The Wife has been desiring a printer stand that she could roll under her desk. It’s a simple project to build and I figured it would be a perfect afternoon project to do with the boy. He didn’t need much convincing and was particularly excited when I told him he could paint it.
The overall design was simple: 4 pieces of pine with the top long enough to accommodate the printer, the two middle supports tall enough to offer a little storage but still short enough so the whole things can fit under the desk with the printer on top, and a bottom.
I had the boy help me measure the length of the printer, then I drew up some simple plans. The dimensions were easy, 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. Initially, I drew up a box, but he didn’t like that. So I altered the box by sliding the 2 sides closer together so that the box had “wings.” He liked that one much better. With the design all set, we added up the lengths of wood and then set off to grab some wood to make it.
I guided him towards the pine because I knew that would be the easiest to work with. I sold it to him by telling him it would be the easiest to paint. Then I pointed out some things about the wood to look out for, like rough spots where the planer didn’t cut the board cleanly, and helped him settle on a nice piece of wood.
When we got it back to the shop, he helped measure the length to cut. He even worked up the courage to use my mitre saw to cut the boards to length (with a little help from Dad). After everything was cut, he just wanted to start gluing. But I told him we had a little more to do so that it would be nice and strong. He wasn’t too happy with having to wait to put it together.
I talked him through setting up the dado blade on the table saw, and then how I was setting up the mitre gauge so I could make the cuts. He couldn’t help make those cuts because he isn’t tall enough to work at a table saw. It didn’t take a lot of time and we got the glue up done shortly thereafter, where he helped tighten up the clamps.
Since it was for the Wife, he wanted to paint it purple and red- her favorite colors. A bit garish for my tastes, but it was his call, not mine. He painted the outer portion purple, and the inner boxed are red. Again, I had to help him to make sure more paint ended up on the wood than on the floor (and everywhere else), but he did a nice job.
All that’s left is putting the wheels on the bottom. Then the Wife will have her printer stand, and the boy will have finished his first woodworking project.