How to make kids slides

The second sale from the craigslist ad was for a twin over twin bunk bed. They also wanted a slide, like the first sale, and they also wanted a climbing wall. No real clue how I'm going to build a climbing wall, but I guess you just order some holds from amazon and attach to a 2x6 wall. Since it's time to build a slide for the first one, I can buy the lumber for both and build both slides at the same time.

I started by cutting the angles, then added a groove to hold the plywood

One assembled slide

Storing the beds in the shed

that's a full shed!

I assembled the twin frames for the next bed

added supports for the slides

The back of the bed always ends up against a wall. The client actually found a dimension where the slide should end 107" from the wall, so I ran with it. For the 2nd client, the slide actually had to go through a doorway (it was a tiny space) so I made the supports 6" shorter and the slide 5" shorter. spoiler alert, that worked out perfect.

I started by staging a 2x6 scrap on the deck 107" away from the back of the bed, then stacked another 2x6 on top of that and the frame 2x6 to the right height of that. It gave me an angle to cut the 2x6 sides (all 4 sides). Once I had the angle drawn once I transferred that to all 4 sides and leaned the table saw blade over to that same angle. Then I ripped a 2x6 and a 2x4 to put that angle on the sides of the blocking. I used the 2x6 on the side that is going to sit on the floor, and again the angle is cut so that the 2x6 should sit flush on the floor and the 2x4 creates a plumb fit against the top bed frame.

After cutting those 2 blocks I was able to mark the sides where the top of the blocking should sit. Connect those two dots to form one line, and use a scrap of the plywood to get the thickness for the other straight line. Be sure these lines are straight. Set the circular saw blade to a depth of half an inch and hollow out between the lines, creating a groove for the plywood to sit in. I cut the plywood into about 19" wide, then marked and cut the length after I knew the final length of the sides. I used the finish nailer to attach the plywood to the sides and top & bottom blocking, then later added 2x3 scraps underneath the plywood spaced 16" on center like it was a wall. This creates a solid surface that is sturdy enough for adults to slide down.

But before you can actually slide the surface has to be smooth and safe. I sanded the plywood first with 80, 120, and 180 grit sandpaper to get smooth. Then to prevent splinters I used TotalBoat epoxy to seal the plywood. I found a company called Jamestown Distribution that had the best price (not an affiliate link). I got the 5:1 epoxy, slow kit, in the gallon size because I want to use this stuff for some fills in some tables I'm working on, and on my boat when I actually get back around to working on it. The pump that comes with the kit gives you the correct 5:1 mix of resin and hardener, so to use it you put one full pump of the resin, add one full pump of the hardener, and mix for about 2 minutes with a stick. Pour it out, and spread around with a plastic scraper or something, and it will spread itself evenly.

there was an extension for this pump

funny, this is the right size.

One slide with epoxy, one slide without

funny how I'm having to work on these things while the shed is full of beds

 This type of epoxy does not have any UV protection built in, meaning it's not supposed to be a finished coat. It cured kind of sticky and then got really hard, and I topcoated with Kilz primer then an exterior paint. Actually I did both beds in exterior paint because that stuff is just indestructible. If the kids take crayons to their bunk beds you can flat out turn the hosepipe on these things.

Now these slides are a really cool part of the build options, this turned out to be a really fun thing to figure out. And it's $120 if anyone else wants to add on onto a bed

Starting bunk beds

I put an ad on Craigslist Raleigh advertising custom bunk beds for sale and got way more of a response than I was expecting. I'll go through the sales one at a time to show how I built what I built. The first sale came as a twin over full bunk bed with a slide! I've never built a slide before, no clue how to do that. Turns out the second sale also wanted a slide, so I decided to build them both at the same time. But it starts with the beds....

it starts with a crapload of lumber. There is a sheet of plywood under there for the slide

Lumber is in the shed

I started with the initial cuts for the supports and the frame parts

Supports have been assembled into real parts now

At this point it's important to note how I built the supports. The bottom bed is going to sit 12.5" above the ground. For the full (bottom bunk), I made three supports where a 12.5" block is glued & screwed to an 18" block - the height of the support plus the height of the 2x6 (5.5") from the frame. I also made 4 supports to go on the sides with a 12.5" block on the bottom and an 8" block on the top.

The purpose of these blocks is to create a level surface to set the bed frames. To setup the frames, I cut 2x3's to fit inside of a 2x6 rim. Then I can add 1x3 furring strips for the slats. I put these together with the framing nailer using 3" nails around the 2x boards, and 2" nails for the furring strips. I put 12 furring strips per bed to support the mattress.

Got the 2x3's and the rim nailed up

I screwed down these pressure treated 2x4 blocks to give me an easy jig to make square, exact bed frames

The framing nailer on a completed bed frame. This is the full

and this is the twin - note the extra blocks on the left

I'm ready to hang it up for the night

Here's a dry fit of both frames with all of the supports

3 supports on the front of the full, and 4 supports on the sides for the twin

Now I have added the safety rails up top. They also wanted vertical slats on the bottom

I added 2x2's to create a ladder on the other side

This is finally getting there. I added the safety rails up top and across the bottom. Added a 1x4 to cover the ends of the short supports. This is coming together to be something really cool!

But I got another sale that came in  right after I started this one, and it has a deadline.

