PT Money » Do-It-Yourself

Use Free Online Tutorials to Do It Yourself

Tiffany — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:28:27 +0000

This is another post from Tiffany, a newly single mom. I thought it would be good to follow up my do-it-yourself post today with this article from Tiffany which lists some nice resources for finding online tutorials.

My friend Allison has been unemployed for ten months. Like most job-seekers, she is navigating her way through challenges that she’s never faced before. Unlike most job-seekers, Allison owns her home outright, which is a blessing. But it doesn’t exempt her from the inevitable needed repairs to her home.

No Handyman in Sight

One of the aforementioned never-before-faced challenges is that of working through a “home crisis” alone, without a partner or the resources to hire a handyman. The unexpected WILL happen and repairs WILL have to be done. But for many of us, the day of calling the professional honey-do for every little problem is gone. Basically if there’s a way to do it ourselves, we are learning to do it.

Allison has recently had a couple of major plumbing issues. Like my home, hers only has one bathroom. So having the bathroom faucet or the inner toilet assembly break can quickly escalate into an urgent matter.

When both of these things happened to her in the same two week period, Allison felt overwhelmed.

A Quick Faucet Fix

The faucet went first. Because she lacked confidence in her ability to repair it, she went to Home Depot and bought the least expensive faucet that she could find. Following the instructions on the package carefully, Allison was, to her surprise and delight, able to install it quickly and easily and she felt utterly empowered by this accomplishment. She even expressed to me “I wish now that I had bought a nicer faucet!”.

“Is There a Plumber in the House?”

But when I called her a week later to tell her that I have a nice male colleague and I’m eager to play matchmaker for her and him, she literally growled into the phone and said “I’m not interested unless he’s a plumber”. She proceeded to tell me that her toilet had stopped working and that her research on AskAPlumber.com indicated that the fill valve and flapper needed to be replaced.

Her earlier confidence in her ability to make basic plumbing repairs had waned. As she talked, I could hear the panic in her voice begin to increase and I remembered suddenly that I had found a solution to a recent computer problem by watching a YouTube video.

Online Resources to the Rescue

While still on the phone with her, I did a quick YouTube search on “fix toilet”. The search netted me pages upon pages of videos on toilet repair. When I relayed this information to her, she growled (again…yikes), “OK, I’ll check it out….gotta go”.

She called me four hours later, and I could hear the elation in her voice. “I did it! I found two ladies in a video on YouTube and watching them, I was able to fix mine”.

She gave me the credit, but of course, I’ll give the credit to the wonderful world of resources that the internet offers us. With sites like YouTube and Video Jug, a person can learn to do nearly anything.

I researched the more popular tutorial sites to see exactly which sites offered the most results for my key phrase “fix toilet” (without quotation marks). I didn’t peruse many individual videos or articles. I’m posting here, for the purpose of illustration, the number of results my searches netted for “fix toilet”.

How Stuff Works 57 articles and specifically a wonderful graphical drawing on the intricacies of the toilet’s ballcock assembly (I like a graphical visual)
This Old House 11 videos and articles
About.com 1,230 videos and articles
Video Jug 349 videos
WikiHow 117 Wiki articles (cool that users can edit the articles on this site)
eHow 16,200 articles
YouTube 1,640 videos
DoItYourself 450 articles, videos, and forums
DIY Network 17 videos
5Min Videopedia 18 videos (this site limits video length to 5 minutes)
SuTree had more videos than I could count, but I noted that their search engine isn’t very refined and not all were how to actually “fix toilet”.

I want to point out that in addition to videos, tutorials, and articles on “fix toilet”, all of these sites have tutorials on everything imaginable.

If anyone is aware of more great “how to” sites on any topic, I’d love to have them to add to my list.

Happy learning!

Photo by Andreia

Installing Hardwood Flooring Yourself to Save Money

PT — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:35:44 +0000

In this post I share how installing your own hardwood flooring, specifically, engineered wood flooring, can save you money.

