Garage_Shop_Crafter

It's at least functional right? 😉 Thanks for taking a look👍

Ya it was a learning experience for sure, haha ya and it's a bit of a mess with the roof, but hey... It works and next time around I'll know to be a little less naive and bit more researched before diving into roof framing. But hey, the kids are loving it and in the end that was the real point of all this. Any tips tho for this novice builder?

Thanks! It was fun to make. Challenging for sure.... But fun

Oh nice! That does sound much more fool proof.

glad to share!

Sounds awesome! I joke, but I probably am living vicariously through my kids with this fort a bit too. My oldest is already planning overnight sleepovers in the rocket and it's pretty awesome to see them showing it off to their friends when they come over

local codes change depending where you live. Here in TN there are far fewer regulations than, say, san diego where I used to live. I had contractors buuld one set to code when I was getting ready to buy the house, then later decided to build another on the other side. I figured, since mine is a copy of theirs then it too follows code...but obviously its good to know your local codes when taking on projects, particularly for investment properties and in areas that are prone to be more litigious

Thanks! Ya I've always been partial to plywood end grain...I try and integrate it a lot into my woodworking. Glad you enjoyed and happy making!

Hoarding plywood is always a good idea 😉🤣

well then may I present: (sadly, the music doesnt copy over from the IG reel ... but you can mentally insert your own music for me to be dancing to :) )

I've been thinking about this since i made my first plywwod counter over a year ago. that counter has aged well, but it has been helped by being in a low-traffic area (we aren't eating on it everyday and most days it acts more like a shelf than anything else) Here's my opinion on it. Most plywood is pine, even the "hardwood" plywood you see at lowes or home depot...as they are really just talking about the outer veneer being a hardwood while the rest of the layers are still pine. Now, there are plywood suppliers that use hardwood throughout the entire sheet (every layer) but that is more expensive. That said, pine is a poor material for high-traffic areas that might see abuse from knives, cleaning materials, frequent touching or spills, etc. If you like the look enough to …

I've been thinking about this since i made my first plywwod counter over a year ago. that counter has aged well, but it has been helped by being in a low-traffic area (we aren't eating on it everyday and most days it acts more like a shelf than anything else) Here's my opinion on it. Most plywood is pine, even the "hardwood" plywood you see at lowes or home depot...as they are really just talking about the outer veneer being a hardwood while the rest of the layers are still pine. Now, there are plywood suppliers that use hardwood throughout the entire sheet (every layer) but that is more expensive. That said, pine is a poor material for high-traffic areas that might see abuse from knives, cleaning materials, frequent touching or spills, etc. If you like the look enough to merit the price tag for a fully hardwood plywood sheet then it should work. Alternatively, you can use a softer wood if you have a good topcoat of epoxy over it. I've seen kitchen counters made of standard home-depot type plywood that were coated with epoxy to make them handle the abuse better and those seem to have done well.

NICE!

Here I benefit from old building techniques. My home was built in 1953 and they used odd spacing. The studs are there and all the screws hit them. For more modern framing, I agree, some of the screws would miss a 2x4 with how these bracket baseplates are designed. Since posting I've considered how a plywood strip could be placed on the wall and screwed down along the full width of the counter into each stud it passes. And then the brackets could be bolted into THAT instead. Tho that would mean cutting grooves into the brackets to accommodate. You could also go the route I went with the last plywood counter I built and use steel brackets that would be simpler to line up with wall studs. I discuss that, and include links to the brackets I used in the associated instructable i made. In the i…

Here I benefit from old building techniques. My home was built in 1953 and they used odd spacing. The studs are there and all the screws hit them. For more modern framing, I agree, some of the screws would miss a 2x4 with how these bracket baseplates are designed. Since posting I've considered how a plywood strip could be placed on the wall and screwed down along the full width of the counter into each stud it passes. And then the brackets could be bolted into THAT instead. Tho that would mean cutting grooves into the brackets to accommodate. You could also go the route I went with the last plywood counter I built and use steel brackets that would be simpler to line up with wall studs. I discuss that, and include links to the brackets I used in the associated instructable i made. In the intro to this instructable I include a link to that other one.

