Building Some Stuff: Kid's bookshelf

[rpm]

This tutorial makes everything seem so simple and straightforward... it ain't, for me at least. I'd love to be able to make things half as rad as that. Well done.

ETA - nice blasters, by the way

[JohnnyEgo]

I tried to make good use of the relative warmth today to get some progress on a couple of projects, including the bookshelf. Picking up where I left off, it's now time to deal with my mistake of leaving the pocket holes on the visible part of the bottom shelf.


I am going to use Kreg plugs, which are essentially pre-trimmed pieces of dowel rod, to fill the holes. I just need a little glue, but a hammer and a Kreg pocket jig help get the plugs seated.


Damn, I drilled a lot of holes in this shelf.


The back of the Kreg pocket jig has a little slot that holds the back of the plug and helps you seat it. Coat the plug in some glue, a few taps of the hammer, and you are in business.


And when you have nine holes to fill, business is good.


The plugs stand quite a bit proud of the surface. You can sand them down, plane them, saw them, trim them with a router, or in my case, use an oscillating tool with a flush cut blade.


Even a steady hand can gouge the crap out of a thin ply veneer. If this were something I cared about, I'd use a thin sheet of brass shim to protect the ply surface, and sand or plane the final fraction flush to the surface.


However, I am going to paint the hell out of this, so I gouge away.




A little bit of wood filler and some light sanding, and the surface is flush enough for paint.

[Great-Kazoo]

I tried to make good use of the relative warmth today to get some progress on a couple of projects, including the bookshelf. Picking up where I left off, it's now time to deal with my mistake of leaving the pocket holes on the visible part of the bottom shelf.


I am going to use Kreg plugs, which are essentially pre-trimmed pieces of dowel rod, to fill the holes. I just need a little glue, but a hammer and a Kreg pocket jig help get the plugs seated.


Damn, I drilled a lot of holes in this shelf.


The back of the Kreg pocket jig has a little slot that holds the back of the plug and helps you seat it. Coat the plug in some glue, a few taps of the hammer, and you are in business.


And when you have nine holes to fill, business is good.


The plugs stand quite a bit proud of the surface. You can sand them down, plane them, saw them, trim them with a router, or in my case, use an oscillating tool with a flush cut blade.


Even a steady hand can gouge the crap out of a thin ply veneer. If this were something I cared about, I'd use a thin sheet of brass shim to protect the ply surface, and sand or plane the final fraction flush to the surface.


However, I am going to paint the hell out of this, so I gouge away.




A little bit of wood filler and some light sanding, and the surface is flush enough for paint.

Someone has them some uptown tools.

[Sharpienads]

Very nice!

[JohnnyEgo]

Someone has them some uptown tools.

Took a long time to get them.

Here is how my 'shop' looked back in 2002, when I had the world's most tolerant downstairs neighbors.


Back then, I had plenty of time and no money.
Now I have plenty of money and no time.

[JohnnyEgo]

So my least favorite thing to do is finish work. But it was warm for the last couple days, so I begrudgingly did all my sanding, prep for paint, and priming.


Here is the case ready for paint. I don't sand much on bare ply, particularly for paint. It is smooth enough for my purposes as it comes, and the veneer is paper thin at best, and easy to sand through. So for this project, pre-sanding consisted entirely of a few light passes with a 150 grit sanding sponge, mostly to remove pencil marks and larger burrs.


A couple other projects require more agressive treatment. I have an old Porter Cable random orbit sander. Because I am old, and wish to preserve what I have left of my health, I now wear a dust mask and decent goggles when using it.


Final picture before priming.



I used a stain blocking latex based primer from Kilz. Goes on thick, and bare wood is thirsty. I bought one quart of the stuff, but used it all on the first coat.


Once I had the first coat on and had given it a day and a half to dry, I hit it with a 220 grit sanding sponge. The first coat of primer sort of locks stuff into place, but it also causes the little burrs and such to swell. I wet sand to keep the dust down.


This may not be easy to see, but the bare wood is where the sanding knocked off all the high spots. For each subsequent paint coat, I will hit the surfaces with #00 steel wool, to smooth out any remaining burrs and prepare the surface for better adhesion of subsequent coats. The result is a finish that is reasonably smooth to the touch, and more importantly, not a dust magnet.


After a second coat of primer, I used a half-pint of cherry red latex paint from Valspar, cut with 1/2 an ounce of Floetrol to make it flow a little better, and applied it with a brush.


I actually liked the high contrast quite a bit, but my wife pointed out that anything painted white is going to show every dirty, cheetoh-encrusted hand print of my children and their friends. My son said he wanted it all red, so all red is what he will get.



A couple projects out drying in the sun.

One more coat of red paint and 72 hours of dry/cure time, and my boy's shelf is ready to be pressed into action.

[Great-Kazoo]

red is a good choice. this way when they are playing tarzan, or other "activity" any oops blood blends in .