Category: DIY TV

Here is a recipe for homemade chalkboard paint. Its not rocket science to make, in fact, its real easy. Here we go!

The camera operator loves chalkboard paint, just on the wall, she writes out little quotes and stuff. So I got a bunch of scrap wood and I thought, it’s winter, it’s snowing, and I gotta think of stuff to do in the shop so let’s make some more of these chalkboards. But instead of that using that expensive chalkboard paint, you and I are going to make homemade chalkboard paint.

Get some latex paint and non-sanded grout. I’ve never used non sanded grout before. It’s used for tile. You can buy this in almost any hardware store, but with these two things, latex paint and grout, plus a little bit of water and a brush, and you’ve made chalkboard paint.

The latex paint I have here has been sitting around for a while so the paint needs to be shaken really well. You have the solids settled to the bottom so I actually like to shake the can upside down. Make sure you got that lid on tight. Use what you got for a mixing stick, but bring the bottom of the can to the top. You can see on the mixing stick the solids. Bring them from the bottom to the top, mix for longer than you think one should. It will help.

Here’s the homemade chalkboard paint recipe. One cup of latex paint, one tablespoon of water, two tablespoons of unsanded grout. This is from my friend, Eric, at the RootSimple.com blog. Really brilliant.

How do you measure a cup of paint? You don’t want to ruin your baking measuring cups, right? I have an answer. I’m gonna wanna make two cups of chalkboard paint. So what I did was I got two cups of water and I’m gonna pour it into a yogurt container and then I’m gonna mark that on the side of the container. Then remove the water and pour in your well mixed black paint.

I’m wondering if you can get a smaller box of the unsanded grout, but this is what the hardware store had, so this is what we got. The tablespoon measure we’re using, I stole from our coffee machine. Don’t tell anyone, okay? This grout has kind of a clay like, powdered clay… It’s almost like talcum powder or like cornstarch. Two tablespoons of grout per cup and we are making two cups of chalkboard paint, so we want four tablespoons of grout. And then, for each cup of paint, we want a tablespoon of water. Now we mix. I think that addition of the water is a key thing, ’cause adding in that much of the unsanded grout into thick paint, can make this really thick.

So let’s talk about what we want to do with this. I had an idea for kind of a big chalkboard like our Pallet Frame Chalkboard, and then, maybe, some more neat little chalkboards just on some scrap wood and I happen to be a scrap wood hoarder.

It just occurred to me, if you’re using a can of black paint that isn’t brand new, in other words, you’ve used it for something else, there’s probably plenty of space in the can to make the homemade chalkboard paint. You could just mix everything right in here, maybe kind of guesstimate how many cups of paint are left and then add in the unsanded grout and some water. I just thought of that.

BTW: I’ve found the mix needs a little more water than the chalkboard paint recipe states. It’s like milkshake thick.

I found a stair tread in my scrap wood pile. I think it’s pine, I don’t think it’s oak, but a little cleanup and I think this would make kind of a nice, horizontal, simple chalkboard. I’m gonna put a little bit of a border on it and I don’t have any that blue tape, so we’re gonna… GardenFork’s all about Use What You Got. You know we got? Cheap duct tape. That’ll work, maybe…

The chalkboard paint goes on really easily. I’m wondering, I’m using a chip brush but could you use a paint roller? How would that work? This board has lines in it from the brush. What if we used a roller?

I have another stair tread and I found a mini roller. Mini rollers are great for painting. Let’s roll a second piece of wood and see the textural difference. We’ll let ’em dry overnight and then take a look. I think the clay just thickens the paint up over time, so I’ve add a little more water to make it rollable. I’m didn’t mask the edges this one. I’m just kind of make my own little rectangle. I like the rough, not everything has to be pristine and sharp-edged in my life, so here we go.

Protip: so how do you save the paint roller ’cause we may want to do a second coat or work on some more later? I have a whole video about painting tips and tricks. Here’s one. Take your roller, roll it up with plastic food wrap, and then halfway through, fold the edges over and finish rolling. There you go. That’ll last till tomorrow now.

I really like how both of the DIY chalkboards came out. And we just used wood we had lying around the shop. Nice.

These tool cart hacks will take your rolling tool box from good to wow really good in less than an hour. How cool is that?

