Loved the video, not just for the planter but for more generic tips and tricks! Please, more 2x4+ply wood videos for folks with modest budgets - simple book cases, shelves etc would be awesome!
I can DEFINITELY relate to your comment about the wife seeing it and ordering more!!! I had a similar experience. We now have 54 planter boxes of differing sizes and functionality as she grows a lot of our food from raised beds.
THANK YOU for showing the finished product at the start. Too many videos jump right into milling the lumber. I like to know what we're making up front.
I wonder how long those 2 x 4's will last outside even with a finish on them. I think I'll make mine out of either redwood or western red cedar with pigmented outdoor finish for better durability.
@@skippylippy547 I think he used pine stock because of the cost thing, I think this whole thing he said was 20 bucks, redwood and red cedar would be a lot more.
Lovely, simple design, Wes. Would it not be much simpler and faster to make all those cuts on a bandsaw? Just space your fence 3/4" from the blade and set a 1 1/2" block past the blade to be able to cut, flip, cut, rotate, cut, flip, cut. Then trim off the ends. Seems it would eliminate the curved blade kerf issues and the "tabs" you have to grind down. Just a thought. Thanks for a great idea!
It sure would be A LOT faster, simpler, and most importantly, SAFER. If someone doesn't have a bandsaw, an simple jig saw or even a hand saw would be acceptable options. Another acceptable option would be to use a dado stack, or just use the standard blade to make crosscuts, sliding the piece of wood after each pass of the saw's blade. I certainly wouldn't be willing to make those cuts on a table saw, and I have been using table saws for decades.
@@PaganWizard I gave you a thumbs up. After reviewing this, it is NOT as dangerous as it looks. If you notice, because the blade is so High and the cut is so Short. There is ALL Downward force and NO Kickback Force on the worlk piece.
@PaganWizard I am a novice woodworker like this is my first foray into woodwork. I have a few 2x4's and I want to make planter boxes. I have a table saw but I'm not against getting a new toom if it's safer and "easier". Any suggestions?
Oh oh....si, a veces nuestras esposas piden demasiado. Jajaja! Abrazo Wes y paciencia! Gracias por compartir tus trabajos e ideas.! Germán, Lomas de Solymar, Uruguay
That was a great video, Wes! It gave me a great idea for something I’ve wanted to build; it it solves a really great challenge. Thanks for sharing this. You’re a darn good teacher.
Wes thank you so much for showing us so perfectly how to build such a beautiful planter for the yard. This is just what I was looking for and I am going to make several of them!!! I just cant wait!!!!
Something simple for a change in the middle of fingerjoints, dados, and hundreds of ways to cut halflaps. The project does not even require a tablesaw, it just makes everything quicker. Well done!
Showed this to my wife. BIG mistake! She wants 4 for the back patio and 2 for the front porch. Really nice piece, thank you for sharing. Thinking about finishing with Thompsons water seal for patio and staining with a sealer for the front porch.
@@floridabeardedwoodworker Even a handsaw or tenon saw would make quick work of this, especially if you have a bench vise. I also cringed when Wes free handed that router trim in the ends. If it had slipped and dropped to his hand.......instant hamburger.
4:20 If you have a tenon cutting jig, you can use it to make these cuts a lot cleaner, and a lot safer as well. Using a tenon cutting jig will also allow you to make all four cuts (with the grain) on each piece, WITHOUT having to reset your fence, and without worrying about having to hide the place where you had to make a previous cut. There are countless videos here on RU-vid that show you how to build one for your shop, often times, they can be made with scrap pieces of lumber. One last note, I think you said that you used construction grade 2x4s from your big box store to build this, I would suggest looking just a little bit deeper, to where they're selling 2x4 and 2x6 ceder. It's very close in price to the common SPF construction lumber that you used here, but ceder is weather resistant, and it looks a lot nicer. As for finishing projects like this, teak oil is always the way for me, it gives the wood a very nice warm glow. In the Spring when I take them out of the garage, I give them a quick pressure wash, let them sit in the sun for 2 or 3 days to completely dry, wipe on another coat of teak oil, and they look great for the entire warm weather season. I really like the way this turned out, and it's a lot stronger than any of the other planters I've seen.
Thank you for showing the finished project at the beginning of the video. Most of the wood shop videos don't show the finished project until the end, forcing me to skip forward searching to see if it's something I'd like to build.
