I was kicking around the shop the last few days over Christmas holiday and wanted a quick project to work on that wouldn't take away form the presents and food!

I have always sorta been a train buff and saw a picture of a train bulletin that peaked my curiosity. They're from the age of train travel and were posted in the stations to alert passengers of the train times and schedule, sorta like what's in airports now. So, with some spare wood and paint, this is what I came up with.

I cut a spare piece of wood from an 1/8" 4x8 sheet of plywood at 2' x 4'. (I am limited to this size because that is as large as the Sizzix machine will cut.) I also cut and routed the frame out of spare 1x2's. I then spray painted the 2x4 with chalk board paint and then stained and sealed the frame.

I designed the plans in Photoshop and then cut it out using the Sizzix eClips to form the template for painting.

I then transferred this to the sheet of wood which I had painted in chalk board paint and sprayed it white.

After the paint dried I removed the stencil and mounted the frame. Quick and easy! What do you think?

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• By Dbproductionz, www.instructables.com
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If I was a superhero, my weakness would be glueups. Thankfully, those aren't really needed in the crime fighting business ... yet.

Maybe I don't plan ahead. Maybe I'm too impatient and just desire instant gratification. Maybe I'm just not that good at woodworking. I'm not sure, but tons of people are really bad at driving and they just keep doing it.

I'm making some games for Holiday gifts and they all have mitered sides. I have a shop made clamping jig for picture frames, but it isn't good for taller sides like these. I tried a band clamp, but there was some sliding. I moved up to some pin nails, but there was still some racking. I want this thing as square as possible (I know it won't be 100% square because life taunts me).

To the scrap bin!!

Step 1: The Material

I have a bucket of corner cut offs ... left over from a project which required discs. The dics were cut from plywood squares, so these corners are already square. I also checked them to make sure.

Step 2: The Layout

I need holes large enough for my clamps and far away from each other to give room for afore mentioned clamps. For me, this was 3" from each squared corner and then 1 1/8" in from the edge to intersect that mark.

Step 3: The Hole Drilling

I made my holes 1 1/2" with a forstner bit.

Step 4: The Clamping

Put your square in the corner and add your clamps. The only thing left is to smack yourself in the head for not making a stack of these years ago (my head still hurts).

Step 5: Update: Cleanup and Modification

Using a temporary stop block on my miter saw, I trimmed the square side lengths to be even and then trimmed the front straight. All cosmetic.

Lastly, as suggested by a member of the community (good call dimtick), I nipped off the back corner to allow for any glue squeeze out, which would otherwise make these blocks part of your project. Non-Super Hero Teamwork!

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• By Wood Is The, www.instructables.com
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Do you ever see those cool wooden 6 pack holders on Etsy that are ridiculously expensive? Well, with this Instructable, you can make your own for a fraction of the price!

Step 1: Materials

Materials- 36" x 5.5" x 0.5" pine board
- 36" x 3.5" x 0.5" pine board
- 12" x 0.5" oak dowel or metal pipe
- 5 mm thick plywood or board
- nails
- glue
- (optional) ~30 ft twine
- (optional) Wood stain

Tools
- Miter saw
- Clamps
- Drill with 0.5" drill bit
- Hammer
- Hand saw
- (optional) Pyrography tool

Step 2: First Cuts

So you should have 3 boards (picture 2)

On the 36" x 3.5" x 0.5" board
- Cut 2 times at 22.67 cm (picture 3, ignore the writing on the boards) (Boards 3A and 3B)

Step 3: Cutting the Spacers

Using the 5 mm thick plywood/board
- Cut 2 long pieces (7.5 cm x 13.7 cm) (picture 1)
- Cut 3 short pieces (7.5 cm x 6.2 cm) (picture 2)

Step 4: Angle Cuts

On the miter saw, adjust the angle to 25 degrees. You can choose your own angle if you want, but i have found that 25 degrees just looks nice and is pretty easy. (picture 1)

On Boards 1A and 1B (13.8 cm x 27.75 cm x 1.27 cm)
- Mark on the top 3.8 cm inwards (picture 2)
- Using the miter saw, cut the boards at 25 degrees (picture 3)

Step 5: Holes for the Handle

Now that Boards 1A and 1B have their 25 degree cuts, we need to cut holes for the handle.

- Find the center of the board vertically (up and down)
------>You can do this by taking the measure of the length of 1A and 1B (13.8 cm) and dividing it in half. You should get 6.9 cm and mark this on the board at the bottom and around the middle. Connect these 2 marks with a straight edge, going all the way up and down. Now you can see the center of the boards (picture 1)

- At the top of the boards (the sides with the angle cuts), measure 2 cm down from the top and make a mark. This is where we will drill the hole.
- Using a 1/2 inch drill bit, make the hole exactly on the dot you just made (picture 2)

Step 6: Cutting the Handle

I forgot to take pictures at this part, but it is very straight forward.