From time to time here on PT Money, I’ll showcase some of the Do-It-Yourself projects I’ve done to help reduce the cost of maintaining and improving our home. While this isn’t directly related to the main theme of the site, hopefully it will provide some motivation to try your own money-saving project. If I can do it, you can!

When we first moved into our house back in the fall of 2007 the first thing we did was pull up the carpet and put in glue-down engineered hardwood flooring. Mrs. PT was freaking out a little. And to be honest, in the back of my mind, so was I. I’ve done a few hands on projects before, but nothing like this. And this was a brand new place.

Why I Decided to Purchase the Hardwood Flooring and Install it Myself

We made an offer on our home before it was built. So we got to see it go up, and we were able to pick out many of the features, including the flooring. We priced the builder-installed hardwood flooring and didn’t like the numbers. The quotes were above $10k.

The sales people tried to tell us that the cost would be including in the mortgage and so we would get to pay for it over a long period of time. I guess they didn’t know who they were dealing with. I quickly started looking around for other options and ultimately decided that I would give it a try myself.

One of the things that got me over the fear of installing the floors myself was having a couple of friends who were home improvement experts. They lent their hands at the initial stage of the project and really helped me to learn the trowel technique, which gave me confidence to finish up.

How Much Did Doing it Myself Cost?

I did my research prior to taking on this project. I found some really nice engineered hardwood plank at Lowes that was on discount. And I made my purchase with one of those 20% off coupon they give out so frequently. Here’s how the numbers ended up looking:

$2,600 for around 700 square feet of the Cabin Creek Plank
$260 for the flooring adhesive
$9.00 for the knee pads*
$150 for the t-molding
$50 for miscellaneous supplies
3 days of vacation time
($100) for selling the carpet

*Huge mistake. If you try this, please do yourself a favor and get some good knee pads.

That brings my total spend to about $3,500. Roughly a third of what it would have cost with the builder. Had I hired someone to install it for me, it would have cost another $2 per square foot (roughly $1,500). And that would have saved me the 3 vacation days. So that still would have been half the cost.

Tools Needed for Installing the Hardwood Flooring

I realize not everyone has these tools lying around. However, the only expensive items is the table saw. You could easily borrow that from a friend or rent one from Lowes or Home Depot.

Trowel
Miter Saw (I used a $10 miter saw and box combo)
Table Saw (I had purchased this back when I built my own desk)
Dead Blow Hammer
Tapping Block
Pencil and Tape Measure
Safety Glasses
Gloves

Steps to Installing Hardwood Flooring

Next, I’ll walk you through the steps to installing hardwood flooring using the glue down method and engineered hardwood plank.

Quick tip: if you are installing the floors yourself on a new home, have the builder leave out the tacking when laying the carpet. They will have to include the carpet for code. But they don’t necessarily have to tack it down. This saves you some extra work, and makes the carpet more salvageable for resale.

Prepare sub-floor
Ensure proper moisture levels
Acclimate flooring to the room
Check boards for warping and defects
Pour glue into a small area (2-3 rows)
Trowel the glue
Lay the flooring planks (use spacers to keep the first row away from the wall)
Tap the next few pieces into place
Cut the flooring planks to length on the end
Repeat steps 5-9
Install your trim pieces

There’s obviously more to it than I care to explain here. So I will refer you to this video put together by Lowes. I must have watched a video like this a thousand times as I was doing this project. There are so many steps and little details you don’t want to miss.

Was It Worth It?

I’m really proud of my hardwood floors. I don’t necessarily think about how much I saved on the project anymore as much as I’m proud of the fact that I did them myself. It was a tough project, both mentally and physically, but I feel like I’m a better person for having gone through the process.

If you want to give this a try for yourself, shoot me an email and I’ll give you a few more pointers. Or if you also installed your hardwood floors, I’d love to see your finished product.

How to Cook a Better Steak for Less

PT — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:37:37 +0000

As I was thinking about this weekend, I thought it might be nice to cook up a nice steak for Mrs. PT and I. I did some searching for how to cook steak, and discovered a method of cooking steak that can be less expensive and possibly make a better steak. The good thing is, if you’ve got a basic cast-iron skillet and an oven, you don’t need to spend a dime, beyond the steaks of course, to make this work.