The planter box you have shown was great and very easy to build. I expanded your design a bit. My wife wanted a taller planter box, 36 inches tall. She wants the flowers to sit above the railing on our deck. It was pretty easy to adapt. After building one, I came across some ideas that I thought I would run past you. Obviously, the size of the table saw blade makes a big difference in the shape of the side cuts for the fingers on the end. I cut about 1/8" short of the 1-1/2" line. Initially, the corners came out looking great, perfectly square....until I started chamfering the edges. That's when that little square hole in the corner appeared. I believe my saw blade was smaller than yours. To avoid that issue, couldn't you use a tenoning jig and square up those cuts. Take the cut right to the line. This would also allow you to easily select one side over the other for displaying purposes. In chamfering the edges, I found it much easier to do the work on my router table. I set my fence such that the front of the bearing was 3/4" away from the fence face. Chamfering the end of each finger was challenging, even with a small trim router. However, it was much easier once I built a 90 degree jig that held the workpiece vertically at a 90 degree angle to the table surface. Between the 90 degree jig and the fence, the workpiece was perfectly aligned going through the chamfering bit. I did make one mistake, though. In my zeal to see how everything looked and fitted together, I ripped four side pieces to the 1-1/2" dimension, lengthwise to create the gap fillers. I knew that I simply could not cut them in-half as each of the gap fillers would be slightly less than the 1-1/2" dimension required to create a level top and bottom surface. I did this before chamfering these four side pieces. That was my mistake. That made chamfering impossible. I ended up having to make 4 new side pieces , complete with chamfering, as replacement parts, for the gap fillers. The first unit came out great. I plan on using my homemade tenoning jig to make the next one. (My wife wanted two). I'll let you know how it turns out. Thank you. It was a fantastic project.
I just subscribed. Can I just say that you have a wonderful way about you. Your voice and demeanor just pulled me right in and I think you’re an excellent teacher. I am a new woodworker of two years and I was listening intently on everything and never once got bored. Plus you weren’t condescending, you sounded like a very good teacher- thank you for this video. I will go watch your other stuff hoping to learn
Wes, I don't understand why didn't you use your table saw sled to make your notches? You could have set it up with a stop block and made them much like you would Box joints, cut one side then turn it around and cut the other, don't get me wrong the way you did it is perfectly good. This is just a suggestion, I am not trying make you mad in any way. I love all of you videos, I am a big fan.🙂
Many years ago I built a really nice picnic table using untreated pine 2x6s. I finished it with marine polyurethane. It was only a couple years before it was completely rotted out. If you want your planter to last I would suggest using treated lumber or at least cedar to get a little life out of it. Love the design. 👌👍💯
I was just thinking the same thing! This looks really nice but no way it’s going to last more than a couple seasons. Could you treat this type of wood he’s using, or do you want to use pressure treated wood?
What I find most amazing about this incident is that once ALL 5 cops arrived on scene for Lego theft...what do they tell her? ...were waiting for a 6th cop before we do anything 😆
Another excellent project. At 08:51 you say that you are going the discard those little blocks. I keep them, push a nail through the centre and use them as supports when painting; I do the same with the triangular offcuts from mitre joints.
I love the result and how clear you are. One issue is that, especially beginners, should not be holding wood when routing. It's too easy to slip and do damage. Clamp them down, vise them down.
I'm going to build this but I think I'm going to align the tenons to the bottom of each piece (rather than aligned to the center). It will make the project a lot simpler.
Yes. You cannot simply cut a piece in half becuase the keft on the saw blade leave the new half piece too shallow and requires scabbing in a strip at the bottom to bring it up to hieght, which, in fact, is what I had to do. Must say that it worked OK that way. Measurments and cuts are beyond critical for this build. Have4 a sharp chisel handy when you go to assemble becuase4 you will need to do some depth adjustments to get the corners fitting snuggly.
I've followed on from your bird nest box video and for a finish may I suggest recycling used engine oil from cars when they have an oil change? A friend of mine has an old van that runs on diesel so he passes me the used oil when he's had an oil change and I'm running low so I can use it to treat my fence, planters and recycle bin storage shed. We all know oil repels water and once it soaks in and dries, nothing rubs off (no resideue!) and it lasts for months and months. It's black to start with but once it fades you get the wood grain show through and it slowly fades to dark green over time. Totally free resource.
A few tips I learned while building this. 1. Accurate measurements are very important. 2. Bevel the edges before cutting the half pieces or the ends will slip into the hole in the router base and cut too deep.
