[kshipp]

Sketchup Plan

We just adopted a boxer after having fostered a few of them and falling in love.

Tyson is a great dog and I figured a dog like him needed a nice bed.

I drew the design using Sketchup and it has been in the planning stages for quite a while. I bought a Kreg pocket hole jig and basically planned the construction around that.

It's currently in-progress in my shop so I should have another entry soon with some in-progress pictures.

Feel free to leave any comments or suggestions.

 

[kshipp]

New tools for a new project: Kreg Jig and Router Bit

It's not that I think of new projects as reasons to buy new tools. As you know, it's not hard to find reasons to buy new tools. I was thinking about making this dog bench and the best way to do it. I had read a lot of the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and figured I would give it a shot. I got a good deal on the Master System from Rockler and I have been very pleased with it so far. I'll try to get an official review up soon but for an unofficial review I'd say 5 stars.

It is very important to clamp the pieces properly when using the jig. The vise clamp comes with the system the others are ones I already had. I didn't use any glue because the screws make it rock solid. It's also nice to be able to take it apart in the event of a mistake which I had the occasion to test.

Another key to using the Kreg system is to drive the screws slowly. When I was testing on some scrap pieces, I had problems with the wood splitting. I was trying to drive the screws like you might drive a drywall screw into the wall. The thing to remember with Kreg is that the hole is mostly pre-drilled and the screws themselves are self-tapping. Driving them slow worked the best for me and of course you want to make sure you have the correct screw for you application.

You can't always buy new tools when you need them and I just didn't have clamps that were long enough to reach the whole way. I just combined two of my clamps which held it well enough to drive the screws.

Another new tool (or tool accessory) I got was a 1/2" rabbeting bit. Previously I had cut rabbets with two cuts on the table saw. It was hard to get setup properly and I didn't always like how it turned out. This is also the first bit I got with the 1/2" shaft for my new router.

I cut a 1/2" x 1/2" rabbet in red oak in two passes and it was extremely clean.

That's all for now. I'm still working on taking more pictures while I am working on the project. My next entry will be pictures of the finished product as soon as I get around to taking them.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

 

[kshipp]

New tools for a new project: Kreg Jig and Router Bit

It's not that I think of new projects as reasons to buy new tools. As you know, it's not hard to find reasons to buy new tools. I was thinking about making this dog bench and the best way to do it. I had read a lot of the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig and figured I would give it a shot. I got a good deal on the Master System from Rockler and I have been very pleased with it so far. I'll try to get an official review up soon but for an unofficial review I'd say 5 stars.

It is very important to clamp the pieces properly when using the jig. The vise clamp comes with the system the others are ones I already had. I didn't use any glue because the screws make it rock solid. It's also nice to be able to take it apart in the event of a mistake which I had the occasion to test.

Another key to using the Kreg system is to drive the screws slowly. When I was testing on some scrap pieces, I had problems with the wood splitting. I was trying to drive the screws like you might drive a drywall screw into the wall. The thing to remember with Kreg is that the hole is mostly pre-drilled and the screws themselves are self-tapping. Driving them slow worked the best for me and of course you want to make sure you have the correct screw for you application.

You can't always buy new tools when you need them and I just didn't have clamps that were long enough to reach the whole way. I just combined two of my clamps which held it well enough to drive the screws.

Another new tool (or tool accessory) I got was a 1/2" rabbeting bit. Previously I had cut rabbets with two cuts on the table saw. It was hard to get setup properly and I didn't always like how it turned out. This is also the first bit I got with the 1/2" shaft for my new router.

I cut a 1/2" x 1/2" rabbet in red oak in two passes and it was extremely clean.

That's all for now. I'm still working on taking more pictures while I am working on the project. My next entry will be pictures of the finished product as soon as I get around to taking them.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

I tried just using the supplied clamp and it didn't hold like I wanted it to. I think it was because I just bought the lumber from the lumberyard so it probably wasn't all exactly the same thickness. I don't have a planer yet so this is what I'm stuck with.
Some of my test joints moved a little bit so I just used the clamps to make sure that things were exactly lined up.

I don't know about removing the screws. It seems like with the time you would spend gluing all the joints then removing the screws you would be better off just using the screws.

 

[kshipp]

It's finished



This is the finished product. It's the biggest project I have done with hardwood and I learned a lot.

I finished it with two coats of Minwax gel stain and 3 coats of Minwax brush-on lacquer. The stain was really easy to work with and especially to get into all the inside corners. The brush-on lacquer I had a lot harder time with. I couldn't get it to lay down smooth on the large plywood pieces because it seemed like it was drying too fast. I'm sure there is a way to fix that with thinner or something but I think I will stick to wipe-on finished from General Finishes.

I used the Kreg jig exclusively for the assembly as I mentioned before and it worked great. I'm pretty sure I could use this as a jack stand for my truck and it would be rock solid.

The lid closers are from Rockler and were very easy to install with little adjustment. They have a pad for calculating the weight of your lid and therefore how many you will need. That said I would need three but I only put two on and it works perfectly. I'm sure I can find something I need at Rockler when I return the other one.

The top is just a frame with half inch plywood in the center and it bowed a little bit when sat on. This was a design oversight I suppose but not too hard to fix. I started stripping the finish off in 3 strips.

I made some supports from 1×2 and clipped off the ends at a 45 degree angle. I finished the supports like the rest of the box and glued and screwed them. The top is very solid now.

Overall I have a happy customer who likes to look out the window.

And just relax.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.