Wooden Table with Granite Inlay

 So I come home from work a few weeks ago and my wife tells me the young ladies in our ward were going to hold a silent auction and wanted to know if I want to donate anything to there cause.  I do a lot of garden benches so I said I'd do one for it.  Well I've had this table idea bouncing around my head and I say to myself hey you should make that for them to.  So here it is.

I kept it simple so you could put it outside in the house or where ever.  First I made my granite piece so I had something to go off of.  All I did then was make a frame to go around it.  Slid the granite into frame and had a pretty neat table.

I then just added a border around the bottom of the frame so I could attach some legs.

Just another shot from a little farther back

Took it outside and painted it black

Brought it inside slid the granite back in.  Then I put a coat of polyurethane on it and called it good.  I plan on building more and now that I've done it once I will be able to do some more inter grate stuff next time.

Ethans Pirate Bed (the ship)

 I made to many entries for this bed because there are so many parts to it.  So there will probably be some duplicate photos through out my next few post.  I loved this idea for a bed a pirate ship.  My son's Ethans room is pirate themed a little less now he tears it up but pirate theme all the same.  I've wanted to make this bed for a while now and seeing his old bed was getting banged up because of the style I thought it was about time I made it.  i am horrible at remembering to take photos so there are gabs were it skips forward or alot at once.  Well I guess I'll start with my design. My kids room has a really slanted ceiling so I had to keep that in mind for the design.  Second I wanted it one solid bed so it had to be able to go up a flight of stairs and make a sharp tight corners into his room(fun story for the end).  So I made a bunch of measurements and set to work on looking up beds pirate ships and everything in between.  Now there are really awesome pirate beds out there and alot of things I wanted to add to just make this bed the best but my kids room is not the size of a master bedroom and I did not want him to just have a bed in his room so I had to make it practical.  So after I had an idea of what I was going to do I went and bought some lumber.  I had a few ideas on the shape but was having a hard time drawing it out for some reason.  So Captain Jack (Traves) came in and free handed the shape(thanks captain).  So we cut it out made a frame out of 2x6's(I  know a little extreme but as I said my kid tears up his room).  We then attaches the side panels then made the inner panels and attached them.  That leads us to where I remembered to start taking photos.  Now I put them in order like so: the back, the inside, and the side.  Hope you enjoy.

So I was going to make the back panel higher so he could stand on the step and steer but it just looked funny so I made it short.  I should have made the step a hidden cubby but wasn't thinking of it and it was to late by the time I did think of it.

I wanted the decorative arch on top to hide the helm if you looked at it from the front.  I loved how it made the bed look  I actually busted the first one I made.  It wasn't up to par with the stand up to my kid idea so I made this much tougher one. 

I was going to do alot more painting on the back but I thought it a waste as the helm covers alot of it.  I'm still trying to come up with a name for the ship and once I do I'm going to paint or get a vinyl sticker and put it across the bottom of the step.  I liked how it turned out though and Ethan love steering his boat into dock each night before bed.

So as you can see the decorative piece did not quite hide the helm on my second attempt I didn't have as much wood.  I again had a couple of ideas hos I wanted it to look but this one fit this ship the best.

this is the inside.  This just fits his toddler bed mattress.  He doesn't have enough room in his room for a full mattress and pirate bed so he will only get to use this bed for a couple years. 

Just showing the inside steps of painting it.

This is the inside complete.  Didn't know how to hide the steering support without making the back thicker. 

Alright the bed.  So As I said earlier I spent alot of time looking at different pirate bed and pirate ships.  I saw lots of things I liked.  One thing I liked was a trim  boarder.  First it protects the bed edge from getting as hammered and it adds to the look.

Here it is all attached.  

At this stage I have it all built I'm just getting ready to fill all the holes and cracks.

All filled and sanded.  Propped up the port holes to just give me an idea of what they were going to look like.

 OK so picking a paint scheme. I thought a lot about it.  Funny seeing I'm color blind.  I thought about staining it, painting it solid black, painting waves on the bottom.  I looked at a lot of pictures, models, toys of pirate ships trying to figure it out.  I then stumbled across a pirate ship that just looked awesome.  It's bold and stands out over your average pirate ship.  I passed it off with Kelsie ( she gets say when it comes to colors as she can see them) and went and got paint.

Well now painting that's a project in its self.  I wanted it to look amazing so I had to picture it first. I started with the red first.

I then taped it off and painted the black.  I also added the insignia it will be in another post.

The back was looking a little plain so I added some windows.  I was going the cut out some frames and attach but at this point I was ready to be getting done not adding more time.  I just taped off a window frame and painted it.

