![]() Adding a countersink solves this issue, ensuring the bolt doesn’t strip in the hole and keep spinning or ruin the wood on the way in. You want the square head of the carriage bolt to pull down into the wood to hold it in place, but you also want to avoid splitting the wood when tightening the bolt. I chose stainless steel hardware because it won’t rust in the elements. I used 2x4s to build the frame and cut them to length with a miter saw. To join them, I marked center about 2″ from the top and punched a 1/2″ hole through each board with a drill press for the carriage bolt. You can certainly adjust these numbers to best suit your space.Ĭlick HERE to download the printable PDF format. I planned on placing it in a small space next to the pergola, so that forced its width. It’s similar to a ladder, making it collapsible and easily stored at the end of the season. A quick sanding knocked off the rough spots and got them ready for building. Then flip and do the other three sides the same way.īonus! All those cedar shavings smell ah-mazing! (I collected a bag to use as mulch in my garden.)Īs for the cedar fence pickets, they are already quite thin - and a few were bowed - so they weren’t worth running through the planer. Continue passing the boards through until you reach the desired smoothness. In doing so, the boards are all reduced by the same amount. That’s the key: run all the boards through and then adjust. We started by running all the boards through at the maximum threshold and then adjusted down from there. Here’s how it works: the planer cuts a bit off at a time, reducing the board’s thickness with each pass. It was my first time using a planer, and I marveled at how easily the wood went from rough and yucky to beautifully smooth - no sanding necessary! ![]() (If you don’t have a planer at your disposal, give all the boards a good sanding by hand.) To prep the 2x4s, Sam and I ran them through his benchtop planer to make them all the same size with smooth surfaces. I saved a few pennies by using rough-cut cedar 2x4s for the A-frame and cedar fence pickets for the shelves. Instead of using pressure-treated lumber, I built my outdoor plant stand out of western red cedar because of its natural ability to resist rot and decay.
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