building my own worktable for my FIRST furniture project | MaCenna Lee

🎵 Hello you guys, welcome back to the vlog.

We're making cookies. Romeo yesterday was like, I miss your baking era. And I was like, huh, I did have a baking era. Right after I had the baby, or really while I was pregnant, I had such an incredible sweet

tooth.

I wanted sweets all the time. And then once I had the baby, it kind of, it started to go away. He said, what happened to baking cookies? And I was like, well, I thought we were trying to, you know, be good and be happy.

So I tried to not make as many cookies. He was like, I want some. So last night, like super late, I made chocolate chip cookie dough from scratch and put it into the refrigerator so it could chill overnight. So now we can make cookies.

This batch makes like, it says 16 big cookies. Like I can make pretty large ones and it's more than enough. I can even bake like half of it and like save the rest. So we're making cookies. And also today we're going to the hardware store. I want

to build a table. I know, a work table. A temporary work table because what I've noticed when I was specifically building the cabinetry at the cottage, I had work tables but I didn't have one optimized around a table saw. And table saws already kind of scare me. They are already like the power tool that freaks me out the most. So I really want to build basically a table platform

around the table saw so that when I'm pushing through wood on the table saw, it has a surface for the wood to stay on. Before I would have Romeo like maybe on the other side and he would like pull the wood, you know, out, like he would hold the wood as it like went through or I would just let it fall.

I never properly set up around a table saw to be really safe and efficient. And I want perfect cuts. I would get perfect cuts before, but it was always just like a challenge. I was just kind of like fumbling through using a power tool

and I really want to do, I just want to set myself up for success. So we're going to build it and I want to set it up in the perfect spot that's easiest to bring back there. I want the least amount of steps possible

from my work area outside to where I'm building it. And I'm going to be building my own cabinet doors for it. Learned through the process of doing that at the cottage that I need something super level and probably put weights down on top of it because that was one thing that I was having

a lot of problems with was the cabinet doors kind of like twerking. I don't even know if that's the right word. It would kind of like almost twist and we had a couple of those even from like when you buy them professionally done by a machine. We had a couple of these doors do that too and we had to return them. So having the perfect surface to put

them on and like really doing them right is important. I did tell myself after I did the cabinet doors at the cottage that I would probably never do it again. Like I would buy them already pre-done. So let's see how this goes. If I'm quickly reminded that I do not wanna do a project like that again, then I will like order them. I know where I can get them from,

but I'd like to attempt it again so that I can get everything in like the same wood. At least I only have to do six, I think, because I want three sections and I want two doors each. So it'll be six doors. So I'm thinking I got this. I'm thinking that this is gonna be okay.

I'm gonna put these in the oven, bake these. So I'm gonna get these in the oven really quick and make some breakfast. First batch came out a little bit browner than I'd like. I think I left it in there a little bit too long. So I'm gonna make a quick smoothie for breakfast. A big thank you to Daily Harvest for

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It's nice to have one less thing to think about in the mornings for sure. and all of daily harvest food is 100% gluten-free, dairy-free, nutrient-dense, and made without refined sugar. My schedule and routine has been all over the place the last month, so I've been trying really hard to get back on a really healthy routine, a really scheduled routine, so having a smoothie every morning,

drinking more water throughout the day has been a non-negotiable. Highly recommend you guys try it out for yourself. They have tons of different flavors and you get 15% off your first order of $100 or more. You know, like making cookies and drinking smoothies, it's all about balance.

You can have a sweet treat as long as you're doing good in the rest of your day. At least that's my philosophy on it. We are changed into our work clothes, headed to the hardware store, making a list of the things that I need because I'm also starting a different

project. It's kind of a tester project, a thrift flip project for a friend of mine that I want to test the color that I'm going to do for my bookshelves too because she also wants that color. So I'm like okay this is like coming at the right time. I need some stripper. I don't have any more orange citrus strip so I need that. I need some like screws that I don't have any more orange citrus strip. So I need that. I need some like screws that I really like, multipurpose screws.

And we were just like chatting about it. Don't wanna cut down the plywood that I'm gonna use for the table because I'm gonna have to end up putting it back together because that's how large I want the table to be. I know that I can get it delivered,

but I know it's gonna come at a price obviously but I also need some 2x4s and so I could get all of this delivered. Thinking about ordering the plywood and just getting like the OBSB sheeting it's not the good plywood it's just like what they put underneath your facade of your house it's $12 for a four by eight sheet and you could use it as like sub floor too sometimes. And then I'm gonna get 10 two by fours.

So we don't have to put them in the car.

Oh, what happens if we find something for Halloween though?

Imagine.

To deliver it?

Yeah.

Okay, well, we're gonna see.

It has nothing to do with what we're doing.

It has nothing to do with what we're doing, but. It has nothing to do with what we're doing.

But, if you're willing to deliver something.

I think within reason, it's all the same. It's a flat rate shipping.

You love what one?

Oh, the DJ.

The DJ haunted party, the party skeleton.

I kind of like that. Is that like with an OB? Ah.

Not really, huh?

No.

