Anyone else try building their own furniture? I’ve always wanted to try it and found a few websites with lots of plans for different things. I’m wanting to make dining, coffee and end tables. They don’t seem to be too complicated in design and likely inexpensive to buy materials for. Your thoughts are welcome.
it’s not expensive if you buy shitty materials… good quality woods are expensive. cool idea either way
I ideally would love to use reclaimed wood but there just isn’t much of it around here, or at least that I’ve been able to find.
I personally would use redwood, maple, or oak
Sweet! I’ve been wanting to do this for years now. Please let us know progress and post pics.
Working on a bookcase right now, oak & oak ply with maple ply for the back.
some progress pics:
Dadoes in the sides for the shelves:
Pocket holes in shelves to hold while glue sets up (and just plain add tons of strength to the joinery):
Progress:
Progress:
More or less what it’ll look like finished:
Back is just mocked up in that last pic. Once it’s done and in place I’ll get some pics with the good camera. 
Left to do:
Sand back with 220, glue/screw to case, sand/stain crown molding for top, attach, and then hit everything with a few coats of wipe-on poly.
It’s solid as fuck too. A few lessons learned, like tape off the edges outside where the glue will be so squeeze-out cleanup is much easier (you can see a few spots where I missed some, affecting the color in the stain–not a huge deal for me, but not something I want to repeat later on).
Next will be a file cabinet/bookcase combo for the other side of the room, then a twin bed (trundle underneath) to match in between. Then bed and nightstands for the master, a new reloading bench, computer desk, coffee/end tables for the living room, a couple closets, etc. etc.
Kitchen cabinets I’ll likely build as well when we get ready to renovate that room. Probably end up doing the vanities for the bathrooms too.
Do you think the cost of building it yourself comes out cheaper than buying in the store? Not like it matters because I wouldn’t mind a hobby that doesn’t require me having to buy car parts.
oh absolutely. 1 sheet (4’x8’) of 3/4 oak ply is 45 bucks at Lowe’s. Add in some 1x2’s for the side and top trim, and the trim molding i used on the shelves to hide the ply cross-section, and it’s up to about 55 bucks. the crown molding isn’t required, but still, was only 12 bucks ($2/linear foot, 6 feet length, didn’t use all of it). Sandpaper, glue, and stain take it up to about 75 bucks for the bookcase, and this is solid wood construction, not particle board with a thin-as-fuck veneer that’ll last a couple years then start bowing.
Cheaper than a shitty one from wal-mart, and it’ll damn sure last longer.
Plus I get to quote the little kid from the end credits of the X-Files and say “I made this!” :giggle:
If you wanted to do it cheaper, you could use birch or even pine ply with poplar face frame and just paint it.
Yeah I’m thinking stain it very dark. I’m going for a more modern look. I’ll start looking into finishes then tonight.
Poplar is a really inexpensive hardwood with a tight grain. It’s great for painting, mainly because the wood itself can be various colors or shades of one color. Oil-based and water-based stains can blotch like with soft woods (pine and cedar) but of you use a conditioner first and then gel stain, it can actually look damn good.
Food for thought. 
Woodworkingtalk.com and lumberjocks.commare two VERY informative forums I’m on.
Whatever you end up going with for a finish, if you use a more open-grained wood like walnut or oak, definitely give some thought into filling the grain before finishing. Not only will it make the grain “pop” more, it’ll also lend itself to a much smoother finish.
Basically it’s nothing more than wiping down a piece with Danish Oil (home depot and lowe’s carry it, it’s that common) and then wet-sanding with nothing coarser than 150-grit paper. You can go finer, but it’ll just clog up quicker. The oil combines with the sanding dust to form a slurry of sorts that the sanding action forces into the grain, and since you’re using the wood’s own dust, there’s no potential color issues to worry about stain accentuating.
After the wet-sand with danish oil, give it a few hours to dry (longer is always better, but if you’re really in a hurry you can usually get away with 4-5 hours or so) and then lightly sand with 220 and, if you’re horned up for it, 320. Then stain with your choice of product, hit with a few coats of polyurethane, typically buffing between with 0000 steel wool, and finally a coat of paste wax.
Wow I’m glad you posted that cause I would have stained and walked away from it, lol. Man I should really do more research. Stupid Norm Abram makes everything look so easy to do.
I want to make this style of table but counter height (pub style)
This style for coffee table
This style for end table
I don’t really care if you can see the wood grain. It’s more of a smooth, glossy type of finish I want that is similar to the dining table.
Filling the grain doesn’t make it invisible, just keeps it from getting that “flat” feeling you see when you look at a lot of low-end oak stuff these days. The darker areas tend to look almost like they just soaked up the top coats of poly (which they actually pretty much do). Filling the grain just prevents that from happening, doesn’t make it go away visually. If anything it makes it stand out a little more and really gives some neat character to the wood.
The end table would be quite simple to do; just some plywood shelves with 1/8" edge banding (or even easier, iron-on banding).
Back is glued & screwed. Rascal performs his inspection:
Intentionally cut oversize; will use a router with flush trim bit to perfect it when the ferrets calm down.
Are you building this in the room?
So part of me wants to get all nerdy and design it in autocad first. Before I got into my business I was involved in the drafting / architectural design / engineering industry. Hmmmm.
Building it indoors, yes. Kinda chilly outside. :giggle:
Nah since I’m gluing up, and it’s below 50* outside, I kept it indoors for the glue to set up. The glue doesn’t set up properly if it’s much below 50.
Took it outside to do the routing to trim up the back panel. For that, you use a flush trim bit like this:
The bearing rides against the surface that you’re trimming even with, and provided you set the depth properly, it doesn’t mar the finish. Makes it unbelievably simple. Love it.
But yeah, crown molding’s stained, so as soon as that’s dry I’ll nail it in (18-gauge finish nailer) and put it in the room, then load it up with books. Should have a good final pic tomorrow. Lighting is kinda fuxored in the room it’ll be going into, so I’ll wait till there’s daylight to help out. 
Believe i was going to suggest home built furniture in that other thread.
I stick to fairly cheap wood & go for more of a rough look.
coffee table is 2x6’s and the reptile tank stand is 2x4’s
both stained with cherry, coffee table was refinished when i was like 10 and still looks great.
but i didn’t do more than the stain on the tank stand because I still need to make a computer desk and haven’t had the cash for materials.
with some time invested you can come up with some very nice wood furniture that will last a lifetime.
cant go wrong.
Shopping on Craigslist for some new-to-me power tools…
K, here ya go, all its splendor, and all that.
Already gonna pull the crown molding and rework it, basically cut the left side even with the bookcase so it buts up against the wall (which is not nearly as “burnt orange” as the photo makes it out to be, need to reset my WB on my camera methinks) but yeah. Otherwise I’m pretty happy with it; obviously some lessons learned for the next projects, but that’s why you start small. I’d rather this have some flaws than, say, the bed I’m building down the line.