Not much progress for the last two weeks but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. We had Holly for two weeks and I spent as much time with her as I could. The best two weeks of my life.
The last thing I did was cut a window in the wrong place so I made a patch for the hole.
Tonight I made a circle cutting jig for my router and cut the archway for one of the sidewall doors. We finished cutting and routing the doorway and called it a night. (The arch came out really nice)
John Blake Online 
Hi I saw your comment on the Intructable. I was mentioning I was making one of these based off that design. I see you are using a router. In the Instructable he says he used a jigsaw, but I didn’t think I could do all those layers and have them line up. So I built a jig to hold the pieces and routed them out. I have learned so many tricks now for the arches, doors, tower decorations. My daughter is going to be thrilled. I will check back to see how this is coming along.
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Sounds like you are way ahead of me. Do you have any progress pictures? I only started doing wood working in the last year so I have learned quite a lot doing this project too. Good luck with it and let me know how you’re coming alon.
Thanks, John Blake
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I posted two pictures on the instructable page in response to your comment. I have been taking pictures and writing notes down so I can hopefully provide other people step by step instructions on that site. I see a lot of people are bummed when then find out that awesome project has no plans. I am about to prime the towers and front wall. I went with 4 sided towers. Are you going to try and tackle the 8 sided ones? If you have a table saw or a Kreg Ripcut, you can do it . It really takes a nice straight cut though or you will spend a lot of time trying to get things lined up.
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Yes, I’m going to attempt to duplicate his design exactly. I was disappointed that there were no plans so I decided to reverse engineer his design. I will share my design and construction techniques with anyone that wants them. I’m going to try making the 22 1/2 degree cuts with my Lowes portable contractor saw. Hopefully I won’t go broke buying wood filler.
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Durhams Water Putty – Dries fast, 10$ for a gallon, as hard as plaster.
Real Joint Compound (<$10) lightly on the MDF edges will help the primer coat even out.
This project will propel you upwards in woodworking. I think it is cool that you are doing it. Looking at your pictures, you are doing great work. The cuts look great and the scale looks accurate. I took wood shop for 4 years, built many MDF speaker enclosures as a kid, and did about 10 years of construction, mainly installing doors and windows. I can build things to a rough finish using my 20+ yr old Skil Worm Drive Saw. I have expanded my tool set in recent years and find the double bevel miter saw, Kreg RipCut and a Router (w/ accessories and creativity) are essentials. I wish I could get a decent table saw, but I don't have the space.
The finishing part is the most frustrating part for me which is why I spent a lot of time making the router templates perfect. Even with those, I am having to use the rasp, detail sander, belt sander, drum sander attachment, Water Putty and Joint compound to get that smooth look. In his pictures, what really impressed me was how it looks like the finish on some of the kids composite toys. He also has good design aesthetics, as the proportions complement each other, and where I might put a flat bottom on something, he makes it look professional (under the light box).
I am curious on the sides and back, what are the dimensions of those panels? I know a sheet is 49" x 97" and that must be close to 70" high x 80" long. Did he join 2 sheets ?
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