Broiling: A Cheaper, Cleaner, (Better?) Way to Cook Steak

I’m not going to argue whether grilled or broiled is better. But what I do know is that broiling can be less expensive than firing up the grill. It’s definitely less of a hassle and less of a mess. No fancy grill needed. I honestly like both methods of cooking steak.

If you’re going to do either method, it’s important to do it right. What I discovered in my searching is that I haven’t been broiling properly. When I broil, I use the wrong kind of dish and I don’t place the steaks in the right place in the oven.

Here’s how you should cook your steak if broiling:

Place a Cast-Iron Skillet in the Oven
Pre-Heat the Oven to 550 Degrees
Turn on the Broiler
Place the Steak(s) on the Skillet 2-4 Inches from the Broiler*
Wait 8 Minutes for Medium Rare
Remove (no flip needed)

*Adjustments may be needed depending on the power of your broiler. But basic ovens need to be this close.

The added benefit to broiling right now is that you don’t have to go outside (too cold) and you get to warm up your kitchen using the oven.

How to Prepare Your Steak to Cook

I’m a steak purist. I like nice, quality cuts of meat. No marinades. No sauce. I only do this (cook steak) and few times a year, so I make sure I get quality meat. If you’re going to spend a little money, spend it on the steak itself. Rib-eyes and sirloins are great for broiling. I also like Filets. Look for a nice bright red cut with the fat marbled consistently throughout the meat. Rub some salt on the steak, wrap it in plastic wrap or a zip-lock bag, and place in the fridge for at least a few hours. Never do salt right before you cook. It will draw out the juices.

When you’re an hour away from cooking, pull the steak out of the fridge, dry it, and let it sit. When it’s room temperature, you’re ready to cook.

I’m going to try it out this weekend and see if I can cook a steak that tastes great and doesn’t break the bank to prepare. Let me hear from you if you’ve ever tried this broiling method. Or please share your steak cooking tips in the comment section below. Enjoy!

Here’s a photo of how our steaks turned out. We used the directions above and results were excellent. These are $7 organic filets from Sprouts. Just salt. 8 minutes. Broiled. Turned only after removed from the oven. Results were medium well to well done.

Have you ever tried OmahaSteaks.com? Now may be a good time to see how their steaks taste. You can currently save up to 65% on your order, plus choose a FREE gift. These 6 (6 oz.) Bacon Wrapped Filets look incredibly tasty. See more Omaha Steak Coupons.

Photo by Michael Berch

How to Build Your Own Bookshelf

PT — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:30:17 +0000

From time to time here on Prime Time Money I like to share some of the woodworking or home-improvement projects I complete in my spare time. Sometimes these are ideas that have saved me money. Most of the time though, they’re just things I do to have some fun and use my brain in a different way. See more of them under the “Do It Yourself” category.

The latest project is a bookshelf I built to be used for our baby girl’s room. You could build this yourself and it’s nice enough to use it in your home office, living room, or bedroom.

I got the idea for the bookshelf from a friend, who’s built a similar one for his living room. In general it’s built using only inexpensive lumber, a table saw, some wood glue, sand paper, and a nail gun. I added a couple of coats of some black semi-gloss paint to match the other furniture in our baby girl’s room.

How I Built the Bookshelf

The above picture shows the side paneling, built with four (4) 1×4 treated pieces of wood held together by five (5) 1×2 strips made from another 1×4. The strips are glued and nailed to the panel pieces. Since your bookshelf has two sides, you’ll need to make two of these side panels.

These strips serve to add strength to the bookshelf, but also serve as the rails for the shelves. For this reason, you’ll need to place your strips in exactly the same location on either panel. And because you’re building it yourself, you’ll get to decide where to put your shelves. I chose to make two bigger spaces on the top and bottom, with two smaller spaces in between.

