Industrial Bookshelf

For our most recent project, we took inspiration from the stars of HGTV's "Open Concept", who just happen to live about 5 miles from our house. I suggest you follow them on not only on Instagram (where we get most of our inspiration from them - find them at "Shanty2Chic") but also on any other social media outlet you choose. I do NOT recommend actually following them around...

completed bookshelf

Because the Shanty Sisters already posted their blog on the actual build, I will focus more on what we did differently from them, as well as some of the tools and tips from my experience. You can do a google search for their blog, or as I mentioned earlier just follow them on the social medias & interwebs.

The Home Depot run signals the traditional start to most our projects. I'm sure that's common among you as well. I get to load up Ye Olde Durrango with lumber - it makes a great pine scented air freshener.

I spent around $100 for all of the lumber and the caster wheels (and they were the most expensive part). We upgraded our wheels to a silver, all metal version with no rubber or plastic since this will live on carpet & not our hardwoods. I used 4 2x12's @ 8 ft (cut down to width), 10 2x4's @ stud length (cut to needed size), 4 half inch dowel rods, and 4 caster wheels. For the finishing touch, we used the Strongtie brackets recommended in the Shanty 2 Chic blog, but did a different end piece of the dowel rods. 

The project is pretty straight forward. Each shelf is made up of one 2x12 and two 2x4's. You can make any width of bookshelf fits your needs, just cut the 2x4's 3 inches shorter than the 2x12 (which will be the ruling width of your finished piece). We followed the recommended dimensions for both width & height, and it's pretty big. But our ceilings are tall and can handle the height. 

Before delving into any project, I always make sure my saws are cutting a square 90 degree angle. To do this, I use my trusty speed square (easy to find at Home Depot) and line it up. I do this every time before starting a project and occasionally during to ensure it hasn't moved. I line up one end of the square along the fence of the saw (the tall part in the 'back'), unlock the miter and then rotate the blade to line up with the other end of the square. 

I will trim off the end of each new piece of lumber to ensure it's square before measuring & cutting. I think I have voiced my concern previously about receiving quality products from the lumber mill...

everything is cut & sanded (the 1st time)

The shelves go together using a Kreg Jig. They can be a little overwhelming,  but they are suuuuper easy to use. When I picked up mine last year, I practiced on several pieces of wood to get comfortable before putting it to work. A Kreg Jig allows you to securely join two pieces side-by-side using a pocket hole and pocket hole screw. To use it, set the jig and drill bit settings to the depth of the wood you are cutting before clamping the jig to your intended piece of wood and putting your drill bit in your drill. 

Kreg Jig (blue/grey) is clamped to the work surface & piece of wood)

using the jig drill bit - why it is imperative the jig is secured

Once I have drilled all of the pocket holes for the shelves, I will attach using Kreg Jig screws. You can use any screw you want, but the key is that they are self tapping, meaning you will not need to pre-drill into the 2nd piece of wood you are joining together, and the screw will bite and fulfill its intended purpose. The Kreg Jig screws have a square bit, which they provide when you buy a jig. 

note the square drill bit as well as the flat edge on the tip of the 2nd screw, preventing the need to pre-drill on the 2nd piece of wood

To ensure the edges & joints are flush, I have two tricks - the 1st is a preventative measure to keep the 2nd to a  minimum (because it's messy). I use a scrap piece of 1x3 and two clamps to make sure the two pieces I am joining are as flush as possible before I screw them together. 

Once I am comfortable that the pieces are as flush as possible, I screw them all together using the bit provided. For this project, I used a 2.5 inch Kreg Jig screw. 

Next is the messy part. And the most time consuming. I sand between every step because I want each piece sanded equally, but when I am making shelves, table tops, or benches, and I used more than one piece, I will belt sand to make sure the edges and joints are as even and as flush as possible. The belt sander can really help cover up errors or imperfections (either caused by the wood or by the operator). Everything gets a good belt sanding followed by a double trip under the orbital sander with a mid-grade and a fine-grade sander to give the wood it's best chance at looking amazing. 

belt sander - dusty

orbital sander - laughs in the face of cleanliness

Amanda is usually waiting on me by this point - she has her stain ready to go. We'll do a blog on just the stain at some point.... it's really pretty cool. But we're in the home stretch now. Once it is all stained, it's a matter of assembly. Because we knew this beast was going to be pretty heavy and big, we elected to go ahead and assemble in the bedroom. It's just a matter of following instructions here, nothing fancy. We did each end first, then the middle, then the middle of each part - maybe not that way next time as they were progressively harder to get in (since we were securing it all as we went). I maybe would have started at one end and then just worked my way down next time. But you really have to make sure the math is good if you do it that way so that all of your shelves are even (or at least even-ish). 

top, bottom, & middle done - just need the middles of the middle

There it is. Done. The Shanty 2 Chic sisters liked our work so much they re-posted my Instagram photo on their (and for one day, I was internet famous). 

I received several questions about Amanda's decorating - two of the fans came from Amanda's grandmother's estate (one reportedly nearly took off her brother's finger when they were kids). We took off the cords to ensure none were attempted to be plugged in. The third fan was found a resale shop here in the area. The dresser was from Ashley Furniture, about 8 or 9 years ago, and the glass vase was World Market. 