Charcuterie Board 1

I had some scrap pieces leftover hanging out around the shop and I had a bit of free time, so I figured I would put together something for the etsy shop. This is made of cherry and walnut. I had some cherry that was long enough to cut in half. Then I found a few narrow cutoffs of walnut to provide some color contrast. I think the end result is pretty cool

Rough cut/glue up

the bottom

Tried to cut a rabbet into the edge - didn't go so well

I needed some weight to attach those risers

I started out by making the cherry pieces exactly the same. Have to be a mirror image for this setup to work. I used a can of spraypaint to get the curve marked for the corners and cut them out on the bandsaw. Then setup a rabbet bit in the router table for exactly half of the thickness of both pieces. Of course they weren't exactly the same thickness, but it wasn't off by more than a millimeter or so. When you route out half of the thickness of the outside pieces and take the same rabbet depth on each side of the middle piece the top has to be flush. it's math. Also, I used a small radius roundover bit to put an edge on the top.

Plus adding the rabbets gives you a ton of glue surface. I also sanded some walnut risers to get the board off of the counter a bit. If you have a level countertop and the risers are the same thickness then you will end up with a level board that is easy to pick up! I also routed the rabbet over the ends - there was some damage to the bottom of the boards that I needed to hide so putting that lip on the ends cleaned it up nicely. I had to use a fence on the router table to keep the rabbet even.

Starting to finish

So this guy is up for sale on the Etsy store. I looked through the first 20 pages of listings and couldn't find my own product, this category is pretty competitive. I finished the board with food safe finishes, again going through the entire rotation of sanding grits (80, 120, 180, 220, 320) before putting 5 coats of tung oil on the bottom, and 4 coats on the top followed by 3 coats of butcher block conditioning wax + oil. The finish is food safe, cherry isn't particularly hard but you can use a knife on this board. More than likely the purchaser (or gift recipient or my wife) will just use it as a serving tray. Load this bad boy up with meats & cheeses, or fruit, or even sushi.

This was a really fun project. It only took a few hours to pull the woodworking together, and longer for the finish to cure. I'm really looking forward to playing around more with edge joinery and making some more of these type of boards.

It's a box!

I've been trying to sell some lately, I mentioned a while back that I opened an Etsy store and put out a craigslist ad. Still haven't sold anything on Etsy, but the CL ad was quite profitable. The first sale, however, came on Nextdoor. A super nice guy named Mike was looking for someone to custom build a wedding present for his soon-to-be-bride. He wanted a box made, sized to hold a bottle of wine and love note, with a lock on it and a countdown clock to his anniversary - what a sweet idea! I knew this needed to be a family heirloom quality box and really needed to put together something special.

I went to a Woodcraft store and found a sweet piece of cherry, some stop hinges, and a latch. I wanted to use continuous grain and finger joints to pull this together. Also wanted to steal an idea I saw on a tv show and make a floating bottom for a subtle cool effect. One of the neat things about cherry is that it gets darker as it ages, so the color of the box will actually change the longer they stay married. Very cool.

one board - cherry

Here's how you lay out the finger joints

First I ran it through the planer to get an even thickness and lighten the box weight some. There was also a little wane that I needed to smooth out too. I squared the end of the board, the first piece cut off was the top. Remember, I wanted continuous grain to wrap the sides of the box. Then I used the thickness from the top to gauge the finger size. I wanted the fingers to be proud out of the corners. Remember you want the long sides to contain the fingers that cover the top and bottom of the joints, and you need any interval size that will give you an odd number of fingers, I chose 5 fingers at 1" each to keep the math easy. Lay out the fingers on the board before you cut, allow extra length to cover the kerf of the saw blade and some sanding, and draw out the layout above. Then cut pieces to length on the miter saw, then cut out the fingers on the band saw.

Fingers are all cut out

Takes a lot of sanding to make everything fit

with the top on - just a dry fit

I used a roundover bit on the top

with the lock and clock from amazon

I ran the top through the router table with a roundover bit to put a nice dressed edge on it. After cutting out the finger joints on the bandsaw, I had to do a lot of sanding to custom fit those things. It took forever. You really have to put a lot of work into those joints to get a tight fit.

I didn't get any good pictures of it, but to get a good bottom you have to cut a slot into the bottom of the side boards before final assembly. I used the table saw for this, better to use the router table if you can. I cut the groove about 1/2" up from the bottom of the boards, then cut a rabbet into the bottom board which is 3/4" thick. This means after fitting, there will be another 1/4" of the bottom sticking out - you don't want to see this in the final product! I used a raised panel bit in the router table to cut an extra part away from the bottom of the bottom. It hides the visibility completely! So after you get that fit inside of the groove, you have a final fit that is ready for glue.

In the clamps for the glue up - no metal in this box yet!

You can see the bottom in there now

with the hinges and latch in place - see how the bottom floats?

We put a black felt liner in the bottom with batting to cushion the wine

now with more clock

The finished product on the counter at the engravers shop

In the end, I think I gave Mike the heirloom quality box that he wanted. Perhaps it could have been nicer, some of the design details could have been different. Everyone designs boxes like this to be slightly unique. I absolutely love the way this one turned out. See how when it's sitting on the counter it looks like it's floating? that's the 1/4" extra thickness sticking out of the bottom board. I've been wanting to use that detail for years. More importantly Mike absolutely loved it, and I believe his bride did as well. I hope they have many happy years together and get to enjoy this box for a long, long time.

update: I forgot to mention that I finished this box by sanding everything inside and out with 80, 120, 180, 220, and 320 grit sandpaper, then added 7 coats of tung oil buffing with 0000 steel wool in between each coat. The end result was super smooth!