Up next, you’ll need to connect your side panels to the top. The top is a special “project piece”. It’s basically strips of hardwood glued together to make a nice, big piece of wood, suitable for a bookshelf top. This was the most expensive part of the project, but worth it.

To connect these two pieces, I simply used the nail gun on the top side of the top piece and nailed down into the side panels.That didn’t feel strong enough, so I ran a piece between the two side panels just under the top piece at the back. See the black pieces in the picture below. Unfortunately, the above two pictures are all the construction pictures I have. I’ve put together this rough drawing though for you to follow…

As you can see, once you get the two side panels connected to the top piece and you have your support slats in place, you’ve basically got the framework for the bookshelf built. Up next is adding the decorative trim pieces (above in red). Again, I used the 1×4 pieces to create these trim pieces. Doing this adds some depth to the look of the bookshelf and helps to hide the shelf support rails. These pieces are all nailed to the framework using the nail gun.

Next, I added a pre-finished faux-panelling to the back of the bookshelf. You can barely make it out in the last picture below. It adds a decorative touch without adding too much weight to the bookshelf.

Lastly, I purchased a 1×12 piece of shelving wood to create the shelves. This was my last and easiest step. The shelves aren’t nailed into the bookshelf, so I just needed to cut them to the correct size.

Once all the pieces were in place, I sanded the bookshelf (a lot, so little fingers can’t get splinters) and added two coats of paint. Here’s the final product…

The Finished Bookshelf

In the picture above, you can see the completed bookshelf. I have to say, this has to be one of the favorite projects I’ve completed. It was fairly inexpensive ($75 for all the supplies), quick to build, and it turned out great. Nice enough to go in any room in my house, I’d say. Makes me smile to think that our little girl will grow up using this bookshelf her Dad made her.

In this last picture you can see the crib which I was trying to match somewhat with the look of the bookshelf. You can barely make out the faux-panelling on the back of the bookshelf. This, I thought, went well with the slats of our girl’s crib.

Let me know if you’re interested in doing this yourself and I can help provide more details for you. Also, if you’ve done any woodworking, send some pictures my way. I’d be glad to share your project here on the blog.

Update #1: A reader emailed in need of a materials list for this project. While I don’t have an exact list made up, I’ve thrown together a rough version for you to start from. Here’s roughly what you’ll need:

Materials List

48 feet of 1×4 inexpensive pine (for all the side slats, trim, and internal framing)
12 feet of 1×16 shelving (for the shelves)
roughly 24×36 project piece (nice) of hardwood (for the top)
at least 3 feet x 4 feet sheet of beaded board panelling (back)
sander
wood glue
nailgun
black semi-gloss paint and brush

Update #2: Readers have been emailing in asking for more details on how to build the shelf. I took a stab at some crude step-by-step instructions:

Step-by-Step Instructions (…sort of)

First, make the side pieces: cut the 1×4s into 8 pieces, 4 ft in length; use some more 1×4s (cut longways in half) to make the supports for the sides; glue and nail gun the supports to the 4 side peices. You should now have your side peices ready.
Nail the top project peice to the side peices.
Cut 2 extra 1×4s (cut in half) into cross bars for the bottom (to give the bottom of the shelf some extra support).
Use the remaining 1×4s to add front facing trim work to the shelf.
Cut and nail the beadboard to the back of the shelf.
Cut the 1×16s into shelf peices.
Sand and paint it all and place the shelf peices inside. Viola!

I know that’s not as specific as professional plans. To be honest, I just kind of made it up as I went along. My advice would be to study the pictures I’ve provided and study bookshelves you see in stores. Get a feel for how the internal framing and structure works. Then, just take that knowledge and my materials list, apply your own math, and get to work.

Let me know how it goes!

How to Paint a Room for Less

PT — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 11:00:11 +0000

Occasionally I’ll use Prime Time Money to present some of the Do-It-Yourself projects I’ve done around my house. While this isn’t directly related to the main theme of the site, hopefully it will provide some motivation to try your own money-saving project. If I can do it, you can!