Thanks for reading along. Questions? Comments? Post them here or follow me on instagram - @clay_gambill and Amanda @ezragolightly and follow along in our journey.

Chevron Pallet Headboard Build

The first really large thing I built was a headboard. It was clunky, and heavy, but we did it without any real plans, just a tape measure, some 2x4's & 1x4's, and some 2.5 inch screws. That was a short 10 months ago, and I had zero clue what kind of Pandora's box I was opening. Since then, we have built a console, sideboard, a bed and desk for my son, board & batten in 3 rooms, and some other things I know I am forgetting.

the original headboard, or Gambill Headboard 1.0

We wanted an upgrade from the picture above. And be we, I mean my wife. And that's normal, right? But she had a plan. And she put that plan very concisely on paper for my brain to understand. 

it's "cuts" not "cats"

So off to Home Depot to load up Ye Olde Chariot. It's a newer model Dodge Durango, so my max dimensions are 8 feet long OR 3 feet wide. I can do 6x3 if I had to. But it's not really made for this. It hauls the kidlets around just fine. Fortunately, I only needed 6 2x4's at 8 feet (standard stud length). They fit just fine, after all the passenger-side seats are folded down. 

Cuts were fairly straight forward. I like to use my trusty speed square to make sure my miter saw is squared up at 90* and trim off the edge of one end before measuring for the length. I'm sure the mill is cutting straight, but it gives me a clean edge and ensures it's (closer) to being accurate. For this the cut list is: 

3 @ 4ft

2 @ 6ft

1 @ 81 inches

1 @ 74 inches

To assemble them, I used my Kreg Jig at the 1.5 inch setting for the jig & drill bit & 2.5 inch Kreg Jig screws. To make sure the edges were flush, I clamped each piece I was attaching so everything was squared up. Once I had the skeleton built, it was just a matter of pallet disassembly.  

We had some pallets of varying quality that have been acquired over the last few months. I spent a couple of hours in my garage taking them apart. 

The first time one attempts to take apart a pallet is a mix of emotions. It LOOKS like it should be easy, right? You should just be able to use the claw end of your hammer and pry them apart. But no. Remember, these are built to be abused; loaded with anything you can think of, tossed around by warehouse employees, loaded on to trucks and rail cars with forklifts... They are built to stay built. I read a lot of ways to do it, but the Gambill Method seems to be just as good: 

1) have a jig saw

2) use the jig saw 

      a) I cut each end off in one long cut. I will post a blog on this in the future

3) good old brute force - a.k.a Hammer Time (doing the dance is optional, but suggested) 

I get about 20 good long pieces this way. Some are better quality than others, but they're pallets, so ....   We did supplement with scrap 1x3s & 1x4s from previous projects to add to the mix of pieces. The non-pallet wood is stained in a 2 part tea/vinegar/steel wool stain that I'll post about in the future. 

The most time consuming part is cutting the angles. We had a lot. My wife cut the smaller pieces on our Ryobi 7.5 inch table miter saw. These are about 30* angles. For the bigger cuts at 30* I used by Ryobi 12.5 inch sliding miter. Any piece wider than 6 inches required the bigger saw. 

Attaching the wood to the frame is relatively easy. We used our Ryobi Airstrike cordless nail gun and a 1.75 inch nail. We did one row at a time using the same width of wood for each row to keep some sort of uniformity in the pattern. My wife did a very good job of varying the wood to keep a seemingly random pattern without loading up with too much of any one type of wood. 

This part is pretty repetitive: measure, cut, nail. Measure, cut nail. All the way to the bottom. Once we had it all nailed together, I took my Ryobi belt sander to the edges to straighten out some rouge cuts and overhanging ends. 

To trim out the edges required a return trip to my favorite store. I needed 4 1x3 furring strips at 8ft & one 1x4 "common board". You always have to dig through the furring strips to get good quality pieces (straight, not cracked). And check the common boards too. By paying more you assume they are in pretty good shape, but learn from my mistakes & take a good look to make sure they are flat, crack & break free, and dry. We ran a 1x3 down each front & side, then the 1x4 across the top. These were all stained with the tea/vinegar/steel wool mix & nailed with the Airstrike to the frame. 

At that point we were done. Start to finish, about an 8 day project. That is working on it around my work schedule, my wife chasing the kidlets around, and just regular life. I made two Home Depot trips, spending about $45 total in supplies. Most of this wood was in my garage already, so not a huge expense if you have this laying around (or you can acquire it from the curb or from somewhere giving pallets away). If you purchased the wood (1x3, 1x4, 1x6) you could spend in the $150 range on supplies. 

On to the next project! 

Our First Foray Into the Blogosphere

Having not blogged in nearly 10 years (remember Xanga??), most of my recent updates have been limited to Facebook and Instagram. But as my weekend hobby has grown, I want to have a place to discuss more about how we create - tools, techniques, lessons, supplies ... anything I can remember.

I will have to be disciplined as I am working on the project, taking pictures as I go. But my hope is to share a little about what I learn & find other like-minded individuals to learn from.

Hopefully, a lot more to come soon!