It's like if you pass by it's going to start dancing.

Or...

Enjoy your own music played by the spookiest DJ in the graveyard.

Kate is like, with his eyebrow, looks just like me.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

He doesn't know what to think.

He doesn't like it though.

I kinda like those ghosts.

Me too.

Those are cute. But they're $100?

I feel like I could like make something like that.

Where's Sally?

I don't know saw Sally right there. Oh, no

That's that's the corpse bride. Our issue is, you know, space like storage Halloween is what takes up the most of our storage So we don't want to get anything so big that we can't like break it down But then they have like the blow-up Halloween decor, but I don't like the way that looks like they're not it's not exactly like the elements that I like I don't I don't like them they look maybe look more cartoonish I guess oh yeah but I do like those ghosts so it's like this

material it's like pretty smooth to the touch actually like not super smooth but smooth enough for like a work table it It's not like wood like this. This is solid. That's plywood. Citrus strip and I'm gonna get the big one because I want to strip his little chair too. Getting some tape but I'm out of tape and I need to tape off the bookshelves. I'm definitely gonna go through some wood glue on this project. There's a product that chalk, I think it's actually Rust-Oleum, makes a like a chalked line and they have this like glaze, decorative glaze, that I think

might give me those like striations or like darker, really glaze it, like darker like grooves in furniture. I think they might have it at a different hardware store. This is interesting. I've never tried this. Color wash, transparent layering color. And this looks with just one coat. Apply a bare wood or layer over any stain. Like, never tried that before.

Comment if any of you guys have actually tried this and it's been successful. I'm gonna go ahead and get it so I have it because I won't try this until after this goes live. So me know because if not I can just return it if it's not a good product. I'll be the guinea pig if we haven't tried it. Look you can totally use something like this um to dissolve old finish in minutes without stripping but literally like danger, poison, like look at all the bad contains acetone, tylol, toluene,

methanol, all the harmful things overexposed like I want to try my citrus strip. I really love these multi-material screws, I use them all the time for so many projects. I like, it sounds like I'm going to be using two by fours to build this table. I need like the three inch, probably actually get two and a half. I don't want them to be too long. Okay, the stuff that I ordered just got delivered. It's the next day. I'm just back in the same clothes.

Couldn't get same day delivery. So I literally spent an hour in my work outfit. I was totally prepared yesterday. I was like, I'm gonna make a home? I don't know why I don't utilize that more often instead of like struggling. At the hardware store, I don't know. I ordered two of these sheeting pieces

because I didn't know if one was gonna be enough.

I don't know.

They weren't very expensive, they were $12. And I ordered 10 two by fours.

I don't know if you guys remember

what we super organized our garage. Like super extreme organized, like finally donated the last bits of things that we didn't really need anymore. And we're able to fit two cars in this garage and it has stayed just perfectly like this. And I just took a few things down

cause I found the bottom to my table saw.

It's up here.

I had to take my table saw apart because it's on legs and I didn't have a way to store it like that It did take me a while to find it though. I didn't know where we put it This is the actual table saw stand and my table saw is here I'm gonna get this down. Oh, okay. Try and keep all of the screws for everything taped to it, like so that I never lose them,

I don't have to go find them. I've been thinking about ways that I could make this table into something that I can break down or store really compactly, like specifically the legs of it, use it again in the future.

That would be like ideal.

So I don't have to do this again when I have my next build idea. And I have like a really good table. Thinking about making the legs kind of on hinges. Essentially the table is going to look like this. The table top, and then we're gonna have horses.

It's gonna be a two by four on top.

Gonna have legs. They go like that.

And then another set back here.

So that's the table.

And then I'm gonna off to the side here, I wanna put a hole in the top of the plywood for the saw. Like that. So I have all of this work area over here. So that's what we're going for here. Table surface area is going to be the size of the plywood sheet.

So it's going to be four foot by eight foot. It felt kind of good to go back into the hardware store. I was so over it from the last project. I needed a detox from it. It's like sometimes you need to step away from even something that you love to do, to reset. Because you know, you start to, you do it so much

and you start to kind of like resent it or like hate it. You just want to do it. Maybe that's just me. You just want to do something different. I didn't want to be in work clothes and be dirty anymore. I needed to step out of it so that I could come back to it refreshed. And so we need to make the hole.

There could be like some space around it for sure. If I make it 28 inches, there'll be half an inch space on each side. 28 inches. Think that that would clear it. 28 inches square.

This top edge to be the same level as the table. 34 inches, exactly. So let's run to the small hardware store and get some hinges. Okay, I'm thinking that these broad hinges, like removable pins,

like the removable pin is a good way to go. It's gonna be really hard for me to like screw them in if I can't get the hinges apart. So I need eight of these and I only have...

Of course, that would be my luck, of course.

