How to make a rustic table top

Description

Have some reclaimed wood? Need a rustic table top? In this episode of House of Hacks, Harley shows a simple way to make a DIY rustic table top using reclaimed wood. A nice thing about doing a rustic table top build is you don’t have to be terribly precise, which allows you to move quickly. The reclaimed wood table top made in this video was done in a couple hours. It’s primary purpose is for product photography, so it doesn’t need legs or finish. If you wanted to use this in a living space, you’d want to spend a bit more time on it to finish the edges, put a sealer on it and craft some legs.

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For a written transcript, go to How to make a rustic table top

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

Today at the House of Hacks we're going to make a rustic table top that can be used for a variety of purposes.

[Intro]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers.

Harley here.

A couple months ago, I helped by buddy Rich install a new backdrop wall in the studio that used some reclaimed wood.

You may have seen this in a couple of the videos last month.

Well, he wanted to create a table top to do product shoots with using some of this old reclaimed wood so it kind of matched the wood backdrop.

So today we're going to take some of that left over wood and combine it with some wood I scavanged from a built-in cabinet that was in the studio space before we tore it apart and combine that together to make this new table top.

In our case we want the table top to be portable so we're not going to put any legs or anything on it and just set it on available surfaces when we need to set it up.

But if you want to do something like this, you could use it as a end table or a coffee table or something of that nature.

Let's get started.
I first vacuumed all the loose dirt, sawdust and miscellaneous things off the fence wood.

Then I sorted the boards into an order that looked nice.

Next I glued and nailed each board onto the plywood substrate.

I trimmed the uneven edges off with a circular saw.

And gave it a final vacuuming to get all the sawdust off.

So this is what the table looks like setup in the studio.

And here's a test product shot using it.

If you're going to use this idea in a living space, you'd probably want to finish it off with some sort of Verathane or something just to seal it in.

Keep the splinters out of your hands. That sort of thing.

And you probably also want to put a edge banding around it to just trim it off and finish it.

For the purposes of this project, we don't need to do any of that.

The way it is is plenty sufficient because it'll never be in an image and you won't see it.

Until next time, go make something.

Perfection's not required.

Fun is!

How to quickly make a simple door knob trim plate from left over materials

Description

In this project tutorial, Harley shows one simple way of making a trim plate for a door handle. Most door hardware is pretty standard, but occasionally some hardware may leave unsightly holes in the door. Today at the House of Hacks, we use some left over material to make door trim plates to cover ugly, unused mounting holes.

For a written transcript, go to How to quickly make a simple door knob trim plate from left over materials

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing"
Incidental: "Cool Rock"
by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech

Sound effect: living-room-light-switch by alienxxx at FreeSound

Transcript

Today at the House of Hacks we’re going to go from this … to this.

[Intro]

Hi Makers, Builders and Do-it-yourselfers. Harley here.

Just a quick reminder, if you haven’t done so already, subscribe to the House of Hacks channel for more videos like this one. And click “Like" if you hoard left over material from projects with the hope of using it sometime in the future.

My friend Rich expanded and renovated his photography studio earlier this year and, in the process, door hardware was changed.

The previous hardware left behind some holes that Rich wanted an easy, cheap solution to fixing and/or hiding.

His studio has kind of a chic industrial look to it and I had some left over material in the scrap pile that gave me an idea.

I made a prototype, showed him, he installed it and loved it. Later in the week we made several more to meet his needs.

Let's look at how we did this.

For this build, I used:

• some left over sheet metal,
• some marking tools,
• some cutting tools,
• a smoothing tool,
• some bending tools,
• and a hole cutting tool.

I started with some left over galvanized sheet metal.

This is supposed to be used for heating ducts that I had left over from a home remodel project several years ago.

I cut off a piece an inch wider than we wanted the covers and long enough to cut out four more with room to spare.

Then I cut off individual squares from the long piece.

I filed the edges to remove any burrs.

Next I measured 1/2 inch from each side on the corners, drew a diagonal line through the intersection and cut off the corners.

With the corners cut, I used a small metal brake to fold over 1/2 inch on each edge.

Then I used a hammer to finish the fold by flattening it out.

A center finder gave me the center of each piece, giving me the position to drill a hole using the circle cutter.

This wasn’t the best tool for the job, but in the end got it done.

Not without a bit of mishap though.

And it did generate a bit of heat.

Afterwards, I realized I probably should have used a couple drops of cutting oil.

Also, I probably could have used a lathe tool blank to make a custom cutter that might have worked better.

But the holes still got cut, albeit with more force than finesse.

Once the holes were cut, Rich took them to the studio and installed them.

This was one of those small details that, if it wasn’t done would look bad, but in place, hardly is noticed.

All together, this took about 90 minutes to do 4 plates and didn’t require any new materials, just scraps left over from a previous project.

I’d love to hear in the comments how often you do projects using left overs? Are you like me and have a stack of materials for unknown future projects?

If this is your first time here at House of Hacks: Welcome, I’m glad you’re here and would love to have you subscribe.

I believe everyone has a God-given creative spark. Sometimes this manifests through making things with a mechanical and technical bent.

Through this channel I hope to inspire, educate and encourage these types of makers in their creative endeavors.

Usually this involves various physical media like metal, as in this case, wood, electronics, photography and other similar materials. If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and subscribe and I’ll see you again in the next video.

Thanks for joining me on our creative journey.

Now, go make something. Perfection’s not required but fun is!

How to make a sewing table

Description
Take a couple filing cabinets, some shelves made out of 2x8s and a 2x4 and end up with a new sewing table.

For a written transcript, go to How to make a sewing table

Music under Creative Commons License By Attribution 3.0.
Intro/Exit: "Hot Swing" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com
Incidental: "Airport Lounge" and "Backed Vibes" by Kevin MacLeod at http://incompetech.com

Transcript

[Harley] In this episode of the House of Hacks, I'm going to be making a table for my wife's new sewing machine from mostly recycled materials.

[Harley] Hi makers, builders and do-it-yourselfers. Harley here. My wife Diane is joining me today as a special guest.

[Diane] Hi. Harley recently got me a new sewing machine and serger.

[Harley] The new machine is designed for quilting and is much larger than the old one.

[Diane] So we had to make some changes to my sewing room for a new workflow.

[Harley] Part of these changes was to make a new table for her sewing machine.

[Harley] This project used mostly recycled items. My employer had a bunch of old stuff they were going to have a scrap company come in and haul off just to get them out of storage. They gave employees first crack at these items so I picked up a bunch of file cabinets designed for cubicles. We used two of them in this project for storage and support on one side.

[Diane] Almost 30 years ago I made some shelves out of 2x8s. They served their purpose well but no longer fit our needs, so we cut them up and used them as the top and one side. A couple 2x4s, bolts and washers were all we purchased. The total project cost was less than $16.


[Diane] Here are the highlights from that project.

[Highlight reel]

[Harley] I hope this project inspires you to use things in slightly different ways than they were originally intended to meet changing needs.

[Diane] Obviously if you need to build a sewing table, what you have available will probably be different from what we had, but perhaps you can find something appropriate to accomplish your task.

[Harley] Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this overview, I'd appreciate knowing about it with a "like."

[Diane] If you have any thoughts or questions, Harley would love to hear them in the comments below.

[Harley] Until next time, go make something. it doesn't have to be perfect, just have fun!