Just in time for the long July 4th weekend.
I can’t wait to show these off to friends and neighbors.
Building these without screws is a challenge and a welcomed step into actual furniture building techniques. The no screws part is overkill but I am actually interested in moving away from DIYer mode and move towards some actual craft. That’s what I love about woodworking because anyone can take it as much or as little as they want. In this case, I just happen to take it on as a challenge to see if I can manage to make something without any screws.
Corny Jost and Scarface Johansson
Materials I used are for the standard fare boards.
I could have used other materials to add features like lighter weight, handles, cup holders, or whatever I wanted but since this is my first attempt, I decided to focus more on hitting the regulation sizes as close as I can get it and then maybe in my second or third attempt, I’ll be comfortable enough to try those features.
- 3/4″ birch plywood
- 2×4 studs
- wood dowels
- wood glue
- polyurethane water based finish
For the dowels, I finally got a chance to use my dowel jig for a real project. I don’t remember where I got this from but it makes it easier to find the holes to match the placement to the joining piece so I was really excited to use it. Also, this allows for a dry fit before gluing it together.
All drilled 
Aligning pins 
Marking for new dowel holes 
Perfect alignment 
Dry fitting
I love these Jorgensen clamps, they were on sale 2 for 1 when I got them. I only have the two 12″ but they can attach together to make one long clamp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that on any other brand before and they really come in handy. I’m at a point where I can definitely use more clamps now but these guys have taken me far.
Rookie Move
Hi, fellow beginner! As a beginner woodworker and a human man, I make a lot of mistakes. I try to learn from these mistakes by remembering what I’ve done in the past. Here are the ones I’ve made during this project. Take a gander and become a better version of me:
- Did not clean the area of saw dust before applying polyurethane, because of this, I may have some sawdust stuck in one of the boards.
- Failed to measure the correct distance from the top for the first hole.
- Did not respect the hole saw enough and so it slipped and scratched the face of the board.
I’m going with it. I named this one Scarface Johansson 
testing for leg height 
I was smart enough not to go ahead with drilling here even though the math was exactly right on paper… 
