Little Free Library: Staining & Assembly
One of the main things I'm concerned about for the Little Free Library is the weather. This is Minnesota. It's not exactly sunny and clear all the time. We get rain, wind, snow, periodic heavy gusts of wind, sleet, and pretty much everything that would make a little book sad.
Because of this, I decided to go with the advice to make a double-box. The outside, as mentioned in post one, is the heavy particle board. The inside is a slab of thin plywood.
Because the two will be sandwiched together, I decided to stain them before putting them together, so that the inside layer would have some waterproofing. We've got plenty of leftover stain from previous projects, so I chose cherry for the outside particleboard and pecan for the inside plywood, with an extra bit of "clear gloss" in case I ran out of pecan, for the inside sandwich layer where no one will see.
It was a nice day so I decided to stain outside. On the grass. Of course, right? This would have been fine except for two things:
1) it was slightly breezy
2) I am impatient
Between the two bits and pieces of twigs, leaves, and grass got all stuck in the stain. I tried to get most of it off, I did. But there are still a few bits. It also dribbled all over itself, so there are a few blobby parts that I didn't see to fix. I've decided I don't care, I'm covering it up with those sticks anywhere.
Anyway, the staining took pretty much all day yesterday, because it was wicked humid out so it took forever to dry. Even with my being impatient. Thus, stalled, assembly didn't start until today.
Now, I had grand ideas. I was going to attach the plywood to the shelves, and then I was going to attach it the other way to the outside. Thus it would be Really Watertight on account of no screws going in from the outside!
Hah.
What I wound up doing was gluing the plywood panel to the outside wall, as here using the GLUE OF DOOM:
Then I set up the larger box, again just with the glue:
(Here it is upside-down)
Then I turned it right-side-up and screwed on the top. After that, I was puzzled about the shelves. I was going to screw them in, but it turns out that even after pre-drilling a hole, the shelf pressboard started to split.
Plan B. (or C? D? What am I even on now?)
Brackets on the bottom to hold the shelf up.
Voila! Shelf! It looks surprisingly like a repurposed nightstand. But I made it.
Of course, it's not done yet. What's next?
* figuring out something for the roof
* figuring out the doors
* decorating it!
* setting it up in the yard
* registering it and filling it with books!
I think the roof will be the hardest.
This entry posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments there. Reply there or here.
Because of this, I decided to go with the advice to make a double-box. The outside, as mentioned in post one, is the heavy particle board. The inside is a slab of thin plywood.
Because the two will be sandwiched together, I decided to stain them before putting them together, so that the inside layer would have some waterproofing. We've got plenty of leftover stain from previous projects, so I chose cherry for the outside particleboard and pecan for the inside plywood, with an extra bit of "clear gloss" in case I ran out of pecan, for the inside sandwich layer where no one will see.
It was a nice day so I decided to stain outside. On the grass. Of course, right? This would have been fine except for two things:
1) it was slightly breezy
2) I am impatient
Between the two bits and pieces of twigs, leaves, and grass got all stuck in the stain. I tried to get most of it off, I did. But there are still a few bits. It also dribbled all over itself, so there are a few blobby parts that I didn't see to fix. I've decided I don't care, I'm covering it up with those sticks anywhere.
Anyway, the staining took pretty much all day yesterday, because it was wicked humid out so it took forever to dry. Even with my being impatient. Thus, stalled, assembly didn't start until today.
Now, I had grand ideas. I was going to attach the plywood to the shelves, and then I was going to attach it the other way to the outside. Thus it would be Really Watertight on account of no screws going in from the outside!
Hah.
What I wound up doing was gluing the plywood panel to the outside wall, as here using the GLUE OF DOOM:
Then I set up the larger box, again just with the glue:
(Here it is upside-down)
Then I turned it right-side-up and screwed on the top. After that, I was puzzled about the shelves. I was going to screw them in, but it turns out that even after pre-drilling a hole, the shelf pressboard started to split.
Plan B. (or C? D? What am I even on now?)
Brackets on the bottom to hold the shelf up.
Voila! Shelf! It looks surprisingly like a repurposed nightstand. But I made it.
Of course, it's not done yet. What's next?
* figuring out something for the roof
* figuring out the doors
* decorating it!
* setting it up in the yard
* registering it and filling it with books!
I think the roof will be the hardest.
This entry posted at Dreamwidth. There are
comments there. Reply there or here.