Digitalquill

Well its Christmas again, it only seems like 5 minutes from last year, this year has been packed with so much for us. I will write more in a new year posting but just to say to all my friends, family and all my readers a Merry Christmas. May the Christmas period be a peaceful and happy one for everyone.

As a listener to Radio 2 and a signed up TOG, i thought I would try and Support Sir Terry Wogan in his bid to become the Christmas number 1. All the Presenters of radio 2 created an album called Bandaged’ for children in need. Sir Terry and Aled Jones recorded Little Drummer Boy, and they have decided to release this as a single on the 8th of December as a bid to become number 1 for Christmas.

Having heard that the collapse of Woolworths was going to make this a harder task than it would have been I wanted to try and support this bid for two reasons, firstly it is for Children in need and any money that can be raised for this worthy cause is worthwhile and secondly I am fedup of the xfactor trash that seems to have owned the Christmas number 1 for the last several years. Lets get behind Terry and Aled and get this to number 1 and boot out the fake X Factor rubbish.

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This year Christmas is going to be very different for us. Regular readers of my blogs will know that 7 months ago saw the arrival of our first child. Eva is now doing very well, crawling around and almost standing up. She is into everything, if she sees something that she is interested in she has go grab for it.

We would normally have the Christmas tree on the floor in the bay window, however, Eva would easily be able to grab at it. It is not that stable and could easily be pulled down, so, for that reason one of the baby proofing projects that I thought I would blog about was making a stand for the Christmas tree, moving out of the reach of little hands.

I am lucky in that I have a load of 18mm MDF left over from shelving out the garage, this would make the ideal material for the box I was making. It needed to be 600×600 mm in order to be big enough for the base of the Christmas tree and 500mm high, which would hopefully be just high enough to keep out of Eva’s reach while being low enough for her to be able to see the tree.

So here is my quick step by step guide on creating a Christmas tree stand

1. Cut the top piece at 600x600mm, a front piece at 600x500mm and two sides at 582x500mm. I am leaving the back open but you could easily add a back if required, as this backs up against the wall, we will be able to use the box to store things that we do not need over Christmas.Although the Dewalt Saw bench makes life allot easier, you can do this project using hand tools only.
   

   Dewalt Saw Bench with Side extension

   

   MDF Cut to Size

2. Take the top and measure in 18mm (or what ever thickness paneling you are using) in from the front, left and right edges and draw a line as shown in the picture below. Make sure you mark the underside of the top as we will be fixing our joining bars to this line later.
   

   Mark 18mm round the edge of the top

3. Cut yourself three jointing bars, I used some off cuts of 25x30mm pine I had lying around, these do not have to look great as they will be hidden. These need to span between the marks you have just made on the top of your stand.
4. Put the bars in place with one edge on the 18mm line you have just drawn and draw down the other edge. This will then provide you with a guide where to drill your pilot holes.
5. Drill through between these lines. I put 4 screws in each bar.
6. Flip the top over and countersink the screw holes to make a nice finish on the top.
7. Flip the top back over and put the front bar in place, making sure it is lined up with your original lines, especially the 18mm line, then clamp it in place. I used a quick grip clamp but a G-Clamp of any sort would do. If you wanted you could put some wood glue in between the bar and the MDF but I did not bother.
   

   Clamp the bar to the underneath of the Top

8. You can now torn the top back over, taking care not to move the bar, and screw through.
9. Repeat this process with the two sides until you have them all secured.
   

   All the bars secured on the top

10. Put the front panel into place and draw a line onto it at the top of the wood bar. This gives you where you can drill along the top of the front.
11. Measure and mark and line 18mm in from the edges of the front panel
12. Cut two jointing bars that will be secured to the front panel, these will be used to secure the front and the sides together.
13. Place them onto the front along the 18mm line, being sure to leave enough room at the top for the existing bars on the top of the box and draw a line down the outer edge.
14. Drill your pilot holes through on the front panel for the top and the sides and countersink them all
15. Secure the side bars as we did with those on the top
    

    Secure side bars to the front and drill pilot holes to secure it to the top.

16. Take the two sides and mark lines on them where they meet the top and the front, again drill and countersink your screw holes
17. It is now time to screw it all together, first secure the front to the top, making sure everything is in alignment, then secure the sites to the top and finally the sides to the front.
18. Your box is now made and should be strong enough to hold the biggest of trees especially if you have used 18mm MDF like I have!
19. As I was doing this as a project for Baby Eva, I wanted to round off the corners, so I used the router with a rounding bit along the edges of the top and the front.
    

    Round the edges with a router

20. Finally I used Christmas paper to decorate it, sticking it to the box with PVA glue and here is the finished article.

I will publish a follow-up article when we have the tree up so I can get a pic to show the finished article