What are tool cart hacks? They are simple improvements to your rolling tool box that greatly improve its use in your workshop. I’ve also seen them called tool cart mods. Mods is short for modifications, by the way…

Tools and Parts List These are affliate links

• Drill Driver Combo I Use: https://amzn.to/2tPF5bV
• Step Drill Bit Kit: https://amzn.to/2uAXZTL
• Nut Driver Set: https://amzn.to/2RP4Cdh
• Heavy duty vise https://amzn.to/2v7Wqgl
• 4″ Swivel Wheels https://amzn.to/383l1BK

I bought a quality tool cart, but the wheels weren’t great. I imagine the brand was trying to lower the price and went with cheap wheels. The wheels were plastic and whenever they hit a piece of grit on the floor, the cart would get caught.

I took one of the plastic wheels to the inexpensive tool store, and bought some decent rolling casters that had the same bolt pattern as the originals. Replacing them took about 10 minutes. Done.

My tool cart hack was to get my socket set in a drawer, yet keep them organized. There are socket organizers you can buy, but I had a simple solution I pulled apart the hinge on my plastic socket case, and slid the bottom half of the socket case into the tool tray. It fit just fine.

I use the top of my tool cart as a portable work surface, but its hard to hold stuff when you need to work on it, or weld something together. I have had a decent vise laying around (a friend gave it to me a while back) so I drilled 3 holes and mounted it on top. I did not drill a hole into the corner of the top, as the bolt would get in the way of the drawer mechanism. The 3 bolts hold the vise on the cart just fine.

Make these simple DIY Rolling Garage Shelves

My Tool Cart Hacks, the video:

How you doing? You guys like rolling tool carts and Labradors, right?

Camera Operator: Yes.

I just got a new rolling tool cart. I been thinking that I could upgrade it, to make it more than the good rolling tool cart it is right. So today I’ve got for you and me three tool cart hacks. With a little help from my friends here. Ready?

Camera Operator: Ready.

I don’t like these wheels. I mean rolling tool carts are competing on price a lot of the time. And you, ya know you want one that’s not too expensive. But the wheels, they get stuck on any little pebble you have in your garage. So I had a simple upgrade for that. Again, not a big fan so let’s take the wheels off. They come off pretty easily. At least on this rig it does.

I’ll link to the tools I use below. Couple of ’em are nice. So what’s really cool about this one. There’s a threaded plate in here already. So the nuts aren’t falling into the bottom drawer. That’s nice. okay next, take this to your local tool store. I went to, let’s just call it the inexpensive tool store. You know which one it is probably. This, I wanted to match this same bolt pattern and I upgraded to these. These are a heavy duty rubber caster. These’ll roll better, and has the same plate pattern, bolt pattern, and the tool cart comes with two swivel and two locked wheels. And I splurged and got four rolling wheels. Which will make it much easier to push this thing around.

That’s my visual for pushing it around. Push this thing around your shop. Learn from me. Don’t sock these in tight till you have all four screws in. Now, you can tighten ’em up. A vast improvement! I mean look at that, it’s like. What do I do with these now? Let me know in the comments. Can we make something? Should we keep these? Do I give ’em away? Let me know, comments below. Meanwhile, let’s spin this some more.

So, like you, I bought a new socket set. Cause, well I got a hole in the roof here, and it rained right onto my socket set and it was bad. So now I have some spare sockets. But anyway, how, you know you got this big case thing and you want to have your sockets in a drawer or something. I figured this out. So you can buy all sorts of socket organizers for your drawers right. Here we go. That kinda occurred to me the other night and I thought, I mean yeah you could tuck it in with some foam or something. But it’s already organized, and you just pulled the hinge off. And now you’re good to go. I thought, well I was pretty happy with that. You let me know what you think.

Camera Operator: Ouch!

By the way I said three tips, there’s four tool cart hacks. The bonus tip will be at the end of the video. So stick around I think you’ll like the bonus tip.

You wanna do some welding. I have some welding videos by the way. Or you wanna do maybe some cutting with this. But your rolling tool cart, and I use this as a work surface. There really isn’t a way. Well you just, it’s hard to hold stuff on top of your cart.