Now we can start. Of course, they only had two packs of hinges, so four hinges, and I need four more. So I'm going to see if these work. I can just go to another location and get some more, but I got these that I can remove the pin. So I think they're going to be easier. So I'm making two horses. So I'm gonna get some more. But I got these that I can remove the pin. So I think they're gonna be easier. I'm making two horses. So I'm gonna cut two 40 inch pieces for the top of my horses. Please don't count how many times I say horses

in this vlog, because I feel like it's flush with this piece it's gonna be that tall. I'm gonna go ahead and put one of the hinges on it and just and just see. Trial and error it.

Okay let's see if it even works.

I don't even know.

Upside down.

Yeah.

No.

Yeah.

Oh my god. Yeah. No, yeah. Oh my God. Okay. Work in progress.

Hold on.

All right.

I'm so overthinking this work table. Like it's going in my house as a piece of furniture.

I don't know why, like I want it to be perfect.

And I do want it to be like really like, like strong over anything. You know what I mean? Like it's like, as long as it works. Like I don't care really what it looks like. I got it level just so I could see how tall it's getting. I have this plan now to put like an extra piece of wood here. Stops the feet from kicking out so wide so it kind of like brings them in a little bit so

it's like a stopper in a sense. It's strong like I've been kind of messing with it so well I have this all stacked up but so now I just need to cut the legs down size I need and then I have a guide. I'm like when working on this little bitty table I would never be able to build a piece of furniture with this fold-out table. I have a bigger one than this but still I need a big workspace. I mean you guys that's not too... look it can support my weight! that's not too, look, it can support my weight.

That's not too bad.

I just pick it up and store it. It's not bad. Our Kate and I are on our way to the other like hardware store like that one because I checked online and they had those hinges in stock. So I'm going to grab two more sets so that we can make the other two horses. How many times have I said it? I don't know. Like a lot. The other, the other two legs

for the one horse, I guess. I hope this works. I've never really had a really sound kind of like work table and I know it's not going to be a sound is something that I would like buy I'm just trying to have something that's like really good to like do this cabinet with like I really want to take a really good stab at making it like perfect I remember a girl that I used to work with years ago she lived in an apartment above a barn and she rented it from a lady and then below in the barn part there weren't any animals it was just

like a barn. She lived up top and then the bottom was her furniture. That was her hobby. She made furniture and I remember looking at pictures of some things that she showed me that she made and I was like, oh my god. Like you know she worked with us. I don't remember what she did at the company, but she, you know, just did it on the side for fun and she loved it and she would spend a long time on a piece, you know, like really getting it right. Very like industrial kind of furniture, industrial

and like some mid-century modern pieces. I remember thinking in the moment, like, oh wow, like that's so cool. Like I had no, like at the time I hadn't ever used a power tool. I was very much still in the corporate world. Like I never had done that stuff. I'm still really fascinated by it. I was like, that's so awesome. At the time it was like, I didn't even think about people making their own furniture.

Like it never kind of crossed my mind. Now look at me I'm like trying to make my own piece of furniture like really good piece of furniture. Let's hope that they have Two of these. It did say it was in stock, but you never know

We need one more. We found them. Can you grab that one for me?

I just finished the second horse. It's the next day. We have two of them. Two legs. Like, if my arm span was long enough, I would be able to pick myself up on it.

Oh, nice. You put the other one together. Yeah.

I cut all the pieces yesterday. So I just needed to like... So now I'm going to put 2x4s along the edge here underneath.

So it... Can hold it. Exactly. I'm gonna put two by fours along the edge here underneath so it

can hold it.

Exactly.

Now it doesn't bump. I'm making big pilot holes so my jigs ahead and get this. It's okay, I just need a little bit of space.

Well, I needed it because of this.

Oh, I see.

See how I have to have enough room?

Yay!

What do you think? Pretty good, right?

I mean, it's much bigger than I've ever had,

like around a table saw. You guys, I did it. I do have another piece of plywood that I could add a whole nother, I mean, it could be a huge table, but like why? Like I think that this is gonna do what I need it to do

and I have a really big surface area around it. I'll just have to set up the fold out table next to it or something behind it so that it catches wood. That's my, that's always been my issue. It's like table saws are so big thing. How do you do it if you don't have a big table

and a big workshop? Yeah, this is like more like straight is when I'm like ripping boards like when I when I need a wide board to be skinnier I don't think I'm gonna do much of that if if any but I will be cutting wide pieces that won't go in my my pull down like like Circular saw or needs to go on this. So I'm gonna have this with Hope you guys enjoyed building this with me. We are that much closer to me building a piece of furniture.

I have to do all these steps.

Otherwise I'm not set up for success. And I want to do this really good. Like this, this cabinet deserves to look fantastic. So, fingers crossed, stay tuned for a DIY thrift flip video, some fun, like big, like a big piece and then some smaller pieces that I'm DIYing for a friend while I work on this

and the living room makeover in progress. I'm very, very excited. We have some fun projects coming up and it's like almost fall, which is crazy. I'll see you guys in a few days for another video.

Bye guys.

I love it.

Where are we gonna put it for now? Um...

Right here? See you can work it. I can work it to you. I don't want to.

This right here?

Yeah, I can just work it.

And I'm still working on that. Okay, so right here. Okay. So we can move everything along. So we can move everything along. Yeah, I'll do it.