Woodworking Overview

I have no idea what propelled me towards this hobby but I'm really happy with it. It's been such a confidence booster to just setout with an idea and end up at a finished product like this, especially when your housemates can use the things you make. There are so many little skills to learn and it's all hands on. There's always problems to solve and it's just fun when the concept has to evolve to solve them.

Simple Desk

This is what started my interest in any kind of woodworking. I knew when I moved into a house for my senior year that I'd need to find a desk somewhere, and everything online looked insanely overpriced. I had been working with MDF a little bit at my internship so I decided I would just make this myself.

I looked online for the best ways to fake a woodgrain on MDF and came across a video where they spray painted a light bottom color, then applied the stain with a chip brush.

I followed that technique and the grain came out awesome. I played around with it a bit. If you twist the brush you can even make knots. The only annoying thing with this is it takes ages to dry, even with ventilation.

Before applying the stain I installed all the hardware using threaded brass inserts. The idea behind that was I wanted to be able to take some things off, especially the legs, anytime I have to move.

When everything finally dried I applied several coats of polyacrylic to seal it.

Overall I'm super happy with how this came out. If I was doing it again I would use some metal braces across the bottom because there has been a little sagging over time. I'd also put wood glue along the edge grains of the MDF because I've found it takes the paint much better that way.

A-Frame Projector Shelf

When my housemates and I first moved in we setup our project the same way we had done it in the dorms, on some boxes. Since the boxes were an eyesore and took up a ton of space, the girls were talking about getting a TV for the living room and I knew I had to act to keep our awesome movie setup.

I had a ton of MDF left over from my desk, which we were using as a makeshift coffee table at the time, so I was already looking for something to do with it. I drew out the shelf I wanted to make, took it outside and started cutting the next day. I knew I wanted an A shape so I drew different designs out with a protractor and a rule until I figured 85 degrees was just about the sweet spot.

When I did this I still had no idea what I was doing and a lot of my cuts weren't perfect. To glue the pieces together I had to make 85 degree angle jigs for the first time, which was a nightmare with the tools I had available, and honestly it was a miracle it all worked out.

The end result was really way better than it deserved to be. We spray painted it, gave it a few coats of polyacrylic, and have been using it to watch movies ever since. It's not perfect, and I'll definitely redo it someday, but I appreciate it.

Hammock Stand

I'll be honest this was a hackjob, I was mostly just having fun with this one, especially because I knew we'd only be using it for a month or two. One of my housemates had a hammock and I found plans online so I jumped into it pretty much immediately. The most expensive part by far was the carriage bolts.

It came out really sturdy but it did settle a little bit when you'd get in it. We used it for the remainder of the summer and I was happy with it. Plus my neighbors complimented it, so... now I'm the cool neighbor I guess.

I'm planning on rebuilding this in the spring and taking it more seriously. I'm going to pre-draw all my cuts and holes to see if I can stop most of the "settling" when you first get in it.

Normal Bookshelf

At some point after my housemates and I moved in my senior year, my mother came to Buffalo and dropped off my old TV. It sat on the floor for months while we kept talking about how it would be nice to have a shelf for it. Eventually I just decided I wanted to make it, and I wanted to see if I could get away with only using glue.

I bought some laminated wood boards because I thought they'd be unwarped (I was wrong) and they came in an easy size to work with.

By this point I could make perfectly straight cuts and I thought the only challenging thing about this was going to be the extended periods of time waiting for glue to dry.

I used some 90 degree angle clamps instead of making jigs again, and I got all the way to the end of the project when I realized some of the wood was actually very much warped and I wouldn't be able to just glue on the remaining pieces. It was also too late to put pocket holes on the bottom of the shelves with my newly acquired pocket hole jig.

To my great shame I ended up needing to use six visible screws on one side of the shelf to get the warped parts to align correctly.

I applied the same shade of stain I apply to all my projects, and then I applied three coats of polyacrylic.

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out. It's visually quite nice and it holds everything we needed it to. I'm a little bummed out about the visible screws on the exterior but like all of these projects this was mostly a learning experience.