My show is all about “Hey let’s try this, “and see what happens”. So let’s put this on. I mean would it work, I don’t know, let’s try. Let’s mark the center of that hole. I’m gonna use a center punch, so we can drill right where we want to. I really like these step drill bits, they’re kinda fun.

Friend of mine gave this to me prolly five, six years ago. It’s been sitting around in my shop and I was almost ready to like give it away and then I was like. Work bench, I mean not work bench. Rolling tool cart, I can say that word. So anyway this, right there. Lock washer, kind of interesting bolt came with it. This is that part where you’re you’re kinda doing it upside down and backwards. So I didn’t put this in the video, buy maybe you’re like me. I’ve made three trips to my basement workshop. Just to get the bolts and stuff to put this thing on here. Now I’m like “Oh, I forgot that thing”. And I forgot some other stuff so I’ll be going back.

But anyway, this on here. Nice! How cool is that? Oh, let me tighten it up over here. All right, nice! All right question for you guys. How do I put these, well, those are sticky drawers. How does this sit in there? Let me know in the comments. Cause I learn from you all right?

Now, the bonus tip. So when you buy your rolling tool cart. It’s always got these advertising stickers on it. And I can never figure out a great way to get ’em off. But wait, heat gun. Careful when using this. But, heat gun takes this off really nice.

You want to hang shelves on cement block, a cement wall, or hang shelves on cinder block. I’ll show you how, watch this video and read through the steps. I’ll also list out the best tools and screws for the project below, OK?

Working as a contractor in New York City, I have been asked many times to hang shelves on cement block, also known as CMUs or cinder block. They are basically all the same thing, though they may have slight differences. Some may be solid block, some may have holes in them. The method to drill into them and hang shelf brackets is about the same.

Some Key Tips To Hang Shelves On Cement Block:

• Do not drill into the joints between the blocks.
• Use A Hammer Drill.
• Have a Shop-Vac or vacuum hose right under where you drill.
• Size the screws to the weight that will be on the shelf.

I often seen projects where the DIY person has drilled into the masonry joints of a wall instead of drilling it into the cement block. Its much easier to do, but the screw has a good chance of falling out. The masonry joint can easily crumble, and then your bracket falls off the wall. Not Good…

Watch my video about the perils of drilling into masonry joints here and my video on how to hang shelves on brick here.

First figure out what it is you want to hang on a wall. Is it a shelf to hold stuff? How heavy is the stuff?

That will answer what kind of shelf brackets and screws to buy. If it is light stuff, you can get simple brackets and use screws with lead anchors. If its a heavier thing, you will need concrete lag bolts (aka Tapcons or Tappers) and stronger shelving brackets.

Tapcons require a specific size drill bit. Be sure you have the right one, or you can buy one with the screws/bolts. Lead anchors are a little more forgiving in respect to drill bit diameter.

BTW, if you want to hang floating shelves, keep in mind they don’t hold a lot of weight. DO NOT try to put a TV on a floating shelf, OK?

To me, floating shelves are a pain, but I’m not an interior designer.

The key tool for this project is a hammer drill. The one I have linked to here is affordable and will do all sorts of stuff for you. You can not only drill into cement and brick, but also use it to mix 5 gallon buckets of paint. You will be happy you bought one, OK?

A regular corded drill, or cordless drill, will not work when drilling into cement. Many have tried and failed. Make your life easier, get the right drill.

You will need a masonry drill bit set for your drill. Don’t cheap out on the drill bits, you get what you pay for.

Place your shelf brackets on the wall where you want your shelf. Be sure the screw holes on the brackets are not centered on the masonry joints, and mark the holes on the cement wall. Use a level to make sure each bracket is level on the wall and the brackets are level with each other.

When drilling, go straight in and straight out. Do not ’round out’ the hole, the cement lag bolt needs a precise diameter hole or it wont work.

If using lead anchors, tap them into the holes, and then use a cordless drill to screw the brackets into the wall. If using cement lag bolts, use a socket wrench or a cordless impact drill to screw them in. Do this carefully, do not over tighten the bolts, or they can strip out the hole you just drilled.

Finally, do an idiot test. See if the shelf will hold the weight intended. You don’t want your prized object to fall off the wall.

