Building furniture....

[Tidy Max]

Anybody built there own furniture at home?

Me and the gf have just got our first gaff together and basically can't afford out! So i am building whatever i can. I have designed the bed but started first with the wardrobe.

I am making it out of scaffolding boards mainly due to how cheap i can buy them, heres a couple of pics so far....

 

[telectrix]

that'll show up the neighbours' ikea rubbish. can't beat furniture made out of reclaimed real wood.

 

[Silly Sausage]

Nice usage of dowels.
Have you considered biscuits?

 

[telectrix]

he's saving them for his scam assessment.

 

[Silly Sausage]

he's saving them for his scam assessment.

For Part W?

 

[Tidy Max]

I consider them usually between 10-10.15, 14-14.30 and 20-20.30 when i am pulling a late one, digestives for me mate.....

But no i haven't, never done much work with wood but seeing as i have done everything else in the house i thought i would give it a crack. I have just bought the collins wood bible (should be £25, £2.50 on amazon oosh!) that has various joins etc.

I am having varying success with the dowel to be honest although it looks good once done its taken a bit of fannying about.

What would be the advantage of biscuits? I am building the doors out of multiple pieces to get the affect that i want so maybe i should consider biscuits??

 

[Tidy Max]

he's saving them for his scam assessment.

I took biscuits, kettle, two choices of tea and coffee to my assessment!

...and all he brought was a bunch of books to sell me...

 

[Silly Sausage]

What would be the advantage of biscuits? I am building the doors out of multiple pieces to get the affect that i want so maybe i should consider biscuits??

I'm thinking once you've routered out your slots for them, you'll get a more accurate joint, i.e. less sanding down afterwards.
Drilling holes by hand can be a bit random!

 

[Tidy Max]

Woahh wooah, theres nothing random about it. Accurately measured with a steel ruler and marked up with a metal try square! But you have a point

I don't have a router unfortunately! One issue i am having is that all of the boards are marginally different widths, so i have been doing some inventive planing and sanding. 80g,120g then raising the grain and cutting back with 240g twice. Then waxing twice!

I am making some filler out of wax also for the joins to smooth them over completely. Really looking forward to making the bed.... and dining table!

At £10 per 13 foot board i can't help myself!

 

[Silly Sausage]

Filler? NO!
Get yourself a beefy belt sander, awesome machine for smoothing down!

 

[TJ Anderson]

Woahh wooah, theres nothing random about it. Accurately measured with a steel ruler and marked up with a metal try square! But you have a point

I don't have a router unfortunately! One issue i am having is that all of the boards are marginally different widths, so i have been doing some inventive planing and sanding. 80g,120g then raising the grain and cutting back with 240g twice. Then waxing twice!

I am making some filler out of wax also for the joins to smooth them over completely. Really looking forward to making the bed.... and dining table!

At £10 per 13 foot board i can't help myself!

You should watch "The Salvager" on TV. This is exactly the sort of thing he does.

 

[multimick]

hi I did 15 yrs building furniture from old pine ,etc old floorboards are good with the tongue an groove removed ,buy yourself a biscuit jointer ,some old caustic for colouring and fiddes wax.scaffold planks are ok for table tops ,but remember to use buttons to keep the top floating (stops it cracking ) pm me if you need any help
cheers

 

[Adam W]

My dad's mate used to work on a heritage railway. He said they bought planks of wood in for about £15 each and sold the old ones off for about £50 each because after they'd used them they had become 'old railway sleepers'.

Either way it looks like what you've done there is way better than buying furniture pre-built. Made to measure furniture would cost you more still.

 

[Tidy Max]

What are buttons mick??

We need some railway sleepers for the garden! I didnt think they would be that much! Cheers Adam, yeah its definitely better than some of the stuff we looked at.

We bought an 'oak' coffee table from oak furniture land when we first moved in. NEVER AGAIN!!!

