Tag Archives: do it yourself

Make your own cornhole (or bags, if you prefer) game boxes, plus my creative overhead storage solution

This was a pretty easy project and it only took a little bit of wood.  And it makes a simple and family friendly game that will keep you and you entire family entertained for years to come!

By the way, it’s called cornhole.  Wikipedia is never wrong … well, not for long anyways.   🙂

To make two standard sized cornhole boxes you will need a total of 4, 8 ft 2×4’s and a half sheet of 1/2 inch plywood.  I suppose you could use 3/4 inch plywood, but the boxes are pretty heavy with 1/2 plywood, so anything more is probably overkill.  It’s probably a good idea to pay a bit extra for higher quality plywood so that you get a nice and smooth surface that won’t affect your gameplay adversely.

The first step in construction is to build the frame.  The final outside dimensions are 4 feet by 2 feet.  So cut 2 of your 2x4s in half so you have 4 boards that are 48 inches long.  Then make 4 more at 21 inches.  The 21 inch piece plus 1.5, plus 1.5 gives you the 24 inches you need for the final dimension of 4 feet by 2 feet.  Nail or screw the boards together as shown below.  I prefer screws that are at least 2.5 or 3 inches long for strength and long lasting holding power.  To keep the wood from splitting, it’s a good idea to drill smaller pilot holes first and then insert the screws into the pilot holes.  The photo shows one frame, but you will need to make two.

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Then cut your plywood into 24 inches by 48 inches and install it onto the frame.  I put a little wood glue on the frame for good measure but that’s optional.  I also used screws to hold the plywood down solidly.  Make sure your nails or your screw heads are down even or slightly below the surface of the plywood.  Otherwise your bags could get caught on them.

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The next step is to cut a 6 inch diameter hole into your plywood.  According to standards, the hole needs to be centered left to right and the center of the hole needs to be down 9 inches from the top of the box.  The best way to cut this hole is to drill through first with a large drill bit and then cut it out using a jig-saw.

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The legs are probably the hardest part of this build.  But they’re really not too difficult, though.  The final height of the top of the cornhole box off the ground needs to be 12 inches when it’s all said and done.  But we will start with longer legs and then cut them to the proper length as the final step.

[the below steps need some photos for clarity]

[Place leg vertically in place with a spacer, and clamp.  Measure center of frame and center of leg.  Drill hole clear through both.  Remove leg.  Cut a roundover on leg.  Install leg with bolt, washer, washer, locking nut.]

That’s it for construction!  Now it’s time to paint your cornhole boxes.  Make sure you use wood putty to cover up the screw holes so you will have a nice smooth surface for the bags to land on.  I would suggest painting your boxes with a quality semi-gloss outdoor paint to give a smooth glassy surface.

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That’s all it takes to make a sturdy set of cornhole boxes!  Now you just need to buy a nice set of cornhole bags at your local WalMart store or Amazon or your favorite arts and crafts store.

Now here is a bonus storage idea for your new cornhole boxes.  In my garage, the rafters are exposed and they are 24 inches on center.  So the 48 inch long boards will span across three rafters.  See the photo below for one end of the storage idea.

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And here is a photo of the other end of the storage idea.  The idea is that you slide the box all the way into this end of the storage and the other end of the box slides up past the other end of the storage which is just a hair wider then the 48 inch length of the box.

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Then once the box is fully up, you just slide the box till it sets against the other end of the storage idea.  Both ends of the box are then supported.  It’s hard to explain in words, but when slid all the way in one direction, the box is fully supported but when slid all the way in the other direction the box can slip past the support and come down.

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Here is a close up photo of one end of the support.

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And here is a close up photo of the other end.  Maybe these close up photos will help explain the concept.

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For safety, it might be a good idea to clamp the box against the support so it won’t move over time and fall down.

So that’s it!  Two cornhole boxes along with a creative overhead storage solution that keeps them up and out of the way while also allowing quick and easy acess to them when you want to use them!

Thanks for reading this article!  Feel free to leave any feedback or comments below!

Kurt

 

Bats need houses too!

I got a wild hair today and I built a house for my resident bats that do such a good job of keeping the mosquito population under control.  Building a bat house is pretty easy and it only takes a few small pieces of wood.  What follows are easy step by step instructions for building a small and simple bat house.  It’s so easy you can do it yourself!