Appreciate it! I'll work on getting those files for ya!

I've just updated the instructable to inslude .stl files. Hope that works for ya, and be sure to show me how your printed versions turn out!

The original shape came from an stl file I tracked down online. It was an exact match of sabine's blasters if you prefer that design. I then modded the design in cad till I got something that would work for me. If you are more interested in this design, I could try and go back and save the cad files as stls

yes...good idea! I've added the g-code files now :)

wow! so cool to see the design being used. I like the slats look...turned out really well

I personally am not a big fan of wood stain. I prefer showing the true grain color, and i particularly love the look of plywood. So no stain, just a nice clear finish to protect the wood.

this looks beautiful! nicely done

this one made me smile :) looks fun!

oh and it sounds great!

We plan to build our own tiny house in the coming years, so we're hyper aware of using space efficiently and making sure everything has multiple uses/functions

Red oak. Thanks!👍

That's for sure!

I made a similar trap not too long ago and it's been very effective. As a little note: the awesome thing about this trap is that it targets a specific bee that can be destructive (carpenter) but will not attract honey bees that are generally considered more helpful for flowers/gardens in the area. Adding sugar to the trap, however, will attract honey bees while not making the trap any more effective at catching carpenter bees. Just wanted to throw that out there. As far as making the trap more effective for carpenter bees... well for some odd reason these bees are attracted to the smell of injured/dying/dead carpenter bees. So if you leave the bee in there after it is dead, the trap will pull in more bees.

Seriously great work here 👍

That's it, I take back everything good I ever said about you 😉

ya my kids love the changing lights. I originally was just going to go white LEDs...but when i found these color changing ones for only a few bucks more the choice was obvious. Oh and the remote does have a "strobe" setting where it flashes through all the light choices and my kids love using that setting. So ya, it often does look like there's a club under there ;)

hmmm interesting. Maybe make the side that doesnt open into a concealed set of shelves on the inside of a door that would swing shut to be out of the way. That would keep that corner of the area under the stage from going to waste...and increase storage.

I've been thinking about this project and the only concern I have is this: What considerations have you made to prevent a princess in bounty-hunter disguise from sneaking in and thawing the carbonite-frozen man you're using to hide the entrance to your theater room? ;)

So if you saw that little tour video i did at the end, it turns out that the ladder i built in the corner for getting out has actually become shelving. You can see the ladder in the tour (tho i think it is still bare at that point). My kids just use the edges of the hole in the stage floor to climb up and the ladder has become the spot they store their toys/trinkets. So it all worked out in the end ;)

ya, that little space on the end away from the door? It isn't accessible (too tight a squeeze for even my 2 year old) I was going to seal it off entirely after the fact but i realized that, with how i built it, I would only be able to MOSTLY seal it off and my son seems to have an obsessive need to shove things into little openings/holes. I was worried that by NEARLY closing it i would motivate him to shove trash/food/i dont know what else in there where i couldn't clean it up. As it is right now i have room to reach in an arm and clean out any debris. (tho luckily that hasnt been necessary so far) If I could do it over i would have planned to seal that up from the beginning. oh well.

this is such a cool idea man

seriously beautiful work here

This is pretty awesome!

thanks! ya it's a great playroom and the kids love spending their time there now...espescially in their little "fort" under the stage

Thanks! I really appreciate it!

Overall the thing feels really solid. Those ribs i placed in the bottom added a lot of torsional stiffness as well as stabilizing the plywood. For holding heavy things, that comes own to the brackets as well. I picked lighter weight brackets cuz the majority of the time it is empty (I wasn't building a shelf that would be holding a lot of weight for long periods of time) I would have probably sized up the brackets a bit if i was going to make it a spot where I'd be perching a desktop or something heavy long-term. Another option is to make corbels and add them on the ends of the bar-top to really solidify it (in addition to the brackets)

Hey good call! Ya I was just thinking of sanding and painting routinely to fix that problem but I think this is a pretty clever solution