I finished a new project today. As this develops, see if you can guess what it's going to be. I used a highly sophisticated design tool to create a 3-D model of the final product to avoid math and perspective errors. (Yeah, right. I sketched it out by hand on a blank sheet of paper.) Click on any picture to enlarge it to its original size.
This pile started out as four 2"x4"x92" boards from Home Depot. After a few passes with my trusty circular saw, this is what was left. Note that there were no scraps, at all.
Now for some some careful measuring and marking for all of the holes that need to be drilled (total of 68).
I drilled pilot holes with the tip of the auger bit since it is very sharp and it doesn't walk when you start drilling.
Here are the first 3/4" diameter auger holes drilled to a depth of about 1/2".
A 1/4" hole goes all the way through the auger holes. Since 6" lag screws were going through and into the adjacent board, a good deal of accuracy was required. The bit wasn't long enough to go all the way through, so I had to drill from each side and hope the holes met in the middle. Doing this with a hand drill by just eyeballing it was challenging, but all of the holes somehow lined up.
All of the holes have been drilled in these boards. All that's remaining is to finish them with the sander.
Here are the finished boards. A few minutes on each with the orbital sander left them looking surprisingly good. So good, in fact, that I decided to just leave the natural wood finish and not stain or coat them in any way. While I was at it, I rounded all of the edges to reduce the risk of injury.
Time to start putting everything together. Here is one side with the lag screws and washers started.
My supervisor stopped by to make sure I was doing everything right. Chris was actually screwing those lag screws in, believe it or not.
Here, Chris is putting washers on each of the 4" lag screws that bolt these end sections to the cross members and inserting them into the holes. Can you guess what it's going to be yet?
Here is the completed structure. It looks even better than I imagined it would. The lag screws make this thing rock solid. A couple critical pieces remain to be installed, however.
Aha! Dead giveaway. These metal bed springs came from Chris' crib. I just designed the frame around its dimensions.
Here's another view, with Chris showing us how he uses a drill (well, actually it's a corkscrew he ganked from the kitchen. How he knows this works like a drill I have no idea, especially since he's never seen us use it.)
And here is the final, completed item. It's Chris' new bed. The mattress also came from his crib.
This pile started out as four 2"x4"x92" boards from Home Depot. After a few passes with my trusty circular saw, this is what was left. Note that there were no scraps, at all.
Now for some some careful measuring and marking for all of the holes that need to be drilled (total of 68).
I drilled pilot holes with the tip of the auger bit since it is very sharp and it doesn't walk when you start drilling.
Here are the first 3/4" diameter auger holes drilled to a depth of about 1/2".
A 1/4" hole goes all the way through the auger holes. Since 6" lag screws were going through and into the adjacent board, a good deal of accuracy was required. The bit wasn't long enough to go all the way through, so I had to drill from each side and hope the holes met in the middle. Doing this with a hand drill by just eyeballing it was challenging, but all of the holes somehow lined up.
All of the holes have been drilled in these boards. All that's remaining is to finish them with the sander.
Here are the finished boards. A few minutes on each with the orbital sander left them looking surprisingly good. So good, in fact, that I decided to just leave the natural wood finish and not stain or coat them in any way. While I was at it, I rounded all of the edges to reduce the risk of injury.
Time to start putting everything together. Here is one side with the lag screws and washers started.
My supervisor stopped by to make sure I was doing everything right. Chris was actually screwing those lag screws in, believe it or not.
Here, Chris is putting washers on each of the 4" lag screws that bolt these end sections to the cross members and inserting them into the holes. Can you guess what it's going to be yet?
Here is the completed structure. It looks even better than I imagined it would. The lag screws make this thing rock solid. A couple critical pieces remain to be installed, however.
Aha! Dead giveaway. These metal bed springs came from Chris' crib. I just designed the frame around its dimensions.
Here's another view, with Chris showing us how he uses a drill (well, actually it's a corkscrew he ganked from the kitchen. How he knows this works like a drill I have no idea, especially since he's never seen us use it.)
And here is the final, completed item. It's Chris' new bed. The mattress also came from his crib.