DIY Ultimate Cat Tree House

I I feel like I need to say something I don't like cats so if you do good for you I built it for my brother so don't send me pictures just just built it let's go all right folks to get started this project we went with 3/4 in finished grade Oak plywood at your local hardware store it's about 59 bucks a sheet I used about 3 and 1/2 sheets on this particular project to start to finish now one of the first Parts on the project we're going to build the backdrop which everything's going to get secure too to accomplish this it's about 4 and 1/2 ft and and we are going to beef it up a little bit and to Beef It Up We're going to cut 2in long or 2in wide specifically strips and then we're going to trim it out once it's trimmed out we're going to use the same 2in wide strips to fill in the middle as cleats for strength you don't want this thing to flex or warp or bend you want to be nice and strong when it comes to organizing all your layout use blue masking tape and kind of play around exactly where you want all the cabinets and all the floating shelves to go this will help and keep everything easy on the eyes now like I mentioned in my previous videos one of my approaches is to not dictate over this voiceover and bore you with the boring Dimensions that you're not going to write down anyways well perhaps save that for some detailed plans later down the future but I will however give you the general layout of the dimensions all the floating shelves they're about the same they're 4 in thick and 33 in Long now the Cubbies they all vary the bottom one is 18x 18 by 18 and the top one is 14x 18 by8 with a little bit of a slant you can figure that part out or I'll come back with more details later now the drawer is 14x 14 by you guessed it 18 and like you know it's 5x4 the entire thing so that's all I'll give you guys we'll save the boring part and then maybe later on we'll come back with some plans for you so as you see in the video I'm using a battery powered Brad Naylor this is a 16 gauge from rigid it's a brushless it works fantastic it's convenient if you don't have an air compressor 3/4 in 1 and A4 Brads they work great anything bigger 2 and a half like baseboards expect this thing to bounce on you kind of like a framing gun so just just something to keep keep in mind of like I mentioned before everything is going to be assembled through a butt joint so everything's going to be hit with some wood glue and then attached together with 18 gauge brad nails use a little bit of clamping pressure if we needed on certain parts just making sure everything is nice and tight once each individual compartment is done you got your floating shelves you got your cubby holes you got even your drawer once all those things are done they're all going to be mounted the same way a little bit of wood glue on the back and then from the back end of the backdrop we are going to drive inch and A4 to inch and a half screws into each individual separate part now for the cat holes we went on the larger side 8 in typically they range between 6 and 8 for the trim pieces themselves we had a metal shop CNC these brackets for us they're about 50 bucks for two once we got them we traced the hole we laid down tape to prevent chip out drilled the pilot hole and then used a really sharp 3 to 4 to per in jigsaw blade and took our time to actually cut right on the line as opposed to inside or the outside to make sure the area is flush when the hardware goes on as part of the finishing process we're going to edgeband all the exposed ply with the red oak finishing edgebanding veneer we're going to iron all on trim off only the excess sand the edges flush to make it nice and smooth and then we're going to exam the entire project and find where all the Brad nail holes are from all the assembling finishing off with the wood filler that's stainable and then sand our entire project down with light 150 very light don't take off the veneer and then 220 to finish it all off and then stain all right let's talk about the most complicated part of the project like I mentioned is the hardware again they don't sell the stuff so you're going to have to get creative and make it your own went to my steel shop but the Rings like I mentioned they were custom CNC cut the inside diameter was 8 in the wall thickness was 1/8 in and the outside frame was 1 in now for the Post they're made out of the same 065 material that 1/8 in I cut them to be about flush with all all the shelves and then welded on the 1/8 in plates they're about 5x5 plates the tubes themselves are 3 in thickness after all the welding was done I started focusing on the hot bluing process in order to do this I took the map Pro gas and I started heating up the metal and kind of walking with the color changing as it was progressing through the tubes once it was up to Temp I then took oil in fact this is old oil from my truck and I started rubbing it on the metal and let it quench and soak into the pores of the metal as it was expanded and then let it cool down I did the same thing with the Rings as well again heat it up move the color change don't focus on the same spot or else the color would be patchy and then apply the oil once everything was done and cooled off to room temperature take acetone and rub down all of the oil that's resisting still on the metal and then you are ready for installation for installation of the hardware I use black 1in screws are both decorative and functional at the same time I then later on proceeded to apply 3 to four coats of clear satin finish polyurethane using my HBO sprayer it worked fantastically and the coats dried very quickly then I was ready to install the scratch post rope thems the material is called Cecil it's a type of rope the way I secured it is pre-drilling a hole applying a self-tapping sheet metal screw wrapping it around tight and then securing the top end as well this is both decorative and functional at the same time [Music] well that is it for me this week make sure you hit that subscribe button tap the notification Bell and the Mr build it Courage and sweat t-shirts are still out there so go ahead and snag one and support the channel there'll be a link down in the description below tuning out this week we'll see you guys next week see you bye