Today I thought I would share some tips I picked up on how to paint a room in your house. Plus, I’ve got some additional tips for keeping the costs down. I spent some time over the Holidays painting a few rooms in our townhome. I started with our soon-to-be baby girl’s room, then I painted two walls in our dining room, and now I’m wrapping up the painting of our downstairs bathroom. I’m worn out!

Paint a Room in Your House

Purchase Your Paint and Supplies – Generally, a gallon of paint will cover a 10 x 10 room once. Additionally, the cheaper the paint and the more textured your wall, the more likely it is to need two coats. To give you an idea, I have textured walls and I used two gallons on the baby room, one on the two dining room walls, and one on the bathroom.

Besides paint, you’ll need painter’s tape, a 2 inch brush, a roller (thick rollers needed for more textured walls), roller bin, and some sort of drop cloth. If you’re using oil-based paints, you’ll also need a can of thinner for clean-up. It’s also good to have some old rags and paper towels lying around. Lastly those mini-rollers are great for the hard to reach areas (i.e. behind a sink).

Prepping the Room – Taking the time to properly prepare the room makes a huge difference in the end product. You need to remove as much as possible from the room. What furniture you can’t remove you’ll need to cover with a bed sheet (be careful though, as big drops of paint might bleed through sheets). The floors should be covered with plastic drop cloth. Next, remove all the fixture and outlet covers. Lastly, you’ll need to put the painter’s tape up on the ceiling, on the baseboards and around doors and windows.

Cutting In and Rolling On – Now that you’re room is prepped you can start the actual painting process by “cutting-in” on one wall. Basically, this is taking a 2 inch brush and painting the edges (where you taped). It’s best to “cut in” about 3-4 feet at a time, and then roll in the middle section. Move down the wall in one direction using this process so that you keep what’s known as a “wet edge”. I recommend pulling off your painter’s tape a minute or two after you cut in on a section. Don’t wait till the paint dries to pull off the tape or you’ll get some peeling. A second coat can be done by simply rolling again. Cutting in again is usually unnecessary.

Clean Up – Like prepping the room, cleaning up can be a drag. But it’s just as important. Make sure you’ve removed all your tape and drop cloths. Pour all excess paint back into the cans, sealed tight and stored for touch-ups later on. Clean your brushes and rollers asap (see below). Then, kick back and enjoy the room.

Painting a Room for Less Money

Do-It-Yourself – First of all, simply doing it yourself is going to save you quite a bit of money. It does take some time, and a little patience to do it properly, but doing the painting yourself is going to save money.

Only Paint an Accent Wall – To change the look of the room, you may only need to do one wall. Choose the wall behind your bed’s headboard or the back wall in the dining room and pick a nice complementary color. It’s less expensive than a full paint job, won’t take as much time, and might even create a nicer effect.

Search for Unwanted Paints – Before you spring for the designer paints, visit craigslist.org’s “materials” section and search for paints. Also, check WalMart, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and the like, for “mistake” paints. These are cans of mixed paints that weren’t sold for some reason. If you’re not stuck on a particular color, then you can find some nice deals.

Spend Where it Counts – If you want a paint job to turn out nice, put your money in quality paint and brushes/rollers. Everything else you can go the cheap route. Save money by purchasing cheap tape, roller handles and bins, using old plastic bowls to hold paint for your “cutting in” work, and using plastic you already have (like a shower curtain) for a drop cloth.

Take Care of Your Brushes – Lastly, I’ll just add that if doing multiple rooms and projects, you’re going to save some money by re-using brushes and rollers as much as possible. It’s a big pain to clean up after painting. It’s the last thing I always want to do, but it must be done unless you just want to waste money by having to go get all new supplies. Immediately after finishing, wash your water-based paint brushes and rollers thoroughly in the sink using only water. Wash your oil-based paint brushes in paint thinner first using an old jar or bucket. Then move to the sink and finish cleaning them with soap and water. Here’s an excellent video guide on cleaning paint brushes and supplies.