Tool List

Hammer Drill

Masonry Drill Bit Set

Magnetic Level (really cool, IMO)

24″ level

Cordless drill driver set

I am a big fan boy of this Bosch Cordless drill driver set. It has the power of an 18 volt cordless tool, but its only 12 volt and fits in your pocket. I no longer use big cordless tools, I use these. And they recharge quickly.

Here is the video transcription:

You hang shelves on cement block? Today, I’m gonna show you how. Ready, here we go.

I’m gonna try to be a little clairvoyant here. You went to the hardware store, you bought a masonry bit and some kind of hardware to hang your shelves on cement block and you took your regular old drill and it went nowhere. So then you went to the internet and you found Eric. Welcome.

This is a cement block. This one’s a little dirty ’cause it’s been in my basement, this wall’s a little dirty, but what I’m gonna show you, the techniques are the same, the challenge here is you have to drill through this to hang something on the wall. And that can be daunting but I’m gonna show you how to do it.

You need a couple tools though, okay? What you’re missing is this and some knowledge. This is a hammer drill, don’t be daunted by that name. This is an amazing tool, that I think you should consider adding to your toolbox. I’ve had this one forever, I’ve used it a lot and it was inexpensive.

And what it is. But what it does, in addition to turning, it is percussive, it hammers. So it takes this drill bit and goes. All while turning it at the same time into the cement. That is key. If I was organized, I’d actually get things done.

All right, so you want brackets on here. There’s a couple ways you can do it but basically you’re gonna need some sort of screw into there, right? I really like these, these are a masonry lag bolt. A commercial name is Tapcon or I think Tapper is another one. But, it’s a double threaded lag bolt. I think these are just fine for some angle brackets to hold up a wooden shelf. If you’re holding a very heavy TV you might need some thicker ones.

Lead anchors are another choice. I like these when it’s not as heavy of a thing that you’re going to hang. These are lead, you don’t wanna handle ’em too much. ‘Cause they’re lead. See on the side here the diameter of the drill bit you need. But you look on the side here what diameter you need. Drill the hole, put this in. Put the screw in. Butter. Done.

The masonry lag bolts have a specific diameter drill bit that you need. I just, a lot of times I just buy a new one, ’cause I wear these out. The trick here is when we’re drilling this in straight in, straight out, don’t round it out because this won’t be able to bite then. Learn from me. Who’s rounded out this?

So I’m gonna show you how to do both of these. I have to mount, well it’s a water pump. It’s a cast iron water pump from my spring, it’s part of a longer video I’m making. These are what I wanna use, but for you I’m gonna show you how to do these as well. Come along, let’s go.
So when we’re figuring out where we want this to be for drilling the holes, do not drill into the masonry joints. Not here, not here. You wanna drill into the cinder block itself, okay? Use a small level to make sure your bracket is level. That’s important. First the lag bolt, okay? Ear protection, no, eye protection, and ear protection is a must. This drill makes a lot of noise and it’ll throw out cement so, careful.

Bigger drill bit for the lead anchor, okay? There is a lot of dust when drilling cement. Put your shop vac or your vacuum or a dust pan right underneath it, sucks all of it out. If you’re doing this in someone’s living room put a vacuum underneath it then drill, okay? Learn from me, what have I done before? Dust, everywhere.

Lead anchor goes into the wall. Stick around to the end here because once we get the brackets up we still have to test the weight. Did I actually do what I’m, do I know what I’m talking about? You wanna know that, right, so stay to the end. This, in there. Brackets on, weight on. See what happens.

So to put in the concrete lag bolts you have two choices. Impact driver, I really like these, I’ll link below. I’ll link below to all the tools I’m using. Or, a ratchet. First time out, consider using a ratchet ’cause if you spin this out, because you can put this in too tight, and rip out the cement that’s holding this in you have to re-drill the hole. So, I’ll show you both ways, okay?

Don’t over-tighten this, okay? Like that. And stop. Nice. So, look at this, this is the lead anchor screw here. Much thinner. This is much more robust. But it just depends on how much weight you’re going to hang as to which one of these to use, okay? Lighter weight. Heavy weight.