I searched the Internet for some plans and ended up drawing up my own design based on a few of the simpler designs that I found on the Internet.  Here is a photo of my plans.  (Click on any image to see the full resolution version.)

01 - bat house plans

It might be hard to read, but basically it only takes a 12 inch by 12 inch piece of plywood for the back, plus a couple smaller plywood pieces for the front and one more for the roof, plus several thin slats.  Here is a photo of all the wood for my bat house project, except for the roof, which I cut last after the rest was put together.

02 - parts cut

You can see the 12 by 12 plywood piece for the back, plus a 12 by 5 plywood piece and a 12 by 4 plywood piece for the front, plus 4 wood slats that are 1/2 inch by 1 inch and around 10 inches long.  I cut the slats to their proper length during construction to fit the front of the house, so right now they are just a little long.  The plywood I used was some thin veneer that I had laying around that was leftover from another project.  But you can use plywood of any thickness for this project.  The thickness of the front and back will determine the final size of the roof piece, so that’s one reason to cut that piece last.

The picture below shows one slat is cut along it’s short 1/2 inch side at an angle for the roof.  I did not measure the angle … I just eyeballed it on my bandsaw.  Then I took the one that I had cut and I used it as a template to draw the angle on the other three slats.  That way they will all be the same angle.

03 - one slat cut

The photo below shows all four slats laid out on the 12 by 12 back piece.  You can also see a piece of screen that I had laying around that I cut to use as the landing pad for the bats.  The bats need a surface to land on that they can hold onto with their tiny claws.  A surface that is soft or rubbery or something like this screen will do fine.

04 - slats laid out

Below you can see the front pieces laid down on the slats.  Nothing is being attached together at this point.  I am only test fitting everything to make sure it’s all the right size.  The reason the front is in two pieces is that a bat house needs some ventilation in a way that does not allow rain to pour in.

05 - front pieces fit check

Above you can see how the four spacer slats stick out beneath the front pieces.  I marked them and cut them off and below you can see them now at the proper length.

06 fit check reverse angle

Now that everything is verified to be the correct size, I’m ready to attach my landing pad.  I used an office stapler to attach the screen to the plywood.  In the photo below, you can see that I started on the back side and attached the screen.  Then I rolled the screen around to the front side of the plywood and stapled it every couple of inches.  I used staples because my material is metal screen.  If you use foam matting or rubber matting or something like that, glue will probably work just fine.

07 - screen started on back side

Below you can see the landing pad completely installed from the front side where the bats will land.

08 - screen finished

Now it’s time to assemble the spacer slats onto the back plywood piece.  I’m going to assemble the slats onto the plywood back now, but I will hold off assembling the front pieces and the roof.  This is because the back needs to be installed onto my tall light pole first and then the front pieces and the roof can be installed.  Otherwise, installation of the bat house on the light pole will be much harder after the whole thing is fully assembled.  I used Liquid Nails to glue the wood pieces to each other.  I also am going to use screws for good measure.  This bat house will be outdoors and I want it to hold together for many years.

09 - slat being glued

You can see below that I used wood clamps to hold the wood together tight and then I installed some screws.  Between the glue and the screws, plus a coat of primer and a couple coats of outdoor latex paint, I’m hoping this bat house lasts for many many years.

10 - slat being screwed in

Here it is on the light pole that I want it to be installed on.  There were a couple bolts sticking out of the light pole that I had to accomodate.  I’m going to put some smaller holes and then wrap picture wire around and around several times in order to hold the bat house in place on the round pole.

11 - fit check on pole

This photo shows the larger holes for the light pole bolts plus four smaller holes that I drilled for the picture wire.

12 - holes for pitcure wire hanging

Now I screwed the front pieces on, but I did not turn the screws down tight.  I put the screws in just enough to make holes that I can find again later after it is painted.

13 - start screws in front

Now I found a piece of plywood big enough to use as the roof.  I cut it out and centered it in place and then I marked it’s final location as the photo below shows.

14 - mark location of roof

Then I laid the bat house next to the roof so I could mark where the slats are located so I can put screws through the roof directly into the center of these four slats.

15 - mark location of slats on roof

Then I installed the roof, but not tight.  Just to make screw holes that I can find again after it’s painted.