So now you’re ready to take on your first paint job, and do it for less. Good luck.

Photo: marie-II

How to Build Your Own Desk – Part 3 (It’s Finished!)

PT — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:00:00 +0000

This post shares how to build your own desk.

Occasionally I’ll use PT Money to present some of the do-it-yourself projects I’ve done around my house. While this isn’t directly related to the main theme of the site, hopefully it will provide some motivation to try your own money-saving project.

If I can do it, you can! Check out Build Your Own Desk Part 1 and Build Your Own Desk Part 2, which I posted last Summer. This is my final post about the desk project. But since it’s been a while, I’ll try and sum the whole project up here.

Why Build Your Own Desk?

The best reasons to tackle this project for me were:

Not blowing my money on an expensive desk – I understand that $2,000 can buy you a nice heirloom. But I don’t need to buy one because my parents plan to give me theirs one day. A desk to me is strictly for utility. It just has to look half-way decent and fit my needs. When I started this project we were saving for the down payment on our house, so we needed all the extra cash we could get.
Getting the exact desk I wanted – Buy making it myself, I could tweak the plans for my height (I like leg room), make it as big or little as I needed, and paint it whatever color I wanted.
Getting Up from the TV and Doing Something New – I really liked getting out in the garage on the weekends and working on this desk. It freed me from my normal routine and got me moving. I’ll admit though, at times it felt like I’d never finish it, but it’s so rewarding to build something from scratch like this.

The Plans for the Desk

I found these FREE plans on Popular Mechanics after a pretty simple Google image search for “desk plans” and “home office desk plans”. I wasn’t about to pay money for plans when most can be found for free on the Internet.

(from Popular Mechanics)

Tools I Needed to Build the Desk

I started out trying to make this desk on the super cheap. My plan was to use Lowes for all the rough cuts of the lumber (which they do for free), my friend’s table saw for the detailed cuts, a cheap miter box for the angled trim cuts, and hand sand the whole project.

While I was able to do those things for a while, there came a point when I needed to step up to some real tools to get the project done right. For one, the plans call for a biscuit joiner. Check out How to Build Your Own Desk Part 2 to see more on the joiner.

I also stepped up to my own table saw, power drill, and power sander, all of which I’ve used for other projects since. Here’s a list of the tools I ended up using on the project (with cost, if purchased).

2 Strap Clamps (for holding the boxes together once joined and glued) $28.06
Miter Box (used until I bought the table saw) $13.51
Biscuit Joiner $97.41
Table Saw $113.50
Power Drill $29.99
Power Sander $29.99
Hammer (for trim nails)
Iron (for the veneer tape)

That’s about $140.00 total for tools I had to have just for this project, and another $175.00 for tools that I can use again. One note: I did not purchase the router to make my own top edging like the plans suggest. I just bought the pre-cut edging, which worked fine.

(my desk in various stages of completion)

Cost of the Materials (based on receipts)

Top and Cabinets

1st Batch of Plywood (Birch) and Trim (Pre-Finished Pine Cove) $105.25
2nd Batch of Plywood (Birch), Trim (Pre-Cut Poplar), and Wood Glue $69.51
Bicuits $7.50
Base Trim (Pine) $32.00

Drawers and Hardware

Plywood (Pine) $40.00
Drawer Sliders $62.30
Hanging File Frames $9.55
Bronze Pulls $25.65

Paint and Primer (birch needs several coats) $35.00 (approx.)

Nails and Screws $10.00

That’s roughly $400.00 total in materials. You could do it cheaper by using lower grade plywood (I used the best that Lowe’s offered) and cheaper sliders (again, I went big here).

Modifications to the Plans

I thought it’d be worth noting that I decided to go without a few things for the desk. I didn’t install the pencil drawer. I’ve found that I don’t use those and I always hit them with my knees. Also, I didn’t finish the privacy back to the deskbecause (1) I wanted to be able to keep the desk in three pieces for easy moving and (2) I was going to use it against a wall (no privacy needed). Although, you’ll see in the pic that I do have a piece of unpainted plywood there, which is just to hide the wires.

