The two things I’ve made with grid beam so far:
- A workbench, made basically according to the Grid Kit template and the first project in the Grid Beam book. I made it with an offset frame to avoid cutting notches in the plywood. This was made out of cheap construction-grade 2x2s, so the wood has dried out in the year since I made it and I have to tighten the bolts every so often, and I wish I had used 3/4" plywood instead of 1/2", but it’s been very useful.
- A stepstool for my old dog to get onto our couch, using this GridKit template. This was made from a bunch of painted redwood balusters that someone gave away on Craigslist. I’m in California, which is prime territory for scavenging lumber online.
These are basically the first things I’ve made out of wood and tools, in my life. My momentum has waned somewhat since I built these, because 1) I want to iterate on my drilling jig and haven’t found the time to experiment with improvements, and 2) my next project is a wall-sized shelf that is going to require drilling a lot of sticks.
…but I still think about it all the time. I hope to get back to it soon, and am inspired by the increased activity on this forum!
For nuts and bolts, I got “weld nuts” from McMaster Carr, and bolts from Hafele: bolts, nuts