You can use either a metal pipe (as I did) or a hardwood dowel for your handle. Avoid softer woods like pine because it may not be strong enough to support 6 full, glass beer bottles.

- Cut the 1/2 inch dowel/pipe at 22.67 cm.

Step 7: Sanding and Optional Decoration

Now that everything has been cut, you need to sand down the wood, patch any knots, etc. From this point, you can customize your 6 pack holder in a few ways:

- Stain the wood (picture 2)
- Add pyrography (pictures 3 and 4)
--------> If you want to learn how to do pyrography, check out my otherInstructable.

Step 8: Gluing the Bottle Spacers

On Board 2, you will need to make lines so that you can accurately glue down your bottle spacers.
- (step A) Using the trick from step 5, make a line bisecting Board 2 horizontally (6.9 cm)
- (step B) For the second set of lines, you can use the same principal, but instead of dividing by 2, you have to divide by 3. This means that you will have lines every 6.72 cm.

- Using these lines as guides, begin gluing the 2 long spacers (7.5 cm x 13.8 cm). I found that using an angle clamp helps a lot. (picture 2)
- When those are dry, begin gluing the 3 small spacers (7.5 cm x 6.2 cm). (pictures 3 and 4)

Make sure that the spacers do not extend beyond Board 2. Sand them down if you need to.

Step 9: Hammering it all Together

Now is the time to put everything together and see your hard work pay off. You can glue everything together, but nails are much faster. This may be a bit confusing, but just refer to the pictures.

- Take Board 3A and clamp it to Board 1A (picture 1). Nail the two Boards together (picture 2).
- Repeat this with Board 3B on the other side of 1A.
- Now that Boards 3A and 3B are nailed to 1A, clamp 1B onto the opposite end (picture 3)
- With all the 1 and 3 boards nailed together, you should have something that looks like picture 4.
- Slide in Board 2 (with the bottle spacers). If it does not fit, you may need to sand a bit off the side. (picture 5)
- Nail Board 2 on all four sides (picture 6)

Step 10: Handle

- Take the handle you cut in step 6 and push it through the two holes on Boards 1A and 1B. If it does not fit, you may need to sand the ends of the the handle or widen the holes.
- (Optional) You can wrap the handle with twine. You will need around 30 feet of thin twine (or less if you use thicker twine). Start by tying a clove hitch on one end. Continue to tightly wrap the twine around the dowel/pipe until you reach the end. Finish it off with another clove hitch.

Step 11: Fill it up and Enjoy!

Congratulations! You have now made a wooden 6 pack crate.

Thank you for reading my Instructable.

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So I'm giving a try at this "how to build" thing using SketchUp. I really like it, and there's still a lot I need to learn, but after seeing what Ana White did, I knew I had to give it a shot. She is amazing and I've been getting a whole lot of inspiration from there. If you haven't seen it yet, check out her site ana-white.com.

Anyways, here we go. We needed a Bar Table for an empty space in our kitchen. I guess you would call it the "breakfast nook". We aren't the type to spend a lot of money on furniture (have you been shopping lately? It's ridiculous!) So after looking over the interwebs and gaining inspiration from Ana White, I came up with this. Follow along and hopefully by the end you'll have one of your own.

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Hello everyone! We have gotten moved and settled enough for me to start messin' around in the new shop and even have a couple posts lined up for you. I'll slowly transition back into this (not like I was updating that much anyways, ha ha).

We have purchased our first house in south Texas. It is a LONG way from Oregon and A LOT hotter. I have my shop set up in our 3 car detached garage (wife's car is in one bay, but the rest is mine!). It isn't insulated at all and must be around 110 during these summer days. To hot to spend any amount of time out there, which sucks because it is perfect. What I needed was a cheap AC solution.
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Hey ya'll, wanted to share my latest project with you. I believe my favorite bathroom sign is the one that reads "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, please be neat and wipe the seat". We had one hanging in the bathroom that I had made a year or so ago, but it just didn't go with decor of things do to the font I had used. So, I decided to make a new one using picture frames and etched glass.

I had some spare glass and wood laying around so I decided to make a couple of picture frames for the sign. You could easily use pre-made picture frames for this project. Follow along to make your own:

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In this video I will show you how to use the free program InkScape to covert your custom image into a file that eCal can use to cut out on Sizzix eClips.

With the Sizzix eClips you are able to cut your on images without the need of separate cartridges. Visit the links below for more info and downloads.

Inkscape Program: http://inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

eCal: http://www.sizzix.com/ecal

eClips: http://www.sizzix.com/shop/eclips

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Hello again, I told you I'd be back. Here's another simple Christmas Decoration for your viewing and crafting pleasure. I wanted to make a Christmas sign, and after browsing around the internet for some inspiration I came across this:

Inspiration from Online

The saying is from, as you know, Home Alone. Me and the wife thought it was funny and looks great. On to the build!

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