First part of the nursery project

flatfoot · Post by **flatfoot** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:34 pm

In preparation for our first daughter coming this spring I decided I wanted to buiild the nursery furniture because apparently I felt like having a wife on bed rest, multiple homeowner projects, and a job was not enough in my life.

I had Lana pick out the changing table and stuff before I told her I was going to build it so she wouldn't let that influence her decision. Thankfully my wife likes minmalist modern stuff and picked out something really simple looking.

I built the main boxes on the SS Mark V I got from my dad using 1/2" MDF, hardboard, and 1x aspen for the face framing. I'm pretty happy with it so far but I'm fraustrated at trying to get the pieces to stand square. I need adjustable feet or something I guess. Anyone have any tricks getting these things to sit flat on the floor?

This is the first wood project I've done in 15 years since I built a speaker box for my first car. Before that I was like 10 or 12 building Pinewood Derby cars using the bandsaw with Dad.

I'm going to build a closet unit and a crib next so i think I am going to wait and finish all the pieces at the same time. There are some little dents and gaps to fill here and there and i need to plug the pocket holes I made in the top rail on the changing table. Not sure what to use for filler yet.

ss50th · Post by **ss50th** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:44 pm

[quote="flatfoot"] Anyone have any tricks getting these things to sit flat on the floor?

I notice they're in the garage. My garage isn't very flat to begin with. What I have done in the past is see how they sit in the room where they'll be.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:55 pm

ss50th wrote:
flatfoot wrote: Anyone have any tricks getting these things to sit flat on the floor?

I notice they're in the garage. My garage isn't very flat to begin with. What I have done in the past is see how they sit in the room where they'll be.

I think the most effective "trick" is to create a relatively flat work bench to work on. After adding a sheet of 3/4" MDF on top of a work bench with a 3/4" MDF top, I have a reasonably flat work surface.

My second work bench (across the end of my shop) is relatively flat but is not as level as I would like. I built the bench, many years ago when I was not so concerned about flat and level and I now live with it. The bench top is made of solid wood doors salvaged from the trash bins behind the building where I used to work. The building was under going renovation but I would never have though the boss would have discarded these doors.

It is possible that the contractor put them there with the intention of coming back later to get them. Surprise, surprise.

mrhart · Post by **mrhart** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 5:07 pm

I seem to have trouble viewing "some" pics posted. This one appears as a red X and I've right clicked and tried "show picture" but no avail.
Some come through great.
Any help here?

mbcabinetmaker · Post by **mbcabinetmaker** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:51 pm

flatfoot wrote:In preparation for our first daughter coming this spring I decided I wanted to buiild the nursery furniture because apparently I felt like having a wife on bed rest, multiple homeowner projects, and a job was not enough in my life.

I had Lana pick out the changing table and stuff before I told her I was going to build it so she wouldn't let that influence her decision. Thankfully my wife likes minmalist modern stuff and picked out something really simple looking.

I built the main boxes on the SS Mark V I got from my dad using 1/2" MDF, hardboard, and 1x aspen for the face framing. I'm pretty happy with it so far but I'm fraustrated at trying to get the pieces to stand square. I need adjustable feet or something I guess. Anyone have any tricks getting these things to sit flat on the floor?

This is the first wood project I've done in 15 years since I built a speaker box for my first car. Before that I was like 10 or 12 building Pinewood Derby cars using the bandsaw with Dad.

I'm going to build a closet unit and a crib next so i think I am going to wait and finish all the pieces at the same time. There are some little dents and gaps to fill here and there and i need to plug the pocket holes I made in the top rail on the changing table. Not sure what to use for filler yet.

Flatfoot have you considered something like bun feet or a base of some sort that has only 4 contact areas to the floor? As to the filler I am assuming that you are painting the MDF units. Spackling will work to fill the holes but may require more than one application due to shrinkage. I would use bondo for the larger pocket holes or just make a finished top to cover them.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:15 pm

I wanted to reply, but Mark beat me to it. I favor a solid plywood top with edging instead of filling the holes. However, if you would rather fill those pocket holes - I was thinking of some of those pocket hole plugs sold by Rockler. http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5756&filter=pocket%20hole%20plugs

flatfoot · Post by **flatfoot** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:18 pm

Yes I will be painting the pieces and I have pocket hole plugs that I can get in there once I get them down to the right length. I did consider bun feet but unfortunately i couldn't find any that will work so if I want em I gotta make em. One of the problems is a height thing. The top is the top piece of the MDF box with a 2 inch tall fence around the sides of the top. Basically the top is designed to hold the changing pad and a box of wipes/powder/a beer, whatever you need to get through rediapering an infant.

I currently have the changing table about an inch and a quarter off the ground and it looks like it's about as high as it can be for Lana to be able to use it since she's only a little over 5'1".

Good point about the garage floor though as it seems to change how stable it is by where on the floor it sits. I need to bring the pieces up stairs to the nursery room and see how they sit. I suppose the carpet will hide some of that slop too.

I know you all know that feeling though; even if everyone else says it's perfect etc you'll know it's not. Thanks to everyone for input.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:35 am

Makes me happy to hear someone else having issues with squaring and leveling. I just finished making the Expanding Worktable that was featured in last months Shopnotes magazine and this was the first woodworking type project I have done in 30+ years or so. It was definitely an adventure as I am not a woodworker by any stretch of the imagination. I tried to carefully cut and dimension all of the pieces for this table perfectly but when it came time to put it together things went south fast. It was a serious learning experience and that is why I chose to build this first because it didn't need to really look good but just be functional. Man did I waste a ton of 2 X 4 stock at least it is cheap and I had a bunch of it laying around so i only had to buy $20 worth of 8ft. studs to finish the project. When I started having problems with things fitting properly I went and remeasured things and as i had thought there were some things that didn't measure up correctly (cuts). I also learned that I will be needing many more clamps than what i currently own (2).

No real big deal as I intended it to be a first project to teach myself and relearn things that were taught to me many moons ago. I also learn much better by doing than by reading so this was a perfect learning experience for me. I did make some modifications to the original design of the table. It was a stationary table in the plans but looking at the plans i could see it was going to be a heavy bugger and I would need to move it around a lot so i found a real cool video on Lumberjocks for making some retractable casters which I used with some casters i had acquire from a huge computer cabinet. This was a basically mechanical procedure which I excel at and the casters came out perfectly and work flawlessly. They are just a board with a caster at each end that i hinged on the inside of the corner legs of the table and then to hold them in place I put another board in the middle that is also hinged. So when you lift the table off the ground the casters fall down and the support board also falls down to support the casters. To put the table solidly on the ground all i have to do is kick the support board out and the table falls to it's feet letting the casters hinge upwards. Simple and ingenious design which I wish i could take credit for. I will have to take some pics of the casters as it really is cool and I am pretty proud of how they turned out. the table although functional definitely did not come out like I had hoped but my next project will be that much better after this experience.

flatfoot · Post by **flatfoot** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:26 am

I definitely want to see a picture or a drawing of that caster set up. That sounds fantastic. When I am finished with the time sensitiv nursery stuff I am going to do some projects for shop set up. I may end up walling off half of my garage for the shop. My garage is only 12' or so wide but it's 48' deep so have plenty of room to work in there, especially when the cars live in the driveway.