Flippin' Junk

I built this porch swing because my wife wanted a place that we could sit and watch the kids when they're playing in the front yard. It's not as comfortable as I would have hoped, but I think it turned out great for the space. The framing is built from pressure treated lumber, and the bench slats are made from pine. I made the frame first, from 4x4's and some 2x6's for support. I used 8" bolts to connect the 4x4 pieces, which actually felt like it would have held together without any lumber for structural support. I didn't want to risk my wife and I falling on our rear-ends the first time we sat in the swing though :-P  To make the bench, I freehand drew an 'S' curve in a 2x6 to create the shape I wanted in the bottom of the bench. I made two more copies of that to provide the frame for connecting the pine slats. It just so happened that the other side of that 'S' worked out for the back of the bench. I connected them with 2

There are lots of people out there making some amazing epoxy river tables that sell for thousands of dollars. They generally use live edge slabs of specialty wood that can cost $1000+ alone, not to mention the tables sometimes contain $500+ of epoxy as well. I wanted to try to make a low-cost version of one of these amazing tables. I spent: $16.00  (2) 2" x 6" x 96" fir construction lumber $28  (2) 1/8" x 2" x 72" flat steel ~$17.50  32oz of a one-gallon kit 2-part epoxy ~$15  finish, paint, screws, etc. That brings me out to a total of roughly $76. First I used a biscuit joiner to align and glue (4) 4-foot lengths of the construction lumber together to form the table top.  I let the glue dry for a few days before taking it out of the clamps, and filling any remaining gaps with clear epoxy. I put some parchment paper down between the center support to prevent the epoxy from sticking. The center support board is to prevent the ta

I started with an old record player cabinet that I picked up on Craigslist. It was pretty cool to see this transform from a heavily  used, partially broken pile of wood in someone's storage unit into a functional and modern kitchen island. I'm sure that at some point, this thing was beautiful. It was made of solid hardwood, and it had pretty nice hardware, but the years had not been nice to this cabinet. Rather than trying to save the wood, and sand through all of the layers of varnish and stain on this thing, I went the easier route and painted it. I took all of the hardware off, removed the doors, took out some of the odd interior shelving, and sanded everything just enough to get a nice smooth surface. I painted the cabinet and doors a bright white, and applied a satin clear finish over the paint. I added some new black hardware, and a butcher block top I made from 2x4's.  I think the black and white look great together, and I was surprised at how nic