 Sorry the photos dusty that's what we get in a wood shop.  Here it is though with all the black done.

This was a project in it self but as I have said I'm horrible with taking photos.  You can not have a pirate ship with out a cannon.  I just took a 4x4 blank and turned this on my lathe.  Ethan carried it around my shop the whole time blasting everything.

Just another photo of the cannon I think this is every bodies favorite part of the ship.  the design is simple and you can remove it and attach something else.  I have not made anything else to add yet.

After the black I went back and taped off for the white section. 

Here it is all done in my shop.  I was so happy it was done it took me about a month to build..  That was me only building when I could on the weekends and sometimes through the week.  Ethan asked me everyday from the time I started til it was in his room when his bed would be done. 

          At this point I needed to get it in his room.  So in the beginning I took all kinds of measurements so I knew how big it could be.  Right before I started I was in my shop talking to The Captain and said " I don't know if this will fit up the stairs and into his room".  At which point he goes into my house.  I assumed that he was checking as he came out about five minutes later and said it would.  Fast forward to going up the stairs.  Shawn(another friend of mine) was at the top and I was at the bottom carring the bed and he was telling me there was no way it was going in.  Traves was standing at the bottom and says to me " didn't you check before you made it?".  I then blunder at him how I thought he had checked before we started he then tells me" no I was going to the bathroom and getting some water".  So we come back done and set it in my kitchen.  You know when your mad but the fact that you can't believe what you heard its funny that's where I was right then.  So I go up the stairs and down about 6 times measuring and looking at the bed. I was sure I could get it in.  So we took it up a different way and had to shimmy it in but we got it in.  Of course The Captain says to me after "I told you it would fit".  

After we got it in I then made it and put all his pirate buddy's on his bed.  He was waiting out on the stairs for me to let him in.  He loved it he played with it for a couple hours after it was in.  He still talks to me about his pirate bed when ever I put him to bed.  I'm glad he likes it and I'm excited to build my nephews themed bed next.

Ethans Pirate Bed (insignia)

All pirate ships need a insignia and I love octopuses.  So I chose that as his theme/insignia. 

This is the one I found that I liked.  I made myself a template so that it would be the same on both sides.



So this is how I got it on.  I just taped it on and traced it.   I know cheap but I wanted to go fast.

All traced out and ready for paint.



Yes that's a real beard.  I think besides the decorative piece on the top of his boat this was the next time consuming but worth it.

I absolutely love how this looks and turned out.  That's all I have to say about this.



Ethans Pirate Bed (the lid)

 So at the front of his bed I wanted to have a storage space for toys, blankets, etc.  Well I first wanted to make it a hinged lid but his room design and the idea I had did not work.  I liked what I came up with a lot better and it looks neat.



This was my attempt.  The wood was warped funny and it wasn't structurally sound.  I also wanted it kind of hidden.  So I scrapped this idea.

This is my second and better idea.  I laid a piece of wood across the top and glued and nailed it down.  I then made a shelf system inside for the lid to sit down on that way it was flush with the trim and hidden.

After I had painted it, it was loud just being red.  I wanted to add some octopus decals on it so I thought one would be good here.  I drew this out on some 1/8 wood then Traves scrolled it out for me. 

I wanted it bold so I painted it white.  It looks awesome.



A little close up. I did not actually just draw this out I found a picture I like and copied it.  So thank you artist man for being so awesome.

What it looks like all said and done.  He always is getting in it which is funny because I thought he'd almost never get in it.  So I'm glad I came up with this idea.





Ethans Pirate Bed (the helm)

 Every pirate ship needs a helm(a steering wheel).  I was going to try and just buy one but after looking at allot of them I figured it wouldn't be to hard to make.

I tryed to make it as easy as possible because if he busts anything on it I want to be able to fix it.  So this is what I came up with.  First I made 2 outer circles.  Then I made 2 inner circles.  At first I bought a dowel for the handles but ended up using a couple of broken shovel handles I had.  I then placed 1 inner circle and 1 outer circle down on my table.  I then spaced out my handles out on top of them.  Then I place the other inner and outer circle on top making a sandwich if you will.  Got out the nail gun and nailed it all together.





This was the result.  Turned out pretty good I thought.  Note: I put in a dowel in the inner circles to make sure they were lined up right. 



Now as you can see I mounted it kind of high but that was because I was adding a decorative top on to cover it sort of.



Here it has the decorative piece on and I got all the nail holes filled and sanded. as you can tell the wheel is still a little high than the decorative piece but you can see what I was going for.



Here it is all finished.  I think it is one of the best parts and so does my kid.  Every night he has to park his boat before he goes to sleep.