Rolling Cart

Back in August I attended my local Home Depot DIH (do it herself) workshop to make this rolling cart designed by the talented Ana White. 


There were 6 ladies at the workshop and when we got there they had already assembled the cart.  There was no demonstration because they didn't have anyone to actually do the demo but we got to view the completed piece and ask questions. 

I decided to just try to build it on my own.  I left the store with a new Ryobi mitre saw.  I had most of the wood at home left over from other projects.

I have this little niche in my kitchen that could use a cart.  Up until now we've had this lovely ill-fitting sofa table in the spot:

See how nicely the sofa table fits?  :)  So, yeah, almost anything would look better than this.

Ana has detailed instructions on how to build this cart on her site.  I'll give a rundown on my novice experience and point out my issues.  I had to make the cart a little narrower to fit against this small wall, which is about 38".  I reduced the length of the shelves but kept the support pieces as they were.  Mine would just be closer together.  The original cart design was around 48".

The first part was to build the 2 ladder-looking supports.  I used my new mitre saw to make the cuts and unwrapped my Kreg Jig from Haven conference (that I've been hanging onto for a year) to assemble the supports.

Using the Kreg jig wasn't too bad, it was tedious though.  I had to unclamp and reclamp the jig on for each pocket hole.  I was worried the whole time that my pocket holes wouldn't be straight.
  

Finally got all 24 of the pocket holes drilled.

Then I attached to the side pieces.  The big stress here was making sure they were even.  I marked where each board should attach to the side rails and rechecked my measurements.  Here are the finished pieces shown side-by-side to show they are the same.  I would hope there is an easier way to make sure the 2 pieces are uniform rather than measuring with the tape measure 100 times.

OK, here is my first boo boo.  I did not think to hide the pocket holes on 2 of the of the pieces.  The pocket holes should be on the bottom so they are hidden on the finished piece.  Actually these are all covered on the finished piece anyway so really doesn't matter.  But in the future I will be much more cognizant of what side the pocket holes are on.

I decided to try this weathered grey stain. Which ended up looking like a light blue.  I sanded a lot of it off after it dried, then added another coat.  Still looked bluish though.  Later on I brushed on a tiny bit of white paint diluted in water. 

Here is what the finish looks like with the white paint brushed lightly on top of the grey stain looks like:

So my next hurdle was getting the plywood cut down to size for the shelves.  I only had a circular saw to do this and there is something wrong with my saw or I'm using it wrong because each time I go to cut the saw completely stops cutting after a few inches.  Then I had to let the saw rest for a few minutes and try again.  Not only did it make cutting down the plywood I have slow and tedious, it also gave me wobbly edges. 

The sides would be covered up with the 1x2s.  That and caulk made the wonky plywood not too noticeable.  Ideally it would have been best to buy the plywood at HD and have them cut it for me.  Since I already had part of a sheet at home, I couldn't do this.  

The next step was to cut the 1x2's that frame the plywood.  Here is my new mitre saw.  It worked great, easy to use.

I also got to use my Ryobi Airstike nailer which worked so well.   

Attaching the side rails:

Used lots of wood putty.

I primed and painted each shelf white.  Two coats of primer and 1 coat of paint. 

Then it was time to assemble the cart.  I just used the nailer to attach the shelves.  But I soon realized I had a problem.  Check out that gap between the 2x4 and the shelf on the right---eek.

Somehow I made the shelves too narrow or the supports too wide.  I miscalculated a whole inch.  So, I could have taken apart the supports to fix this issue but instead I got super lazy and just assembled the cart and pushed the part with the gap against the wall.

See the gap?

 

 

Now if only I can find the wheels I purchased back in August, I could really call this done.  In the meantime, here it is.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

---Adrienne