First Build - .223 / 5.56 (ArmaLite Rifle-15 or AR-15)

Shooting and guns weren't one of my families interests growing up. I went shooting with friends a few times but it wasn't until after I was adult and became interested in small game hunting that I purchased my first gun.

My first purchase was a Remington 870 Express Super Magnum for use with quail and dove hunting. I got the Magnum for the option of being able to shoot 3.5-inch shells for turkey hunting. I got it in black synthetic and have been extremely happy with it. At some point, I would like to upgrade to an over-under or semi-auto. Since it was my first gun and I wasn't sure if I would like shooting and hunting I started with a solid budget model. I did a lot of research and it was between a Mossberg 500 and the Remington 870. I heard great things about both but ended up choosing the Remington.

After that, I acquired a .357 Ruger Vaquero Blued Single-Action Revolver and a Remington 770 .30/06 scoped in camo.

In February I decided to try out buying and building my first AR-15. As a point of clarification, "AR" does not stand for "assult rifle". It stands for "ArmaLite Rifle" after the original manufacturer or this style of sporting rifle in 1956. I was mostly concerned that with all of the regulation in-work to ban sporting rifles that I might not have a chance. I learned a whole lot and found out that piecemealing together cheap parts wasn't necessarily the cheapest way to go. Palmetto State Armory has some great deals on kits that you can still assemble for a great price. As of the time of this writing, they had kits ready for assembly starting at $299.99. My build cost me roughly $500. This is still a great deal on an AR-15 but if I was going for cheapest there were definitely some other options.

I started by assembling my Anderson lower receiver with the lower parts kit. I had a small issue with the magazine release not fitting but I was able to return it to the store and got a new one. Next, I got the stock and buffer tube kit which I installed onto the back of the lower receiver. The upper receiver and the upper receiver parts kit was next.

The final assembly took place after I attached the barrel to the front of the upper receiver and installed the gas block/gas tube, floating handguard, and muzzle brake/compensator.

Then it was simply a matter of sliding in the bolt carrier group and charging handle and then attaching the total upper assembly to the lower receiver.

Overall I was very happy with the end product.

I will be receiving the front and back pop-up sites in a couple of days. Once I do I will take it to the range and see how it shoots. I will provide updates as I get them.

Please let me know if you have any questions to get you started building your own rifle.

Kitchen Shutters

I was looking around on Pinterest one day and came across the idea for some country style window shutters (click here). I really liked the look and figured it would be something easy to try out.

First I took the measurements and then designed what I wanted in an Excel spreadsheet.

The original plan was to build it out of 1x6 common board from Home Depot (Model # 914762/ Internet # 202074481/ Store SKU # 914762) and cut it down to the right dimensions. However, when I got to the store I found that Home Depot had started carrying 1x5 common board. It was cheaper and would require less work for me to cut down on the table saw. Perfect! I also picked up some Tee Hinges (Model # 15032/ Internet #202034066/ Store SKU #102024), four black heavy duty decorative strap hinge (Model # 15024/ Internet #202034146/ Store SKU #101974), two light duty door pulls (Model # 15447/ Internet #202034078/ Store SKU #831328), and a small decorative eye and hook clasp.

Unfortunately I did not know that I would be blogging about this later so did not take a lot of pictures of the process. It was pretty simple though. I cut the 6 ft long 1x5s in half and laid the eight pieces next to each other and then one across the top and bottom. I made sure they were square and then marked the two crossing boards where I would need to cut them. Once they were cut I lined the boards up and ensured that they were square with my large metal square. If they are not aligned properly they will not fit into the window properly when you reconnect them with the hardware.

I then attached the boards with a nail gun. The nails didn't hold as well as I hoped so I ended up attaching wood screws through the back to secure everything together. Once attached I had the kids take some screw drivers and other tools and beat up the different pieces of wood to add some character. Then I painted the boards with some leftover white paint from another project. After the paint dried I took some sand paper to the edges of the boards to give it some additional wear. Then I took some stain and ran it along the edges and wiped off the residue.

The last thing was to attach the hardware. It really started taking shape with the hardware. Here is what it looked like before I installed in the kitchen.

Here is the view from the front.

Here is close-up from the front.

Here is the detail from the back. Love the black on white. Screw holes add some additional characters too.

When I went to hang the shutters in the window I realized that because the corners were rounded it would be difficult to attach the hardware to the walls. To get around this I took some 1x3s and attached them to the outside edge of the window sill to create square edges. I then attached the shutters to the 1x3s.

It turned out very nicely and with the light that was blocked in the afternoon this area became one of the coolest rooms in the house.

Here is the window with the shutters opened.

Here is the final product with the wall around the window freshly painted and some plants from IKEA as a finishing touch.

Hope you enjoyed how it turned out as well as I did. Please let me know if you end up trying it yourself. It is always neat to see what others try and the variations.

Wood Carving

Quick post. I was at the library a few weeks ago and was perusing through the new book section. I came across a book by Max Bainbridge called Heirloom Wood: A Modern Guide to Carving Spoons, Bowls, Boards, and other Homewares (click here for info on Amazon). There is another version of this book called The Urban Woodsman also available on Amazon and through Max's website Forest-and-Found.com.