 

[multimick]

the rails which the table top sits on have a groove in them ,about 6mm wide and 6 mm deep about 12mm from the top of the rail all the way round (do that first ).then you make buttons from scrap wood maybe pieces of 20mm thick by about 50mm wide and 75mm long these have a rebate at the end which sits into the groove and is then fastened to the table top with a 45mm screw thro middle so the top is not actually fastened to the side rails but floats on the buttons.also good is pvu glue (foamy) sets in half hour and works on damp timber .also van dyke crystals to stain it .get hold of a fiddes catalogue (wales) there is evert=ything you need to finish wood

 

[jon small]

I once made a sofa and 2 reclining swivel chairs with mk1 Capri seats, also a bed from pallets and floorboards, fire surrounds from timber salvaged from our old raised deck, even made an octagonal dressing table mirror, coasters and place mats from the oak bar top from a pub we refurbished and loads of other bits and pieces from salvaged materials - it's one of the ways I relax away from work plus saves a few quid as I'm a tight Cornish man - have even sold quite a lot which is always a bonus

 

[cobrauk]

If you have a wood work shop near you it might pay to ask them if they could run your board through their planner / thicknesser for a small fee.
Or even think of buying one like this http://www.NoLinkingToThis/p/erbaue... Power Tools&gclid=CL2IhcPBxcMCFczMtAodOAsA8A

I made all the beds etc when i first got married as money was tight so good on you for trying the same.

(Just one note for you make sure your floor boards can take the extra weight as your boards are well over the top for what you are making lol)

 

[Tidy Max]

I mithered the cabinet builders/installers on a job i am doing at the moment and when i told them i was sawing scaff boards down the length they said "f that, bring em to the workshop and we will run them through the thicknesser for you" BOOM.

That will save me some time then

Thanks for the replies, i need to start hunting for hinges next. I have already sourced the scaff poles for the hanging rails

 

[RyanCheetham]

I have made afew things i am happy with recently but the app wont allow me to add pictures to this thread

 

[Tidy Max]

I have made afew things i am happy with recently but the app wont allow me to add pictures to this thread

Find a way mate! I want to see it

 

[shanky887614]

What are buttons mick??

We need some railway sleepers for the garden! I didnt think they would be that much! Cheers Adam, yeah its definitely better than some of the stuff we looked at.

We bought an 'oak' coffee table from oak furniture land when we first moved in. NEVER AGAIN!!!

travice perkins sell um

 

[RyanCheetham]

Hopefully i have sussed it thanks to Tazz. These are some display cabinets i made using MDF and alot of routering. The doors were the easiest bits to make. And also some drawers i built into one of my stair cases at home for extra shoe storage.

 

[telectrix]

I mithered the cabinet builders/installers on a job i am doing at the moment and when i told them i was sawing scaff boards down the length they said "f that, bring em to the workshop and we will run them through the thicknesser for you" BOOM.

That will save me some time then

Thanks for the replies, i need to start hunting for hinges next. I have already sourced the scaff poles for the hanging rails

not sure if the coat hanger hooks will fit over scaffold pole. why not use 20mm galv. conduit?

 

[shanky887614]

not sure if the coat hanger hooks will fit over scaffold pole. why not use 20mm galv. conduit?

stainless will look better, get someone with a lathe to make some ends and job done

 

[Tidy Max]

stainless will look better, get someone with a lathe to make some ends and job done

I have used the metal store. They are brillaint tbh. I am using them to build my gym equipment in the backyard, unbeatable on price and the gear looks really good.

I checked the coat hangers would fit

 

[Tidy Max]

and Ryan your furniture looks epic mate! Well done!!

 

[RyanCheetham]

Thanks mate. Strangely enough it was actually cheaper for me to custom build them than it was to buy the chipboard equivalent from Ikea.

 

[The Cavalry]

how do you attach a pic to a post. would like to put up a pic of my shelving attempt

 

[RyanCheetham]

I had to ask Tazz. You have to upload them to a third party hosting site such as Photo bucket and they create a link to embed the photo on the forum

 

[The Cavalry]

Ok. Will look into that one. Thanks

 

[telectrix]

you should be able to use the add image icon, then select ffom computer rather than url

 

[The Cavalry]

you should be able to use the add image icon, then select ffom computer rather than url

I tried that but it asked for a url. Wouldn't take the pic from computer. Might just be me being a muppet!

 

[cobrauk]

When you reply to thread there are images above the text box 2nd on the right if you hoover above it says " insert image" click on it then browse to where you have image stored on your pc click up load job done

Opps sorry didnt mean to insert that pic please delete

 

[Paul.M]

Opps sorry didnt mean to insert that pic please delete

I've deleted the full post Cobrauk for you.

ps Nice house

 

[tazz]

Not all members can upload pictures via insert image icon...If you can only select url, you will need to use a free image storing site, such as photobucket. The copy & paste url address from photo.

