechanism and adjust the plans accordingly. The top two drawers were suppose to have a key lock to them. I don’t know why, I just thought it would be cool looking. I am glad it did not work out. When I went to test the lock I did not cut the relief big enough so the lock did not fit. On top of that I did not allow enough room for the lock to fully engage before hitting the face frame. It was worth a try but I like the clean look better anyway.

We will see if this works.  I am attaching my plans if any one would like to make this,  The top is completely up to you and is not in the plans.  These are in millimeters and the the conversion is 1" = 25.4mm.  Sorry you will have to do a little bit of math. Here are the plans.  Use them how you would like but you are not allowed to sell them.  Please let me know how this works, it is through Google.docs.  I don't think you can edit but if you can please let me know.  I think I have restricted access to read only but anyone can see the plans if they have the link.

The Manger

These have been complete for a short time.  This is a  project with no plans, just an idea.  I was asked to make some mangers for gifts.  It goes along with a story that I have not heard of.  From what I understand the idea is that the manger that Christ was laid in was filled with straw that was earned by doing kind deeds. 
The material is cedar fencing.  It is inexpensive and I can work with it.  Although this is a fairly simple project I did have a lot to learn from it.  First cedar fencing is very wet.  I think after being in the garage for a week it lost half its weight from drying out.  It felt like I was in a rain storm when I was cutting it.  Second is that I can not make a straight cut on a band saw with a warped board.  I use the table saw and was close.  Fencing also does not come with one side clean cut.  Fencing also comes in random thicknesses.  This made it hard to line parts up.  I did not want to plane it down because there is a rustic/rough look to fencing.  They came out well hope that the person who ordered them likes them.

Wine Rack Instructions

I should probably discuss the steps on how the wine rack was built.
Materials needed:
3 - 1x6x8 pine planks
1 - 1x2x8 pine plank
4 - eye hooks
3 ft light weight chain
2 1 5/8 x 3 hinges with screws
2 wood screws between 1 1/4 -2"
18 gauge nails 1 1/4" long

Equipment needed
Drill press with 2 1/2 hole saw
Table saw
Router with desired profile bit
Miter Saw
Brad nailer

Procedure
Wine rack front

1. Plane and size all 1x6x8 to the same thickness and dimension
2. Cut 5 pieces of 5 wide x 36 inches high.
3. Take the three best of the above pieces and mark hole centers according to the drawing.
4. Use a drill press and hole saw to cut holes in planks.  Best way to do this is to cut almost all the way through the wood with the hole saw. Then flip the board over and cut the rest from the other side.  This method prevents blow out and makes it easier to remove the plug from the hole saw.  Please turn off the drill press to remove the plug cut out.
5. Profile the edges with the the router. I used a 1/2" cove bit.  I also put an 1/8" chamfer to ease the edges of holes. 
6. Rip the remaining lumber and off fall to 1 1/2 inches.  This will be the stretchers and the steps that keep the wine bottles neck down.
7. Cut four pieces 15" long.  These are the stretchers that hold the planks together.  The forth is for the hinge mounts
8. Lay the planks face down on top of some 2x4's to lift them off the work bench.  Make sure all the tops are aligned and put 1/4" spacers between the planks.  Lightly clamp the edges of the planks against the spacers.  This will buckle if there is too much pressure.
9. Glue and clamp the stretchers over the top, middle and bottom holes.  These stretchers should cover the top 3/8 inch of the hole.

Steps

1. Cut 36 4" long blocks (I would cut a few more) from the remaining  1 1/2" wide strips. 
2. Take two of these blocks and nail them together with a 3/8" step on the longest edge.  Repeat this 14 more times.
3. Take one of these steps and nail another block with a 3/8" step.  Repeat this 5 more times.  Tip: Make 3/8" gauge blocks.  It makes these step assemblies a lot easier.
4. Attach the 3 block steps to the 2nd and 4th row of holes.  the bottom step should cover the top 3/8" of the hole.  Take time and make sure all the blocks in the row line up.  If they are off it is very noticeable
5. Attach the 2 block steps to the stretchers creating the third step.

Back

1. Cut the two remaining  5 x 36" wide board to 34 3/4 inches.
2. Cut three 1 1/2 x 5 pieces for spacers.  You can use 4" long parts also.
3. Clamp up the back with one spacer at the top, middle and bottom.  I glued and pocket screwed the spacers into place but doweling or biscuit joining will also work.
4. Take the hinge mount board cut earlier and drill two countersunk holes in the edge of the board for wood screws
5. lay the hinge mound and back on a flat surface and attach the hinges

Final assembly finishing

1. Attach the hinge mount to the front of the wine rack with wood screws.  The hinge mount should fit nicely on the first step and screw into the 15" stretcher
2. Attach eye hooks about half way down on either side.
3. Attach 18" of chain to the eye hooks
4. Disassemble and finish

I hope to have better drawings and  instructions with figures  on some of my other projects.  Let me know what you think or suggestions.