I was mesmerized by the simplicity of it and the draw to use my hands to build and create. There a several projects that Max steps you through using a minimal amount of tools. He also explains the basics of "craft" such as sourcing wood, choosing wood, and tools and knife grips used for carving. The book itself smelt like freshly pressed paper and the pictures grab you with the different textures. The pictures were grounding and helped me to feel more connection between my mind and body.

I am still looking into purchasing the tools. I have them all saved to my cart on Amazon:

Carving Knife - Straight Edge
Carving Knife - Hooked
Shinto Saw Rasp
Gransfors Buk Hachet

Once I acquire the tools I will be blogging about my experience carving. While you are waiting here is a link to Max's website store and Instagram link where you can see some pictures of his products and book:

Forest-and-Found
Instagram Photos

Enjoy! 

Tree House

A few years ago I thought I would take advantage of the large sissoo (dalbergia sissoo) tree that we planted in our back yard. Commonly referred to as a rosewood tree, these trees are drought resistant and fast growing. Sissoos are native to India and one of their main sources of lumber. For more information on sissoos click here.

Having never built a tree house before I did a Google search for "backyard tree house" (click here) to get some inspiration. Since I was under a tight budget I wanted to keep it simple. I also studied some deck designs to understand how I would create the platform for the tree house.

One of the first things I decided was how to support the tree house in the tree. The basic designs require either raising the tree house on stilts or attaching it to the tree. Since we were not planning to be in our house long-term we wanted to keep from damaging the tree so determined to put the platform on stilts. Here are a few of my first design ideas:

Design Phase 1

The basic design would be four 8 foot pressure treated 4x4s with 2x6 joists attached with joist hangers Simpson Strong-Tie Z-MAX 2 in. x 6 in. Galvanized Double Shear Face Mount Joist Hanger (Model # LUS26/Internet #100375105/Store SKU #865827/Store SO SKU #592854). Then I would use planks to form the flooring. As you can see from the picture I found some concrete pier blocks with metal brackets from Home Depot (Model # 10000271/Internet #100321949/Store SKU #619310). This would make it so I didn't have to fuss with pouring my own concrete and setting the 4x4s and they are fairly inexpensive too. After doing some more research I determined that I would use redwood lumber instead of pressure treated lumber. I didn't want to deal with the chemicals since my kids would be playing on it and there are also some other things to consider when it comes to the hardware used. After a few more design tweaks (see "Design Phase 2") I bought the materials and started to build.

Design Phase 2

I figured I could use some redwood 2x4s for the railings and then use the western red cedar french Gothic fence pickets (Model # 23462/Internet #206436178) from Home Depot to enclose it. Here is how it ended up looking after I framed it and added the rail (sorry, no pictures during the process):

Tree House - Front View

Tree House - Bottom View

Since I did not know that I would be blogging about this later (😓) I did not take many picture during the build process so I will describe in a bit more detail what I did:

1. Measured distance around tree to determine where to place concrete footings. I then dug the holes, put the footings in, and checked for distance and level.

2. I attached the 4x4s to the top of the concrete footings and then attached 2x6s on the outside of the 4x4s.

Tree House - Beginning

3. I attached the joist hangers (see "Tree House - Bottom View" photo above) and then hung the remaining 2x6s. You can also see that I added some 2x4s in between the 2x6s directly next to the tree. Don't remember exactly why I did this but I know it made it helpful when adding the planks around the tree.

4. Next I installed the floor panels. I thought I bought what was a 1x6 cedar tongue and groove panel (Model # 60443/Internet #100028238/Store SKU #604437) but when I went to cut the board I smelt pine. The employee at Home Depot recommended this board to me because he said that cedar holds up very nicely (😮). I made mistakes on some of the cuts for the flooring and brought back what I couldn't use. The customer service was great and said that because they had sold me the wrong type of wood that I could exchange it for new boards. I was very happy with that. I picked up some Thompson's Clear Multi-Surface Waterproofer (Model # 241/Internet #100549802/Store SKU #429856) and added some coats to flooring protect it from the elements. Here is what it looked like when I was done:

Tree House - Floor

5. For the railings I attached 2x4s to the top of the 4x4 posts and then halfway down from the top of the posts and the tree house platform. If I needed to create an opening along the rail I would attached the top rail and then added a horizontal 2x4 from the top rail down to the 2x6 platform and then added the middle rail to this horizontal 2x4 (see "Tree House - Front View" above).

6. I then added the fence pickets. I attached it to the top rail, middle rail, and the 2x6 along the bottom of the platform.

7. I also decided to go with a ladder instead of a trap door to reduce the amount of material required and eliminate the complexity related to designing the trap door. You can also see that I got a metal threshold to attached to the edge of the platform so it could hold up better to the wear. Here is how it ended up.

Tree House - Ladder

8. One of my friends had an old slide they weren't using and donated it to the cause. Only issue with the slide was that it was designed for platforms only 48" or 4 feet tall. My platform was designed to be 60" or 5 feet tall. To compensate I added legs to the front of the slide and built up the dirt where the legs rested on the ground. I did add some addition 2x4s under the platform between the 2x6s to provide more support when attaching the slide. Here is how it looks:

Tree House - Slide 1

Tree House - Slide 2

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I plan on posting one project each week that I have worked on. I have several from the past that I would like to share so I plan on putting them up before I move onto my next projects. Also, if you have any ideas for projects please share.