 

[cobrauk]

Thanks Paul,
Yes they are nice houses but lots of money for them I think they went for £895,000 for the 4 bed when built a year ago

 

[The Cavalry]

Not all members can upload pictures via insert image icon...If you can only select url, you will need to use a free image storing site, such as photobucket. The copy & paste url address from photo.

Thanks tazz, photobucket it is! I can then amaze and bore with pictures [emoji12]

 

[Tidy Max]

Well i have almost finished it and i have almost finished the bed too. I forgot i had started this thread so apologies for not updating it (if anyone was bothered!)

 

[ifindoubtdont]

That's really good work, my wife wants all the bedroom doing out. Are you up for it?. Lol

 

[Corbs]

your a tad out on the laser level tho good work now the task of staining it ?

 

[Tidy Max]

Haha it was perfect by the time i had finished! The hinges themselves weren't bang on we got them from an iron mongers That is the wardrobes waxed but they need buffing further. Not bad for old scaffold boards! Ill post a pic of the bed in a sec

 

[Tidy Max]

Kingsize beaut also made from scaff boards, on with the bedside tables next and the hurricane lamp big light and side lights!

 

[GB.Kayak]

Haha it was perfect by the time i had finished! The hinges themselves weren't bang on we got them from an iron mongers That is the wardrobes waxed but they need buffing further. Not bad for old scaffold boards! Ill post a pic of the bed in a sec

That is really good work! I made a wooden 'Alaskan Mill' out of scraps of timber and have sawn some boards out of the dry rot affected beams that we replaced with my chainsaw; the 2 10 " square beams supported the front of our house over one of our bay windows. I look forward to turning this ~ 139 year old timber, 1 1/2 " thick boards into a kitchen table in due course!

 

[Tidy Max]

Yeah i bet that will turn out amazing. I have a list of projects the size of my arm but not enough time to get round to them. I have been building light fittings at the moment and have a few plans for the dining table. I am also makin all of our internal doors out of redwood. They will be seriously heavy but you can't beat the feel of a good solid door!

 

[GB.Kayak]

Yeah i bet that will turn out amazing. I have a list of projects the size of my arm but not enough time to get round to them. I have been building light fittings at the moment and have a few plans for the dining table. I am also makin all of our internal doors out of redwood. They will be seriously heavy but you can't beat the feel of a good solid door!

My Dad, around about the time my parents got married, got hold of a 18 " - 2 ' wide by 6 ' long by ~ 1 " thick piece of 'waney' edged yew. He sanded and polished it to a dull shine which has been enhanced by almost 48 years of hair 'oils'. The beauty of the head board that he made is the story of 'the rough and the smooth' or the man and the woman as it shows just that profile!

 

[Corbs]

Kingsize beaut also made from scaff boards, on with the bedside tables next and the hurricane lamp big light and side lights!

you going to be using the spare room under the mattress for storage, or are you sinking the mattress in like the new fancy beds?

 

[Corbs]

Haha it was perfect by the time i had finished! The hinges themselves weren't bang on we got them from an iron mongers That is the wardrobes waxed but they need buffing further. Not bad for old scaffold boards! Ill post a pic of the bed in a sec

looks better for the old style if its not anyway and to be honest looks better than this new rubbish and will last longer

 

[Tidy Max]

well the bed i wanted to make was quite a high bed that looked like something out of a beach shack and that had fruit/veg boxes as the under bed storage. However we decided we just didn't have enough space for it. We have plenty of storage in that wardrobe (its 9ft x 5ft x 2.5ft) and we also have the back bedroom that has a lot of storage. So we will see how we get on. I am going to build her a small dresser for in the corner also!

I am debating whether to list the bed on etsy, the price wooden furniture is selling for on their is unbelievable. That bed took 3 hours to measure, cut and dowel together and another 3 hours to totally sand and wax. Total materials cost £100 for wood and wax.

 

[ifindoubtdont]

What happens when the other half says, "I think it would look good against the other wall."

 

[Tidy Max]

I'll launch the lumpy and the bolster at her and say you can move the #$&/*# lamp circuit and switches then!!!!