As many of you know,
every year at this time
Marc Spagnoulo over at The Wood Whisperer
takes time out of his schedule to raise money
to fight cancer.
And I'm pleased that this is the second year
he's asked me to be involved.
But the best part about this is
you can help us raise money
just by building a toybox
For every toy box you build,
Marc and I will each donate $5 to the
Cancer Research Institute.
Plus, Marc's lined up a whole bunch of
corporate sponsors and we're really hoping
we can raise $15 this year.
No wait...
$15,000!
The only thing we ask is that you
stay within the spirit of this fundraiser and
build a toybox that looks similar to my box
or the one that Marc has made.
Both boxes have this unique side feature
where kids can take books and display them
or I suppose they could even keep crayons
or art supplies down in there.
Both boxes have a lip all the way around the top
so that kids can build whatever they want on top of it.
My box is a little bit different in that
the lid just comes off so that kids
can set this on the floor and maybe build with Legos
and still be able to get inside the box.
We have free plans for both versions
down in the description and more information
on how you can get involved.
I'll also have a little bit more information
at the end of this video.
All of the boards for the frame are 3.5" wide.
I'll cut them all at the same time on my miter saw.
I cut them a little oversized to begin with
then I clamp them all together.
Then I can measure the actual dimension.
This will be really easy to join this all together
using my pocket hole jig.
I'm going to glue and screw this together.
I'm assembling the front and the back first.
These are going to be the legs.
I want the bottom of the toy box
to be an inch and a half up
so I'm going to use this inch and a half board
as a spacer.
These boards will join the front and back together.
Now I just flip it around and put the other side on
the same way.
So that gives me the framework.
And I just realized where I screwed up.
Do you see it?
Yeah, my pocket holes are on the outside
on this side.
They're not supposed to show.
They're all supposed to be on the inside.
You know what that means?
That just means that now I know
which side of the toy box is the front
and which is the back.
This side will go against the wall!
The 1.5" pieces are going to make a
ledge all around the bottom
to support the floor of the toy box.
These boards are kind of warped
so I had to use a lot of clamps
to force it into position.
But now I can tack it down with my nail gun.
Of course, you could just drive in some nails
with a hammer if you don't have a nail gun.
Or just clamp it up and wait
for the glue to dry.
I've got two more that are going to
go on the top.
I'm using quarter inch MDF for all the panels.
These short braces are all the same length.
I'm going to glue these two
on top of the box floor.
And glue in the rest of the pieces.
One nice thing about using pocket holes
is that if you screw up the placement of them,
like I did,
you can fill those holes with either a dowel
or with these specially cut plugs
that the manufacturer sells.
That just means putting a little glue in the hole
and sliding these in.
If you use a dowel you'll just have
more of the end to cut off.
Once I get those sanded down, you'll never know
they were there.
Well, sort of.
I'm gluing these strips onto a 1/4" pieces of MDF.
This will be the lid.
Since this is the top of the lid,
I'm going to flip it around this way
to put on these little cleats.
They extend just a quarter inch
beyond the bottom of the lid.
A little 60 grit sandpaper goes a long way
to make those little uneven areas disappear.
You can fill in any of these unfortunate spots
with spackle.
I sand off the spackle with 120 grit sandpaper
and ease over all the sharp edges.
This lip around the lid will hold it into place.
That's all there is to making this toy box.
It's a really easy project and I hope you get involved.
Also, if you would like to own this toy box
I have it up for auction,
you can place a bid on it.
The only stipulation is that I'm not going to
ship this box.
It's just too big and heavy to ship.
So if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area
and would like to place a bid
you can just drive over here and pick it up
we'll load it into your car and it's all yours!
And don't forget, 100% of your winning bid
will go to the Cancer Research Institute.
Please check down in the description for all the
details of how you can get involved,
how you can build one,
and where to submit your photographs.
Don't forget, the submission deadline is
November 30th.
Thanks everybody,
let's get building!
I hope to see a lot of toy boxes this year.