16 - start screws on roof

Now I took the front and roof pieces off again so I can paint everything separately.

17 - take it apart for painting

Then I primered everything.

18 - primer

Then I painted everything.  I actually put two nice thick coats of paint because I want this to be nice and waterproof and last for many years, hopefully.  You don’t really want a bat house to be brightly colored.  It should not really stand out.  I had a dark brown paint handy so I used that.  Painting through the screen was not easy, but I did it.  Next time, I think I would probably paint the wood under the screen before installing the screen.

19 - dark paint

Then I hung the back piece as I described earlier using the picture wire to wrap around the pole several times.

20 - back is installed on pole

 Then I screwed the front pieces and the roof on. That’s all!  The bat house is complete and ready for occupants!

21 - final product - bat house

Thanks for taking the time to read these step by step bat house directions!  Let me know if you have any comments or feedback and definitely let me know if you used these directions to make your own bat house!  Leave comments below on this blog post or send me an email by clicking the email link below in the page footer.

Thanks!

Kurt

Duct Tape Wallet: simple instructions from a 10 year old

[This is a simple and fun craft that you can do with your kids!  And it doesn’t even make a mess!  You can find all kinds of colorful and cool duct tape styles at the store these days.  I’m posting these instructions and photos for my son who wants to share them with the world.]

I’m 10 years old and here are my instructions for a duct tape wallet.  My dad took the photos and he also put it on his web site since I don’t have one yet.

First get a dollar bill to use for reference.  Then cut a piece of duct tape an inch or more longer than the bill.

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Place it face up so it doesn’t stick to the table.

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You will need two of these.

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Now put the two pieces together lengthwise so one overlaps the other a little bit.

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Repeat so that you have two sheets.

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Now carefully put their sticky sides together.

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It doesn’t have to be perfect, but try to get them pretty close to even.  Also try to smooth out any wrinkles or bubbles.

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Now do all of that again because you will actually need two of these.

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Now cut off both ends to make a nice rectangle.

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These are now the front and back walls of your duct tape wallet.

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A fit check should show that the dollar bill fits inside.

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Now cut another strip of duct tape that is longer than the dollar bill and then cut that strip long ways down the middle to make a thin long strip of duct tape.  Having three hands definitely helps here.  🙂

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Attach one strip along the bottom long edge of one of the wall pieces so that half is attached and half is still showing.

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Now carefully lay the other wall piece directly on top.

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Now roll the long strip over to attach the two wall pieces together.  This long thin strip is now the bottom of your wallet.

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We don’t want any sticky duct tape inside there to stick to our dollar bills, so take the other half of the long thin strip and place it over the first half.

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Now use another thin strip of duct tape that has been cut long ways in half to seal up one side of your duct tape wallet.

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Do this on both sides.

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Now the top edges need to be sealed off with a couple more of those thin half strips of duct tape.  Just cut them off a bit short of the edge and tuck them inside.

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That’s it!  Pretty easy, huh?!?!

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Thanks for reading my duct tape wallet instructions!

[Let us know using the “email us” link or using the blog comments if you have any suggestions or if you made your own duct tape wallet or duct tape craft that you’d like to share with the world!]

 

Fix Your Loose Shifter With Booger Bushings

I have a 2005 PT Cruiser that I bought used about 4 years ago.  (http://www.leucht.com/blog/2009/06/kurts-new-car-pt-cruiser/)  The manual 5-speed shifter was fairly loose compared to any of my previous vehicles, but it seemed to work fine so I didn’t worry about it.  Over the past couple years I feel like the shifter has been getting looser over time, so I knew that something was going to give someday.  Then suddenly I could not get it to go into reverse.

My brother in law pointed me to a website, http://www.boogerracing.com/ where they sell transmission bushings called Booger Bushings that were advertised to fix me right up.  A set of replacement bushings cost only $22, including shipping.  According to the website, these bushings are “injection molded polyurethane with a proprietary molded-in lubricant”.  They claim to be significantly stiffer than the stock bushings but are not a “solid” bushing.  Before I bought these on the Internet, I checked with my local auto parts store and they did not sell the bushings separately from the shifter cables, which ran a couple hundred bucks.

