Case In Progress

Sorry this is a day late, hopefully not a dollar short.  It's a holiday weekend as you all know and its been a little crazy here as I'm sure it is with everyone else.

I've been working hard on my case, and its actually been a little frustrating.  I've mentioned how all wood tends to warp yeah?  Two by two's are not the exception to this rule. They're also not really two by twos which is sorta weird. They're more like one and a third by one and a third.  I totally don't get that.

But weird word measurements aside, this is the first time I've built anything this complex.  I've got a plywood (?) base and four forty inch tall two by two's on each corner.  These are both glued and screwed in. (Side note, I just tried to spell glued as glewed. Kinda sad how my mind works.)  What I've learned is that its much easier to drill screws into wood if you pre-drill the holes for them. 

That might be a duh moment to all you carpenters out there but it was a bit of a surprise to me.  I was explaining my problems to Linda and she warned me of this on Friday. My envy of Linda's carpentry knowledge grows daily.  Having finally gotten all four corners onto the base I then attempted to attach the lengthwise cross beams. 

I did take Linda's advice and pre-drill holes.  An important tip, it is important that the holes be almost as wide and just as deep as the screws you intend to use.  There was a lot of cursing and sweating going on and I won't show you the very ugly bruise on my toe from a board falling on it.  Obviously this step also, could have gone better but it has at last been achieved.

I'm now figuring out that corner boards that tall need more stability at the base.  And that the width wise cross beams will need additional bracing as glue alone isn't going to do it.  Here is where I'm at with this project right now.  It is not pretty.

I told you it wasn't pretty.

This is where I'm at right now.  After this comes the width wise beams, and bracing for them and the corners.  Then I get to figure out how to cut Plexiglas.  I think there's going to be a lot of measuring going on.

The good news is that I'll have plenty of Plexiglas left over, so after I get the hang of cutting it I'll be able to cut smaller pieces so I can have glass in my dollhouse windows.  That'll be kinda cool huh?

So this is a short post but I've got another I'm working on that'll be a little more fun to look at.  One of my dolls got new clothes and I've finally gotten around to uploading the pictures.