(My Home Office Desk)

Final Thoughts on the Finished Project

I spent roughly $700.00 (of which $175.00 is for tools that I now use all the time) on the desk. And I’d estimate that it took about 80 hours to complete, with Mrs. PT throwing in another 10-15 of her own helping paint. While it was a tough build and took a while (4 Months on/off), I’m super proud of this desk. I use it everyday and I’m so glad it turned out decent. It has everything I like in a desk (sturdy build, leg room, lots of space on top, and deep file cabinets). Who knows, it may end up being our own heirloom.

Update: Reader Mark just finished his desk and sent a picture. He said, “I started January of this year and after 9 months and a new baby I finally completed the desk.”

Well, congrats on both fronts, Mark! The desk looks great!

If you end up taking this project on for yourself and have any questions please don’t hesitate to email me at ptmoneyblog [at] gmail.com.

I started January of this year and after 9 months and a new baby I finally completed the desk.

How To Build Your Own Desk – Part 2

PT — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:53:00 +0000

I’ve been building a desk for our home office. I thought it might be more economical to make one instead of buying. Plus, it would serve as a nice night and weekend project for me. Here are the plans I’m using. It’s been a while since I’ve made enough progress to post again about this project. The delay was due to two things: us being out of town for three weeks, and me needing a “biscuit joiner” to make the cabinets. Yes, I said biscuit joiner. I didn’t know what one was either at first.Well, the plans called for biscuit joints to be used on the cabinets, so, I needed the joiner. These “biscuits” basically act like dowels between the pieces of plywood, no screws needed. I guess this is true woodworking. The joiner was hard to find for a decent price. I went to pawn shops, looked online, looked on sales racks. I ended up getting one (Craftsman) at Sears for around $89. I know you can get a less expensive version on Amazon. Besides the wood (all birch plywood), the joiner has been the biggest investment I’ve had to make in this project.

On to the pics. I’ve finished the top of the desk and the cabinets. Here’s the desk top:

I thought it turned out nice. I’ve got it on top of my folding table until I finish the rest of the desk and can stain (or paint) all at once. You can see the big sheet of birch on top, and support pieces underneath. Also, both the top and supports are surrounded by moulding. I’ve had to get very familiar with my miter box.

Here are the completed cabinets. These will support the desk and house the file drawers:

These two cabinets are joined together with nothing but wood glue and wooden #20 biscuits. It feels really good to have made these.

So far I’ve spent around $350 and 25-30 hours on this project. Some of the things I’ve done that have kept me from spending too much:

• Asked Lowe’s to make my rough cuts. The will do this for free with the purchase of wood.
• Borrowed a friends table saw for the fine cuts. My friends have all kinds of tools…just not biscuit joiners!
• Purchased a manual miter box kit instead of power saw. This thing is a beast to use though, especially on hardwood moulding.
• Doing my own sanding with regular sand paper, instead of buying a sander.

Now that I have the right tools, I suspect I will be ready for stain in two to three more weeks.

Build Your Own Desk – Part 1.

Build Your Own Desk – Part 3.

How To Build Your Own Desk – Part 1

PT — Sat, 05 May 2007 04:04:00 +0000

My wife and I have been needing a home office desk for a while now. We currently have the PC on the floor, with the monitor right on top of it. I use one of my old drums to place the mouse upon. It’s very sad.We’re saving for a down payment on a town home, so we don’t want to go out and spend a ton on a new desk, that we’ll have to move in a few months anyway. So, I’m attempting to build a nice desk on my own. This will help us save a bit, plus it will provide for a nice hobby over the next couple of months, now that all the sport seasons are virtually over for my town.

I found the plans on the Popular Mechanics website. So far I have the top pieces purchased and I’ll finish the cuts this weekend. Next week I will begin working on the bottom. I will try and get a picture up of the finished product. Here’s another project I’d like to do once we purchase our home.

Build Your Own Desk – Part 2.

Build Your Own Desk – Part 3.