It’s been a few months since my surgery and it’s been tough to get back into the swing of things. From daily chores, to getting back into the shop to get familiar with the process of building, having that time away from it all makes it so I can’t remember how to be productive. From tackling daily chores to dusting off my tools and relearning the ins and outs of woodworking, it’s like starting from scratch in some ways.
During my time away, I did manage to jot down some ideas for when I do get into the full swing. Starting with smaller, more manageable items like these bamboo tags. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, these herb garden tags would make a perfect gift and a great way to welcome the new gardening season.
I’ve always wanted to work with bamboo wood for the material’s eco-friendly and sustainable nature. This material, technically more grass than wood, grows much faster which means could be harvested quickly and doesn’t take up much space while growing in the long term. Bamboo is also known for it’s durability and strength, able to take a beating while outdoors. Knowing I can work with a material that’s tough as nails and good for the planet just feels right.
Check out the store to find these garden markers. It doesn’t have to be for Mother’s Day, it adds a personal flair for anyone’s garden bed too.
If you’ve kept up with the Wood Rather DIY instagram page, you’ve noticed that there was an influx of new followers, just shy of 20,800 at the time of this writing. There are a few of those who were pulled in from the Catio video (totally unplanned), or what I like to call the ‘catmosphere.’ For those who aren’t well versed in cat slang, a catio is cat + patio = catio. Now, some of these folks have expressed interest in purchasing a fully built catio so I have been busy modifying my original design yet again, which brings me to Catio v2.1, the same catio but now shipment friendly.
Shipping a completely built out catio just wouldn’t make sense, flat pack is the way to go. Not only is it the opposite of cost effective, it would also result in damaged parts upon arrival. The first task is to make it so that it arrives flat and hopefully, undamaged. To do that, it needed to come with some assembly required. Emphasis on the some, otherwise, I may get angry letters or worse, a one star review on my Etsy page.
My initial plan was to disassemble the original and ship it with all the screws. While that does sound like an easy move for me, considering I used a combination of star drive screws along with pocket screws with square drives, I may need to include those bits too. Not great. Also, realizing that without clamps, it might be a challenge to recreate the same steps that I took during the original build. That’s going to get more bad Etsy reviews!
Okay, okay, you get it. It’s not easy so reverse engineer a custom catio. What is the solution, you ask? I finally settled on a total of only 6 bolts. I’ve remade the same cat box and using only 6 bolts, it is actually more sturdy and has a much cleaner look than the one in my original video. I also need a way to attach the platform to the frame, so that means 4 to 6 standard phillips head screws depending on the size of the catio. So this means I only have to include the allen wrench for the bolts and everyone has a screwdriver so that’s covered. As far as some assembly required goes, I think this counts as fewer than ‘some’. In case customers still need extra help, I wrote up instructions with diagrams just so everyone understands how to put it all together. With this plan, I went ahead and sold my first 5 catios on Etsy.
I may have gone viral on IG, but haven’t had the same success with Facebook or Tiktok. It took about 3 years on IG to become internet famous, so let’s see if we can have a repeat on the other platforms. With this new catio design, I’ll try to tell my story in these other two platforms. I’m hoping that I can expand my reach and continue to build what I like and also, inspire others to DIY. Here’s to the next 3 years!
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…
Insert HGTV voice here: “Summer is here and I have a lot more wood to make things out of so why not make some hanging planter boxes. Let’s get started!”
Okay, I’m not even gonna pretend that I’m just winging it, I’ve been looking around google for ideas and tutorials. I didn’t just wake up one sunny morning and thought “had time so why not” — no, I looked at what space we had at home for like two weeks before deciding this was gonna be a great addition to the newly halved mini back porch from the leftover handicap ramp. Check out that post if you want the back story.
I had a hard time finding information about planter boxes like these. There were plenty of tutorials but since I had a specific sized material I’m working with and didn’t want to buy new wood, I wanted to see what the recommended specs were for successful planting. I wanted to know the ideal width, depth, height for the soil, whether or not I needed drain holes. Since I couldn’t find info on those online, I made sure to check out what they had in stock at the nearest big box store and found those plastic planter boxes that were similar in style and they all had evenly spaced holes and about 5-6″ in height and depth so I knew I was close enough. I let go of the idea of it being an exact science and got started.
I had 2×6 for the base and some 2×5 boards from the old ramp for the walls and ends. I also had exterior screws to fasten them. I put them together and my first instinct was to place the walls with the screws set horizontally but there are some flaws in that design. I realized that the soil that goes in them could expand and when that happens, it can push the walls out to the sides including the screws. If I screwed them in from the bottom up, then it would be a stronger joint and prevents the soil from pushing so that’s what I did for the bigger version for the front of the house. I will have to think of a way to reinforce the two smaller ones because I started to see that effect after a couple of weeks of growing kale and basil.
I’ve seen these homemade mounting brackets from various other DIY sites, they’re called french cleats. It’s basically a piece that’s cut lengthwise at a 45º angle and attach one side to the wall and the other to whatever you want to mount. I was just so excited to finally do it myself. It saved me a lot of time and money and ended up with removable boxes. This is a really nice feature for something like this especially in the midwest area where there’s different seasons.
You can see the warped wood resulted in rough joinery. It didn’t bother me before…
Loving the black paint.
The bigger box with outer walls attach from the bottom rather than sides. I can spot more improvements for the future just looking at the photo again.
After practicing on the smaller boxes, I made a giant one for the front (Promised the wife that I would). You can see that I applied the improvements I talked about earlier here. The side walls are now attached with screws coming from the bottom of the base instead of the sides. Now I’m waiting until the end of the season to see if that theory held up.
With the rising costs of lumber, I entered the wood working hobby at possibly the worst time. Luckily though, I had some scrap wood I can work with to teach myself some techniques and practice some outdoor furniture building. Looking over the type of wood I had on hand from my recent wheelchair ramp teardown, I thought I can give these a second life by keeping them outdoors. It’s not that I needed chairs, it’s more like I had the wood but didn’t want to waste them and I wanted experience and to learn how to build. The size of each board were perfect for adirondack chairs after looking up plans. It’s also a project that required no specialized tools, just the basics – a miter saw and drill, that’s it. It was a bit overwhelming at first but once the seat was assembled I felt confident and had a better understanding of the project, that I barely referenced the plans anymore. These are the chairs that I see all the time, usually at beach resorts – had no idea they were called and I had a problem pronouncing it – adirondack.
satisfying cuts
All DIY tutorials and guides say that this chair is the perfect beginner project and having zero experience with a miter saw, I was less than a beginner but I had the drive and wanted to really get something out of this pandemic. I focused on a single area at first, cutting and putting together small sections at a time so that I didn’t lose my place. I would dry fit after having enough pieces per section. If you’re nervous about starting your own wood working journey, I found that this method works for me to keep the project moving forward while minimizing mistakes and wasted material.
Finished product and small brag on our kale
I followed the instructions I found online as close as I could but I still made a mistake that turned out to be significant but not a bad one. In the instructions, I was supposed to cut the seat slats the same length as the front of the frame so that they sat on top, instead I cut them shorter so now they sat flushed with the frame. This was a mistake but it turned out to be a welcomed one because in the end, I have a chair that sits lower which allows more room for the cushion. I call this a blessing because now, not only am I less afraid of making mistakes, I now have a design improvement and it gave me a unique experience that has translated into confidence knowing that I can adapt to the situation.
Update
My first set of chairs sold! Pictured below are my babies at their new home! The person who bought these from me sent me a photo update of these at their new place. She loved them so much and I love that she found some cushions that fit perfectly from Lowe’s.
