Just purchased a festool track saw and Milwaukee compact router. Look forward to posting pics of my liquor/wine cabinet in a couple/few weeks.
Yeah I have no clue how much I’ll get into it. I just moved into a new house and the bff and I put a board and batten accent wall in a room using small 1 inch boards and a small hack saw. That kind of gave me the itch to do more because we need some bookshelves in one room and maybe new closet shelves in the master. Looked at making a bed frame or at least a headboard. In researching the last several days I like the fact that ridgid has a lifetime warranty but I also like the price of the ryobi stuff. A lot of reviews online say it’s not the best but it’s enough for a DIY/homeowner. I’ve gone through a cycle of I should just get a combo kit and if I don’t need all the pieces, it was still a good deal then I go back to I’ll just get a circular saw for now since I don’t really need the drill and driver or other tools that come with most kits.
Also, big, big fan of a Japanese pull saw for light sawing. Much faster and easier than getting out a power saw for a lot of things around the house. Ryoba (rip and cross, two sides) or dozuki (cross, limited depth) Gyokucho Razorsaw Ryoba Saw, 240mm No. 610 with Replaceable Blade Dozuki "Z" Saw
I bought the 6 piece Ryobi kit years ago and they've served me well. I also have a corded drill and circular saw for some of the heavier duty stuff. But the Ryobi pieces have done great for me.
Been meaning to post this for a couple months but I’ve been reno-ing the new house solo through all this pandemic crap. Anyway here’s wonderwall:
Same. Cheap enough you can get a couple extra tools for the same price. Impact drill is the best invention of all time.
I did actually. My nephew helped me a ton and it was good to spend time with him. He’s 20 and not a ton of 20 year olds want to spend time on their weekend with their 40 year old uncle. Wood putty and sanding isn’t a lot of fun and there were definitely some tedious moments, but the end result is satisfying to see.
Looks great, starting to think about tackling something like this in my near future. What tools and equipment did you need?
Power tools : Table saw to rip down the plywood. Miter saw for cutting lengths. Drill. Jig saw (fucking outlets). General tools: Pocket square Tape measure Level All the bar clamps you can source Specialty tools: I picked up a Kreg pocket screw kit on a whim a few years ago. Additionally I picked up 4 of their larger C-clamps for attaching the stiles (Vertical boards) to the rails (Horizontal boards), and splicing rails that needed to be over 96”. I’ll put together tips and suggestions if you’re interested.
Vibratory saw will replace a jigsaw and ten other tools. Nice multi need platform. Porter Cable probably better than Dremel though.
No, didn’t have a need. I was planning on putting 1/4 ply inserts in the center of the panels. Then when I tried plowing the edge of the molding so there was an overlap the material was just too thin to route out. It kept blowing edges off the pieces.
Buddy of mine keeps one in his truck. It seems no matter what we are working on, he pulls that out to use.
Admittedly, oscillating tools are the tits for some things (cutting the bottom of door jambs in place, for instance), but they don't replace any ten other tools I can think of, in terms of doing a superior job. We must use a jig saw for very different things. (Sidebar: A customer of mine in the medical field told me that this style tool is a crossover from his field to mine, which makes sense, given the low impact cutting ability)
Yeah, it's the tool that cut off my plaster cast when I was a kid. If you have the right attachments you can do a lot of different things with it.
OPINIONS WANTED I’m making a (very) simple bookshelf for my son’s nursery. Cut the wood the masochistic caveman route with a handsaw and pocketknife. Shockingly it turned out mostly level despite my best efforts. I used a minimal amount of fasteners; my vision was I’d let the joints bear the weight and only use the bolts/support to hold the posts and shelves in one axis. The issue is my tolerances aren’t tight and smooth enough for the design. It’s level, planted, and load bearing, but has some slight creak laterally and torsionally in response to force. Basically I want it to be more rigid. I’m thinking three options (don’t want to add any more supports). - Add more fasteners to the supports alongside the bolts I’ve already drilled -Fasten the shelves to the posts -Fasten the shelves to the supports Or a combo thereof. Any opinion on the most effective choice? My preference is to avoid messing w the shelves and leave them suspended by the joints alone, but I’m probably missing something.
