Aye Caramba!

     You know, when I started this project I anticipated a certain amount of comedy (of errors) which, honestly, was part of the allure to blog my efforts. I had no idea I would be able to provide so much comedic relief. However, if you ask my wife -and I did- she will tell you that it is right on par with what she expected -and she did! All I hope is that some of you get a good chuckle out of this whole shenanigan, and maybe one or two of you will be inspired to do something equally as nutty, and be able to remember my mistakes before you make them yourself.

     I woke up this morning feeling pretty confident that my progress today was going to make up for yesterday's lackluster performance. I spent a bit of time last night reading about why I shouldn't use glue on this particular project, learning about pocket screw joints, and other little tidbits. One article that stuck out was the advice to hook up a dust control system directly to your sander to drastically reduce the amount of dust and improve sanding efficiency. After all, anybody out there who's used a hand-held sander will agree with me that the built in dust collecting bag simply, well, blows. They don't work for crap. So I had an idea how to hook up my shop vac to the dust collecting port on my little 1/4 pad sander. Check it out:

     First, you need to envision the end result and figure out more or less how you're going to get there. Although I had a rough idea of what I was going to do at the outset, I first needed to figure out the finer details. I call this trick "visualization for dummies".






       Next, get what you need. In my case it was

• a thin foam mat
• scissors
• utility knife
• marker
• duct tape (of course!)
• the dust bag frame from the sander (without the bag)
  

 

  Make it. This is more or less how I did it.

1. Use the scissors to cut out 3 rectangular pieces of foam and trim to fit inside the nozzle of the dust bag frame.
2. With the marker, colour the end edge of the vacuum nozzle and stamp a template on the foam pieces of the circle you'll need to cut out.
3. Slide all three foam pieces on to the vacuum hose nozzle and bunch them together. Wrap them together in duct tape (2-4 times around).



Pay attention, this is the last photo before it's finished!

4. Slide the tape-wrapped foam block to the end of the hose nozzle and push it, with the hose, into the dust bag frame. It should be a snug fit, requiring a little effort to get it into place. Test the suction by turning the vacuum on and plugging the dust bag frame mouth with your hand. The vacuum should whine appropriately. If not, you've got poor suction and need to put that duct tape to use, wrapping more or less as needed around the foam block.

     Now I've got a wonderful vacuum hose attachment for my sander and it works great. Your results may vary.

     At the end of using it today I actually felt like my dust mast worked like it was supposed to, I didn't have a mouth and nose full of dust paste, I didn't feel the need to shower right after, and totally enjoyed the work tons more. It actually did speed things up, too, and took some of the sting out of the fact that I was sanding two replacement boards for the ones I messed up yesterday...
     

This is the board I should have cut in the first place!

Okay, on to the bunk bed...

My feeling of accomplishment at making an awesome, free vacuum hose attachment turned quickly to self-denouncement once I realized that the two 1x6x81" cedar boards I cut and painstakingly sanded yesterday were CUT INCORRECTLY! I should have cut an 84" board with two cut-outs, giving an 81" length on the bottom of the board. After 15 minutes of tearing myself up, I accepted the fact that if I let it slide and built the bed with two cosmetic 1-1/2" gaps (that you wouldn't even see!) it would eat at me until my dying day, and called in the cavalry. Although time was tight, there was a small, immediate window for a friend to take me quickly to Home Depot. We got there and they didn't have the boards I needed, so my friend figured we would have time to drive halfway across town to the next location where, we were assured, it was in stock. When we got there they didn't have any 1"x6"x8', but they had 1x10's, so I got those figuring I could rip them through the table saw and turn them into 1x6's. By the time we got back to my place it was just after 1pm. Again, there goes another morning without even starting on the beds, and I'm even further behind! However, getting the boards ripped down to size and properly cut and sanded didn't take that long.

When exactly do the frickin' delays stop?!?

     Next step was to router all outer edges (those not being joined with another board) of the four cedar boards with a 1/4" round over bit. This is to soften the blow when little legs, arms, and skulls come smashing into them. Sure, it'll still hurt, but at least it won't be as bad as Jacob's current bed frame that has square edges and has taken strips of skin off shins and arms, and drawn blood from his knees and head.

     I was getting ready to work on drilling the pilot holes for the screws that would attach the 84" cedar boards to the 81" 2x4's, when it started to sprinkle. One freaking cloud overhead in the otherwise mostly blue sky and it lets enough rain out that I started covering all the wood and tools, knocking over my drill in the process. There goes my only 1/8" drill bit! So it's off to Pollock Hardware for a new one. After I got back home, I spent perhaps too much time considering esthetics and strength before I was able to determine where I wanted to drill the pilot holes and screw the wood together.

Screwing.

     So here we are, at the end of day two, and I've now succeeded in creating the left and right side of the bottom bunk frame and spending $26.03 to cover my mistakes!. At this rate...no, let's not go there just yet. It's just day two. However, my wife did comment on how I would fail miserably at any Canada's Top Handyman challenge. I tried to stand up for myself, but it was pretty feeble, and I pretty quickly agreed with her.