Making a ladder
Currently our two daughters are sharing a bedroom. Its a decent size room but they have a lot of stuff. Even with bunk-beds, we find ourselves searching for wall space for bookshelves to help ease the mess. One of the biggest culprits we have is the ladder that leads to the top of the bunk bed. Its one that comes out a good 4 feet from the bed in order to provide a safe way for a young child to climb up.
My oldest is now 7 and I figured it was about time she was able to climb a vertical ladder without problems. So I set out to make one…
During lunch one day I headed to my local Lowes and grabbed the following materials:
- 1″x3″x6′ Aspen (2)
- 1″x3″x4′ Aspen
- #6 1-1/2 inch screws (8)
- Total cost = $14.80
I started out by cutting the 6′ boards down to 5′. This gave me an extra foot of board to use for a ladder rung. It also reminded me of why I need to put a Miter Saw on my Amazon wish list this year. Using a heavy circular saw for everything is not ideal (see picture)
After cutting the 5′ pieces I decided that it would be safer and more secure if I was able to notch out where the rungs would be attached to the rails. I proceeded to lower the depth of my saw,clamp down the pieces of wood and draw out my rung lines. I then took a few swipes at the area with the saw, breaking out the remaining pieces and using my dremel to make it all smooth. By they way. Every man should have a dremel. Best tool ever. A tablesaw would have been a much better tool for this task. Amazon wish list. Check.
After getting my rung notches perfect, I cut out a few more 1′ pieces from the remaining 4′ board that I bought. I only needed 3 but I ended up with 5. I took the 3 that had the straightest line (see above picture of my great cutting) and proceeded to sand them down.
After all sanding was complete, I assembled the rungs to the rails using small pilot holes to prevent splitting. (a tip I learned from my Dad years ago at a 4-H meeting. See Dad. I do listen!) Once the holes where drilled, I grabbed a larger bit in order to be able to sink the screws below the surface without damage to the wood (another tip from Dad). I screwed the entire thing together, put on the bunk-bed clamps and brought it upstairs to try out.
The girls loved it and I am pretty proud of the end result myself. It took about 3 hours total, spread throughout the day.
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Your wife greatly appreciates the space this opened up in the girls room. You have some “Mad Ladder Making Skills!”
It rocks!
Thanks honey!
I liked the sequence of pictures you took with the progression of the job. It also shows what a great job you did. The finished product picture shows how much space you freed up compared to the first picture. I am like wow! nice work. I am also like, all those years I really thought my kids never heard a word I said. Those little extra pieces of effort you put into the project really made for a great looking finished product. Way to go!
Love Dad
I am going to be posting another project this weekend of what took the spot of the original ladder. Once you see that picture, you will really see how much space it allowed us to get back.
I took in a lot of knowledge from those years of watching you do projects. Time well spent!
Tyson–you did a fantastic job on that–nice going. I bet the girls loved it. Tom
They really do enjoy the new ladder. And the room is saves us has been awesome.