Most woodworking jobs can be compact down to only earning a box. That’s essentially what they are. A good way to enter in the area of hand crafting your own decor and bits of furniture is to begin with a simple project which includes the elements inherent in the great majority of things you’re most likely to try. The stand alone below is just that.
Chris Hill
This multipurpose stand can be used to hold a beverage, a small plate of hors d’oeuvres or even a potted plant. It’s easy to construct, and you’ll be able to adjust the length, height and width to create a small table, a stool or even a bench.
Tools
This project features a tiny curved cutout at the bottom, but when this is more than you want to handle to begin, simply skip it, since you would need a ribbon and a drill to create it. For the rest of the project, you can get by using a handsaw and a hammer. A circular saw or chop/miter saw will make cutting quicker and easier. Also make sure to have a measuring tape, a straight edge (a wooden ruler works really well), a pencil, a compass or 4-inch round lid, a paintbrush and a few rags.
Lumber and Supplies
At home improvement shops you can pick up craft boards that could fit in a car or have more boards cut shorter. For this project you’ll need a 4-foot-long 1-by-8 board and a 2-foot-long 1-by-4 board. At some shops you can in fact have a worker cut the components to the length you need, but that requires some of the pleasure out of it.
Additionally grab a bottle of wood glue, a small box of #17 by 11/4-inch brads, plus a sandpaper or a sanding sponge. Pick some stain or paint and masking or painter’s tape in case you don’t already have some at home. For a small project such as this, an 8-ounce sample size is ideal.
See how to mimic blot with a DIY shade wash
Chris Hill
Construct It
To create the legs, ” I find it easier to cut a hole (in this case 4 inches in diameter) at the center of a board. To do this, cut on the 1-by-8 board to 22⅝ inches and mark a center line across the width at 11 5/16 inches. Mark an “X” with this particular line 3⅝ inches from the edge. Use a compass just like you did in college, using this beginning point to mark a 4-inch circle.
If you don’t have a compass and so are utilizing a 4-inch round lid, make marks in four distinct directions 2 inches in the “X,” line up the lid together with these marks and mark the circle.
Drill a pilot hole near (but not touching) the inside of the circle large enough to permit the jigsaw blade to go into. Cut across the inside of the circle but not on the line.
Now cut the board in half at the center line and sand the cuts.
In the remaining portion of this 1-by-8, cut on a bit 83/4 inches to produce the stand’s best, and in your 1-by-4, cut two pieces 41/4 inches to create the rails.
Chris Hill
Use Figures 1 and 2 as a guides for positioning the components. You’ll first need to position the rails and legs as shown in the amounts (make sure you apply glue to the ends of the rails) and attach them hammering from the 11/4-inch brads. A clamp or 2 would be excellent for holding these in place, but if you do not have some, you can handle by attaching the rails to a single leg at a time.
Apply glue to the top ends of the legs and the top edges of the rails, and attach the stand’s top using the brads.
Paint and guard It
After the paste has dried and you’ve sanded, you can paint or stain the table. If you are applying two distinct colors, place masking or painter’s tape across the various advantages while painting. This project employs a solid white to your legs and rails, and a color wash, which mimics the appearance of a blot, for the top.
Apply a protective coating as the last step, either a spray polyurethane or clear spray finish.
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