Giant Deckchairs – Made By Ed

A renovation of our neighbour’s house meant there was a pile of old oak floorboards going spare to be blagged. We tossed them over the garden wall not really knowing what we would use them for, but since it was a nice sunny day, it seemed like a good idea to turn them into deckchairs – giant deckchairs in fact. All the floor boards were doubled up to give the right thickness proportions for the timber frames, and my Mum’s sewing machine skills completed the job with the bright pink ripstop canvas covers. They fold flat, weigh a tonne to carry around, but the family seem to enjoy relaxing in them (although they want me to now build little ladders to help getting in and out).

Patio Table – Made By Ed and Louis

A friend found an old (and unbelievably heavy) lorry brake drum lying around and thought I might like it. Taking an angle grinder and disc sander to it, the rust eventually came off and a coat of lacquer gave it a lovely metallic finish. Meanwhile Lou came back from a local forest one day with this huge slice of timber, equally as heavy as the brake drum, which sanded down to make a nice patio table top. A chainsaw cut around the edge gave a little bit of extra detailing.

Hanging Firepit Grill – Made By Ed

This was a small project to practice using our new welder. The top hanging plate was welded with steel tubing, and slightly smaller diameter tubing then slots up into this plate, meaning the whole tripod can very quickly be disassembled for storage. The cast iron grille hangs from a pulley meaning it can be easily raised or lowered to achieve the correct cooking temperature.

‘Lockdown’ Sheds – Made By Ed and Louis

Obviously these new sheds aren’t really ‘garage projects’ made inside our garage, but Lou and I used the 2020 lockdown period to build these two sheds nestled at the bottom of the garden. This then enabled us to have a huge clear out ofall the junk that had built up in the garage, store it all in these sheds, and free up space in the garage to work with bigger and better tools like our old wood turning lathe.

Bird-feeder Table– Made By Louis

This was Louis’ first real go at wood turning on our old lathe. It’s a design copied from a photo we saw on the internet, and a great beginner’s wood turning project. The bird feeder is made from three contrasting woods (the central spindle is from an old oak staircase) and the bracket was welded from some old metal bar we had lying around.

Bin Store– Made By Ed

A quick project to make a bin store out of left over timber from old gates we used to have across our driveway. Always nice to make something new for free from left-overs, but not a very exciting project (although now makes bin day a little bit more enjoyable).