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The shifter cables attach to the transmission underneath the air filter housing in the PT Cruiser.  Luckily, they are very easy to get to.  Just remove the air filter lid and disconnect the big hose exiting the air filter housing.  There is also a small hose that needs to be removed from the air filter housing.  Then just lift the whole air filter housing up, rocking it as you tug.  It’s held down only by the friction of some feet sticking through some rubber grommets.  Very simple.

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Now, to get the metal bracket out of the way a bit, just remove the two bolts holding it down.  It’s easiest to use a ratchet with a long extension for this.  This allows you to slide the bracket to the left a few inches to reveal the shifter cable underneath.  Now you should be able to clearly see both shifter cable ends along with the bad or missing bushings.  In my case, both of the old bushings were completely gone.  That explains how I suddenly lost the ability to shift into reverse.  Remove the old bushings if they are still there.

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The Booger Bushings are designed with a lip at the top that snaps very solidly onto the slot of the transmission shaft.  As a matter of fact, they are so tight to snap on, that the manufacturer suggests that you put a dab of grease inside to assist in the installation.  This photo is looking at the lip from the bottom of the bushing.

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Simply slide the bushing onto the cable end.  The white in the next few photos is a bit of white lithium grease that I added to help with the installation of the bushing onto the slot of the transmission shaft.

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And pop it onto the transmission shaft.  Use both thumbs and push down hard until it snaps into place.

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It’s as easy as that.  There are also two bushings under the shifter in the cabin.  But I did not change those out yet, since these two bushings seems to have tightened it right up and it is a bit more work to get to those bushings under the center console.  I will definitely tear into it and change those out if I feel the stick getting loose, though.

After installing Booger Bushings, it will feel like you have a brand new car if you’ve been driving around with a loose shifter for a while, like I had been doing.  Now my transmission feels tight like I’m driving a race car.  And it only cost me about 20 bucks and less than an hour’s worth of work!  Thanks Booger Racing!

Kurt

 

Custom built wood washer and dryer shelves

Ever since we got our front loading washer and dryer a few years ago, we’ve been wanting to get some of those laundry pedestals to lift them up higher.  But the pedestal units are pretty pricey.  Those things are like $250 bucks … each.  Ridiculous. So I decided I would make my own laundry pedestals out of wood that I had laying around in my shop.  And I decided that I would design a pedestal that would include both a step stool and a storage drawer in one single unit. The step stool will help us reach the wall mounted cabinets that are mounted above our washer and dryer.

Click on any photo to view larger versions of it in my photo gallery.

Here is a photo of the basic frame for my pedestal design.  You can see that the front (facing down and to the left) is basically open to receive a drawer.  The sides and back are solid enough to support a few hundred pounds (as long as the weight is directed down into the floor and focused at the four corners).  All the cross beams are just there for stability.  The four feet of the washer or dryer sit on the top-most two 2x4s.

Here is the same basic frame after the decorative plywood and trim was applied.  The back of the unit was left open and so was the top.  That should allow for access to the bottom of the washer or dryer and access behind the unit if that access is ever needed.

I forgot to take photos of the drawer unit during construction, but this photo gives you a pretty good idea of it’s design.  It’s fairly straightforward.  The front of the drawer is on the upper left in this photo and contains the step stool portion which is made from 2x4s for strength.  The horizontal 2×4 in the middle is both for stability and for mounting the pull handle.  The rest of the drawer is made from plywood that I joined together with biscuit joints.  The 4th sidewall is missing from this photo, but it fits right over the exposed 2x4s shown in this photo and creates a completely closed drawer bin used for storage.

Here is the same drawer from another angle.  The front of the drawer has the decorative plywood.

And here is what the unit looks like with the drawer installed.  I chose not to install a drawer slide.  I just installed some felt pads underneath the drawer unit and it slides in and out just fine.  The next step is to prime and paint to match the washer and dryer.

And here is what the finished laundry pedestal looks like in use in our laundry room.  The drawer holds quite a bit of stuff and pulls out much farther than is shown in the photo below.

And the step-stool feature allows us to reach the wall mounted cabinets above our washer and dryer.

That’s about all the detail that I can think of.  Add a comment below if you like this design or if you have any questions about details that I have left out.  If you end up using my design for a laundry pedestal or if you have an ideas for improvements, please feel free to post in the comments below.

Kurt