DIY Toddler bed with birch plywood

My daughter is now ready for the toddler bed I made for her. Here is some pictures while I was working on it and some tips if you would like to make one yourself.

First I made a cardboard mock-up just to be sure I liked the proportions and the forms.

Fortunately the wood shop near my place sells their sheet of birch plywood in 30 in by 60 in, which was perfect for my design (well, technically I knew that, so I designed the bed in consequence). I had them cut in half so that means 4 boards of 15'' by 60'' (I only used 3 of those boards). 2 for the sides of the bed which is the length of the mattress, and the third board is parted in 2 boards the width of the mattress plus 2 times the thickness of the plywood. That means, in my case, 52 1/2 inches for the sides, and (28 1/2 + 1 1/2 ) 30 inches for the headboard and footboard.

I drilled holes to help the cutting with the jigsaw

Those are the leftovers from the cutting of the legs. I re-used it by cutting them in 1 1/2 '' stripes for the supports of the bed board.

Footboard and headboard have the same design so it's possible to put the bed in different places in the room without affecting the position of the cutaway on the side.

 Screwing the bed board supports (the leftovers...).

 This is the tricky part...

Drilling holes for dowels and screws. These have to be perfectly centered and aligned with matching holes on the headboards and footboards.

The headboard and footboard are screwed in place

Finally the bed board is cut at the right dimensions with a drilled hole for easy removal.

I didn't want to put varnish or chemicals on that bed so I just used beeswax for finishing.

 She seems to enjoy it !

Wine Bottle Garden

    

 This is how I made my self watering bottle garden. 

     It's really simple and a great way to up-cycle wine bottles.

     Plus you get to grow your own herbs for your cooking.

First you need a wine bottle that you'll be cutting in two 

with the help of a jig (see previous post) and the

 boiling water/ cold water technique. 

There is plenty of videos like this one on

 youtube showing how to do this so I'll skip this part.

It's important to sand down the edges of the bottle so

 you don't cut yourself.

                                             Then you take a cotton rope that you'll tie and
                                                    pass through the neck of the bottle.

Add a little bit of clay pellets

Add your plant

Add more pellets

Done !  Don't forget to water them periodically 

with an hydroponic solution. 

Wine bottle cutting jig

I tried my own version of a wine bottle adjustable cutting jig.

First you need one of these glass cutter. I found mine on amazon for about 6 $

Then just cut a 45 degree angle on a piece of  plywood

Break the handle from the glass cutter and determine
where you will position it so only the cutting wheel sticks
out from the plywood. Trace the shape with a pencil.

Trace the shape again on another piece
of wood or MDF (same thickness as the cutter).
 Cut this piece with a band saw and use the traced shape to
determine exactly where to glue it . You can double check by
repositioning the cutter and make sure it fits tight.

You can now screw it in place and it wont move. If you
wish to change the cutting wheel, it's easy to do so.

Next step is to make something to hold the neck
of the bottle while it turns. Place a bottle in the previous
plywood piece and find the height of the center axle.
You can now report it to this piece and drill a hole for the
neck (in my case it was 1 1/4 "). Screw or glue another piece
perpendicularly to this one (see next picture).

Then we want to assemble a bridge than will slide over the bottom part.

                Glue the cutting board to the bridge. I added a backing for support.        

Make a groove int the center line for the adjusting bolt in the center,
 and drill a matching hole in the bridge.

I had access to a router for another groove to clear the head of the bolt.
 I suppose you could also add feet to the jig to allow clearance.

Close-up of the cutter

Adjustable bottle cutting jig !

End.