So I’ve got a level across the two brackets here. I’m making sure I’m not going into the cement seam. Looks good, that looks level. Make the marks, and drill. Did you notice something there? I had the drill set on reverse. Yeah, don’t do that. You should always do kind of an idiot weight test before you put the very special thing on the shelf.

BTW if you want to organize the tools you are acquiring for all these DIY projects, see how my friend Erik does it at Root Simple.

Learning how to mud and tape drywall corners is like most things. The more you do it, the better you get. Here’s a video showing how I do it. You can also see how we mud and tape drywall joints in a video here.

Steps to Mud and Tape Drywall Corners

• Get the joint compound smooth like cake frosting.
• Lay down a thin layer.
• Apply wet tape.
• Apply thin layer over tape.
• Repeat.

That’s about it. You will get better with the mud and tape drywall thing as you go along. Breathe and go slow. Put down lots of tarps. Play podcasts like GardenFork Radio!

Since making this video, I have started using a new corner tape that has a metal corner built into it. This makes things much easier. But use what you got, you know? The new corner tape has a hard metal corner in the center and paper edges, but it sits nice in the corner and can cover over badly done corners.

For outside corners, if the area will get a lot of traffic, go with the all metal corner bead. It can be beat up more. It takes longer to mud in, but its worth it. Having things bang into the corner can damage a wall, as you probably know.

My other secret to mud and tape drywall corners is to not sand, but wet sponge the compound after it dries. Might seem counter-intuitive, but it works nicely, as you can reshape the compound. And it creates NO dust, which is the thing I hate about mud and tape projects.

Keep in mind you can always hit the re-do button on drywall projects. Joint compound is very forgiving. It is REAL important to keep the bucket of compound pristine. Always put back the thin plastic sheet to keep it moist, and the hard cover to keep debris out. If you get dust in the bucket, its bad. You will not be happy.

How To Mud and Tape Drywall – GF DIY Video

I am new to welding, so I call this video Beginning Flux Core Welding. I hope to inspire you to try flux core, and walk you through some tips to get started. After watching this first video, you can see how I have progressed in this welding repair video I did for my neighbor.

Full disclosure, I am an amateur welder, still learning as I go. If you have any suggestions on how I can be a better welder, comments are greatly appreciated.

Beginning Flux Core Welding, How To Get Started

I consider Flux Core the gateway welding method. The welding machine can be bought cheaply, so you can start welding without a huge investment. If you decide you want to do more welding, you can upgrade your equipment. The gear I list below is perfect for someone who is happy to have a simple welding kit in the garage for doing repairs and small projects.

Safety First! You HAVE to use a full face welding helmet. Flux Core puts off UV light, and your face needs to be protected. Do not use welding goggles that are used for gas welding, you will burn your face. Wear long sleeves(ideally a welding jacket) work boots, and tie back any long hair. Weld outside, flux core puts out a lot of smoke.

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The metal you want to weld needs to be clean, no paint, rust, just bare metal. A right angle grinder with a metal grinding disc makes short work of cleaning up the metal. After you weld, clean up the bead with a wire brush.

The above photos show how the welding tip goes from off to on very quickly. As soon as the wire touches the metal, the spark starts!

The hardest part of beginning flux core welding is just that. The starting part. It can be hard to figure out just how far to keep the wand from the work, how fast to set the wire feed, and what power setting to set the welder to. And when you start welding, its a lot of light and sparks and arcing sounds.

But like most things, the best way to learn is to just start. I have collected metal bed frames left out for recycling pickup. You can also stop by your local metal shop and ask to buy some scrap pieces. $20 of scrap metal is plenty to start.

The photo above show just how amateur I am with my welding. I am moving the wand too fast. I need to keep the wire feeding into a pool of melted metal. You can see this with your helmet on. But it does take practice.

This photo shows how you can blow a hole in your metal, the part on the right there. But then the weld on the left is am improvement. Keep the tip moving in small ovals, and build up a pool of metal. What is cool is you can actually see the angle iron metal melt and mix into the pool of wire you are feeding in.

The hole in the metal happens when you stay too long in one place, or the power is too high. In this case, I am trying to weld thin metal (the cabinet) to a thicker metal (the angle iron). When welding different thicknesses, keep the wand over the thicker metal most of the time.