Seems like a pretty tricky design to add rigidity to without changing the design a good bit or completely rebuilding it with smaller tolerances to the joinery. Did you use any glue? Glue is better than fasteners. You can still use the fasteners with the glue. That's also assuming you can take it back apart
First easy idea I can think of, just add rails to the back of the bookshelf. Maybe just screw in strips of plywood (could let any home improvement store cut the strips for you on a panel saw if you’re tool limited), not sure if that meets the aesthetic requirement. First example I could find.
Smallish angled braces along the back where the supports hit the shelves. Triangle more gooder for rigidity.
No bc I’m a moran. Thought I had some left but I goofed. Are you thinking vertical rails that lock the shelves to one another, or horizontal rails that lock the shelves to the posts? Edit: I see that pic now gotcha Can to elaborate a bit? From what and to where would you attach the triangle?
Was thinking horizontal rails that run post to post, somewhere between the shelves. You’d lose the backless look but should stiffen it up a lot. Also glue is good.
Run a screw from each vertical 2x4 into the shelf. Throw a little glue with it and you will be fine. Make sure to drill a pilot hole though.
I agree with this. A second screw in each shelf will stop the ‘teetering’ from a single pivot point. And like everyone else has said, a healthy dose of wood glue fixes a lot of problems.
Well you can always get a couple stickers made from your local sign/decal/automotive trim company for about $20-$25. But if you’re making them yourself, taping off, drawing, and then cutting the lines is about as simple as it is. If you are planning on multiple colors of stains/layers it takes a little more planning out. Here’s the progression of one of the latest sets I made: Spoiler
Yeah I didn’t wanna touch the shelves but figured it was the best option under the circumstances. Next time I’ll go more glue heavy on the front end. Dunno why I neglected it this time—I’ve assisted a lot of projects with a woodworker friend of mine and he’s schooled me on its importance enough it should be second nature by now. Finished product: Also a housewarming gift the aforementioned friend made me:
Facebook videos are always like: Easy DIY home project!!! Cut to scene of a guy in a full size professional production wood shop.
Have some DIY fireplace mantel questions. Our house had a huge mantel that was built to hold the previous owner's heavyass 15 year old plasma TV (which they left behind because they're seniors and I'm assuming couldn't/didn't want to try and safely get down). We ripped that out and haven't done anything yet but I'm wanting to start on building a new floating shelf this week but I'm not sure what to do with what's currently attached to the brick. The piece sticking out on the left is loose and not level and would need to be reinforced if I keep this, but each side sticks out nearly 11 inches and I was looking at something 8 inches Do I trim down what's there? Or do I pull it all off the wall and start over?
I would tear that out and anchor your new piece Independently. Is the brick completely cut away for the 2x4s? Last fall I made a one-piece solid mantle. Lagged into the studs then drilled out and fit it onto my lags. It’s way more sturdy than I’ll ever need it to be. Are you doing solid or a box build?
Do you ever use that fireplace and are you set on that location? Personally I wouldn’t ever put a TV on a fireplace but that’s just me.
Yeah the 2x4's go several inches into the brick but I have no idea how deep. I'm thinking a box build with 1x8 on top/bottom and 1x6 on the front but haven't fully landed on anything more specific than that. We've only been in the house a couple of months but yeah we'll maybe use it a small amount in the winter but we already put the tv on a different wall and have no interest in putting it over the fireplace.
It looks like the one on the right has a bunch of construction adhesive. My personal plan would be to level and attach the loose 2X4. Cut them down to size and mount the new mantle on top. Drilling through concrete is tough and you have to put it in the same place anyways to cover the holes. Don't make it harder than it has to be. You won't see it.
So woodworking has really started to fascinate me. I've done some VERY elementary projects (washers boards, deadlifting blocks, etc), but am looking to step my game up. We will be moving to a new house and I'll have a little more room so want to get a table saw. Suggestions on best bang for the buck? I don't need anything top of the line, but don't want to miss out any important features by going too cheap. Also looking to potentially build a workbench that it can sit in to increase the work area. Any suggestions?