Great video, Wes. Really well explained. By the way, should you ever give up woodwork, perhaps you could consider late night radio or reading stories to kids, your voice is so easy listening. Best wishes from the U.K.👍🇬🇧🇺🇸
For me, the most difficult part of this job is setting the saw precisely so that the slots on the ends overlap,exactly. If they don’t, the job will be rubbish. I Wouk imagine quite a lot of trial and error is needed to achieve that. Especially on a table saw where you have to set the fence position TWICE. I’m going to try this piece as it looks very nice but I’m going to use a band saw which only requires one set up for both sides and looks nicer because I won’t have that blade over run on the inner side of the planter. As an aside, you are very luck in the USA with wood prices. There is no way at all in the UK we could make that for the equivalent of $20.
Wes, The building process and design are great. As you said the box will be outside, I'm thinking, untreated pine timber may not be the best material. All the timber could be treated and dressed. Also as you using a standard pot with drain holes, water could leach into the pine inside the box. You also haven't stated what the base will be made off. To assist in preventing damage to the base, I suggest as an option, use a small space hot dipped galvanized reinforcing mesh. Any water leakage from the pot will flow straight through the mesh. It's a matter of fixing the mesh to the box.
Nice design of a planter box, and well presented. I do like the details but why first remove the default round-over by a 1/4 of an inch to square them up, and then finish all boards with a 1/4 inch chamfer again. You could save over an inch on height by just chamfering the original width of the board (which wasn't actually 2x4 to start with . . .) So 5 times a 2x4 (should make 20 inch in my head) results in just 15 inch of height.
Love this. Since you make everything look so easy, I really want to make a wishing well to cover something in my yard. If you run out of anything else to build, (ha), maybe you can show me how to do that. My inside space needs to 18 inches. See ya next time.
Hey Wes, I have made several larger ones for my deck out of PT ducking boards - They look great - and each lasts about 5 years without putting them away in the winter. This one from non-PT wood may last only one year or max 2 years before the top cracks and joints come apart from that finished nailing. Not critiquing your product, but sharing my experience with you.
Nice planter box. Something I do not understand. Why the tenons were cut in 2 processes, rather than setting the saw to do it in 1. If you have a bandsaw you could also cut them without the overcut.
Excellent video Wes. Some of my plastic planters are cracking from UV degradation. I dont want to replace them with more plastic, its like you were reading my mind. There's some nice wood grain, shame to cover it so maybe a translucent finish like the linseed oil. The wife ordered more? Thats more you'll have to plant too.😄
The planter looks awesome Wes! I'm going to have to make a few now! Don't let the wife look over your shoulders when watching this video, you may regret it!
Excellent project for us beginners. Just a question about the stop block on your table saw. How did you determine where it would go to stop the 2x4 in the correct depth? Thanks
Not sure how he did it but it's pretty easy ... after raising the blade to the desired height, run a piece through the blade to your line, turn the saw off without removing the piece, and then just place the stop block to meet the end of the board. Personally, I'd just use a band saw to make this cut ... that way, there's no need to deal with over cutting the other side.
Wes, thank you so much for this video! I’m just finished building this planter using redwood 2x4’s. Being new to woodworking, what product would you recommend I use as a sealer? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi...glad you attempted the box! I am sure it looks great. My first suggestion would be to check with a local paint supplier for a recommended outdoor sealant specific to your area. You might also check online. I am in the desert southwest and a polyurethane base sealer works well here. Good luck! Wes
this is a nice project, but one thing i dont understand is why cut the end joints this way? you could stack all of them together and cut both shoulders all in one cut up on the end right through... less blade height needed, so safer and far less hassle/time and messing about imo... that is assuming they stack straight which they may not being store bought 2x4s but you could still do that in smaller batches if needed
Hey Wes, I can't blame you for this because you did offer "a word of caution " at the end of the video. I made the mistake of showing this to my wife😢. You can guess the rest of the story. Guess what I will be making before Spring sets in? Seriously though, such a great and easy idea for planter box. Love your simple "How To" videos. You can use this "log cabin" tecnique for other type of projects I would guess. Please keep it up!
You could make it easier and skip the first step of using the stop block to cut the initial line and just go straight to the push fence, set your blade height and chip away to remove the cut-out. Much safer. If you had access to a table saw sled and a dado stack that would be way faster and safer.
