Log to Lumber to Finished Project

Reader Contribution by Bruce Mcelmurray

An A-Frame house provides very little room for closet space with the slanted roof. The 45 degree angle where the floor meets the roof has been modified and used for clothes storage by building benches with a hinged top in that difficult to reach and otherwise unusable area. That required getting down on my aging knees each time I needed a clean pair of socks, T-shirt etc. In a prior blog I reported on using our dead standing trees to mill out lumber for several proposed projects. In our semi arid area I had waited a sufficient period of time for the lumber to air dry. When it was workable lumber and reached equilibrium moisture content with its surroundings I made a stand up closet to alleviate that getting up and down each day. Now I have all my clothes in one specific area and can reach them by just opening a door.

Preparing Rough Lumber

To make finish grade lumber I first ran the boards through my planer to get all pieces of lumber a uniform thickness and then edge jointed each piece to have straight boards that I could glue together without gaps in the woodworking joints. The top half of the closet is where I keep hanging clothes and the bottom half consists of two shelves that have a lower door that opens on the opposing side of the closet. Having access from two sides makes greater use of space and makes it easier to access stored clothes.

Prior to building the closet I had to level and cement 1/4-inch plywood to the existing concrete floor to insure a level and uniform floor. I then attached the back of the closet to the wall for stability. Doing one section at a time I constructed the remaining walls of the closet and anchored them together with a brad nail gun along and my pancake air compressor. For an exterior finish I used a high grade oil and wax finish rubbed in that gives the unit a semi gloss seal on the exterior. I previously made a trip to the hardware store where I bought a bottle of Gorilla glue, two sets of hinges, two door pulls and two magnetic door closers. Total cost for the closet was $22 in materials, not including the exterior finish which I had on hand from an earlier project. The lumber all came from the standing dead trees on our property.

While I would like to share my plans for the closet I am unable to do so because I don’t have any plans. I sketch out the design I want to achieve and determine with a tape measure what dimensions I can work within and I start building. I have been utilizing this technique for so long that I rarely encounter a problem during construction. It also gives me the creative freedom to make changes as I progress on the project without rigorously following a specific set of plans.

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