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Made a breakfast bar in birch ply and Formica.






@kayak23, did you laminate that yourself or find someone to buy pre-laminated sheets from?
very nice kayak, I looked at getting a few sheets of laminated ply for building a desk last year but it worked out more expensive than buying a walnut worktop.
Yeah I bought the birch and the Formica separately and laminated it myself.
Worked out ok but always a bit of a pita working with Formica.
Very brittle with razor edges when it snaps!
My latest. Rattan fronted kitchen dresser.
Looks great @kayak23. What's the trick to getting such a humbug look on the edges of the birch ply? Particular finish I guess as my choice of clear matt varnish didn't make mine look like that!
Sanded to 180g, Osmo oil, rubbed off hard with paper towel, 240g denib, then second coat, again rubbed off well to dry.
I made a jig for making bike frames. The ones you can buy are mad expensive, even the ones labelled as lowcost. This one's way cheaper and better than most.
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That looks really good, please post some pics if you build a frame using it.
I made a jig for making bike frames.
Thank goodness for that, as I was thinking thats one fk'd up double glazed window 😯
What kind of bike is it for ?.
Retrodirect - that is awesome. As Leegee said, do a thread of frame build. I would for one read it.
@kayak23 that's lovely, I've got a ply fascination at the moment, we've just had some furniture made for our lounge in Birch ply with some melamine bits. I wish I'd spent more on the kitchen and had that made in it too, maybe next time if I'm not fed up of it by then.
We have just finished making this, mostly from phenolic coated birch ply. Started last July and it's as good as finished now, just waiting to be allowed to use it.
Furniture and kitchen were in our T5 (made by Amdro) and we've adapted, resized and added to it for the bigger van.
Wow, nice van bits 👌
Really nice van there!
Where would a diy’er get some nice faced ply to build a desk top?
That is a nice van. I love the birch ply look but unfortunately my cutting / router skills could never produce those glorious sharp stripy edges.
For melamine faced ply the lightweight 15 mm stuff can usually be got from campervan convertors. I bought some from a local guy to make a worktop in my van. It does need edging though. The tougher stuff that can produce the sharp stripy edges like birch ply is more expensive and expect needs a specialist timber merchant.
I love that little cut out for the bars 😀
Really nice van there!
Where would a diy’er get some nice faced ply to build a desk top?
Cheers 🙂
Wrote a reply to this last bought but didn’t post. James Latham is where the ply came from, they have loads of options, especially if you go to their Leeds branch.
My local one and the Leeds depot were very helpful too.
love that little cut out for the bars 😀
It’s amazing how everything fits on paper, until you come to build it and have to cut holes in your bathroom walls.
@phil5556 good work there, only suggestion would be some sort of partition at the end of the bed, it's going to get real old real fast if you get a wet bed or let the midges in (presuming you venture north of the border) every time you get the bikes out or empty the khazi in the pissing rain.
The earlier picture of She Tree has been joined by Head Space who faces the other direction

And just finished a Piet Mondrian inspired plant support

Outdoor furniture. Couldn't find anything for sale we liked the look of, in stock and at a reasonable price. Going to make a 2nd bench, came up a bit short on wood though.

Please excuse the weeds and the gate, they are on the list.
Pointing on the stonework could do with some attention too
That ones already in progress!
@squirrelking We’re making one of these for the back 🙂
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I did think about a solid partition but when it’s not raining and there are no midges it’ll be nice to stock your head out the back.
I live north of the border so midges and shit weather do feature quite a lot.
I think those bikes should have a romantic picture of themselves on the wall of their bedroom.
I expect to see you chatting to George Dawes on telly sometime soon Phil.
Jealous or all the plywood cutting and routing skills though feeling good about the fact that someone is manufacturing some plywood shelves for me at the moment. At £150 for the wood and the same for a days Labour it works out cheaper than anything of similar quality straight off the ahem, shelf. Plus it's bespoke, better looking and employs the skills of a craftsman. Money in your mates pocket not the man's.
Geuben I like the idea of the bench and table but too many sharp edges for the back of the knees/thighs especially wearing shorts and lack of 45° struts underneath to stabilise sideways movement. Just my opinion I just burn wood
Step back talented people - I present to you: the frogspawn conservatory!
With temp's of -3 and 'feels like' of -8 tonight which would spell almost-certain death for the limited frogspawn in the pond (and mostly on the surface), this particularly well-meaning, but probably doomed, entry to thread brings you the holy trinity of failure: shonky construction, bubble wrap and a staple gun. Interfering with natural selection is thrown into boot.
Yes the garden's a mess, pond unfinished, lawn mossy etc. I'll probably have a frozen blob of frogspawn to contend with too but, when you see scenes like this of an evening, I felt compelled to do something and this is the best I could come up with.
I also made a butt feeler.
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Here Colin your workshop has imroved somewhat since our "poshest addressed lockup in town" days.
@redmex No issues sitting on it at the weekend, we broke the edges slightly so nothing too sharp.
As for the lateral movement, so far so good, some play might develop over time we shall see. It's not like my design is a novel one though.
While being blown away by the skill of some people on here, I do have a particular fondness for the likes of the frogspawn conservatory and other slightly less 'skill based' ideas. This is probably due to the way I 'wing' it with most things I make.
did they survive BEar?
I had a couple of old shelves in the workshop and cut them up to make a step/stool for our grandson so he can drag it round the kitchen and get up to make cakes and do the washing up.

did they survive BEar?
let’s hope he’s not busy working on his tadpole mausoleum
I expect to see you chatting to George Dawes on telly sometime soon Phil.
He's a baby? Do you mean George Clark?
did they survive BEar?
It did prevent freezing, mostly, but one tadpole baby was irreversibly stuck to the bubble-wrap and it felt like
an unnecessarily complicated solution, so last night I went with my original thought of just "stick a B&Q bucket over it and place a brick on top" and I have to say that was much better idea.
Made a rough and ready manual machine with my daughter today.
I was going to buy the timber I needed but decided to make it out of offcuts I had in the garage including some skirting board, a bit of MDF and some rough sawn 4x2.
Is it perfect? No. Is it twice as good because my daughter made most of the cuts with a handsaw drilled most of the pilot holes, countersunk the screws and screwed the screws in. YES!
It will give me that warm fuzzy feeling each time I use it. I'm sure I still won't be able to manual but it was a fun afternoon 🙂
Tempted to have a go making one of those @lankystreakofpee
Any tips or particular measurements that are important or critical?
Nerf gun rack in slatwall under #1 son's bed.

@Rich_s to be honest the measurements are a result of what I had lying around 'just in case' in the garage. I probably would have gone wider on the wings and used a bit of 6x2 for the base and the upright but we made it up as we went along.
I did watch some videos on YouTube for inspiration and a lot of them have a long base. The one that caught my eye was this one from Kyle Warner as his was more compact and still seemed to work OK.
I did watch some videos on YouTube for inspiration and a lot of them have a long base. The one that caught my eye was this one from Kyle Warner as his was more compact and still seemed to work OK
You know that link goes to Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig) right?








