DIY Entryway Key Holder with Mail Slot

Hey guys, it's uh handcrafted by jason cooper um got another little project today, not a big one, just a little one, but it's something that's very practical, something just about everybody needs and it's very easy to do readily available materials. Before i start talking about that project be sure you click subscribe here on youtube and uh be notified of when my new videos come out and also be sure to stop by my website at woodwork.cooperjason.com and there you can sign up for my email newsletter and see What else i have on my website, so today's project is a very simple one, like i said, very small one. Actually, you can usually get it done in a day depending on how long it takes for your stain to dry or paint or whatever you end up using, but it's a very simple male and key rack. So we have a little key rack that we use for um. You know all of our keys house keys car keys, but with uh teenage drivers. Now it's filling up pretty good and we needed some more space, some more hooks and uh. We also need a place to put the outgoing mail, so we don't forget it, and so when you go grab your keys, you see that there's mail there to go out, grab it and go put it in the mailbox. So that's what we're working on today again! Very simple, very inexpensive, something you can easily do without a lot of tools and a lot of experience. So, let's get started all right. Let'S talk about materials for this project, i'm going to start with a bundle of lath lath was what they used to use on. Walls before the drywall days, they put these on the wall and then put plaster over them. If you've lived in an old house, you might be familiar, but you can still pick up a bundle of these at the home store for uh. Well, i think it was about 12 to 15 bucks when i bought these, but i know lumber prices have gone up, but they're an inch and a half wide quarter, inch thick and they're, pretty handy for a lot of things. Um i've made some front porch pumpkins out of these painted them orange. You can find details on my website about that. I'Ve made some little boxes for the pantry to hold loose items, makes it very cheaply and easily easy to do, but need to need some of those we're going to rip a couple of them down to thin, thinner, strips rip them in half, basically to three quarters Of an inch and use those you'll see in the project and then a piece for the the main body of the key holder. In my case, i'm just using some scrap plywood. This is half inch plywood. It doesn't need to be anything high quality, we're just going to put this lath right over the top. You just need to think in terms of thickness. So once you put this laugh on there, you need to be able to attach it. Glue will probably do just fine, but i like to put a few nails in there too. In my case, i've got 5 8 of an inch brad nailer brad's for my brad nailer, and i can nail right into this on top of this, because that total thickness will be three quarters of an inch and the nails won't come out the back other than That a couple little pieces of scrap for the sides of the mail slot and you're ready to go whatever stain. You want um and whatever uh clear finish. You want um hooks those kinds of things all up to you, obviously, and then you're ready to make this project first thing. I'M going to do is cut the piece for the body out of the plywood, and my finished piece is going to be 11 inches square plus a little bit of a trim piece around it, a frame around it. So i'm going to rip this just a little bit bigger than 11 inches and then i'm going to true up both edges of the piece um to get it nice and parallel. So now that i've got a nice straight edge on this scrap piece, i'm going to use my cross cut sled and i'm going to square up one corner one side of this. This piece and i've got a video on my cross cut sled. If you want to find out a little bit more, it's not a recording of building it, but i describe it with a little more detail if you haven't built one for yourself, please do they're great, so i'm going to put one of these straight edges that i Just cut against the fence and i'm going to make one cut on the crosscut sled. This gives me one corner that i know is 90 degrees and i'm going to mark that corner keep track of those sides. The next step is to set my fence at the proper width, the final width of 11 inches in my case, and i'm going to run one of those edges against the fence and trim up one edge of the the body and then i'm going to turn it To the other edge that i know was square put that against the fence and run it through. So now i've got a perfect 11 inch square body for my project. So the next step, i'm going to use my miter sled to cut the lath um to length to rough length. Anyway, i'm going to use or leave some overhang on one end: i'm gon na flush, one end of each of them and leave some overhang on the other and then use the table saw later to clean up clean that up. So i'm just gon na start by making some rough marks use my miter sled to cut one end of each board and then just start to lay out and get that like. I said that rough length, my miter sled, if you're interested, i built it using william method and i'll drop, a link to that video in the description below very handy. If you don't have a miter sled go ahead and build yourself one now. The next step is to cut the angled pieces for the two ends of the male slot. Now this is totally up to you exactly what angle you use, and you know it can kind of be whatever you need. You just need a little bit of a flat bottom to it, and an angle that angles up and out away from the body of the key holder. Now, in my case, i happen to have a jig that i use to build cedar wooden stars, and you can view that video on my youtube page as well i'll put a link in the description below um. I just it's. It'S set at 18 degrees. I figured that'll work well, so i just used it to make my two angle pieces, but you might need to use your you know. Your chop saw or something like that to get get two little angle pieces that you're happy with for the two ends of the male slot. The next step i am going to take some of the laugh, cut them to length rough length anyway, and then i'm going to rip them to thinner strips, and these thinner strips, are what i use on the male slot itself and i'm actually going to use the Same basic strips for the frame that will go around the outside of the key holder. One thing i did learn in ripping these thin strips is to cut the lath longer than i need, because a short piece trying to rip it to width. If it's too short it's hard to push through the saw so cut it a little longer, this stuff is cheap material and you can always do something else with the scrap and that'll make it easier to rip it to width of about three quarters of an inch Right down the middle, so now it's time to put the lath on the front of the body itself and, as i mentioned earlier, i'm going to flush up two sides of the square with the 45 degree angles that i cut. I'M going to use some glue and then i'm going to brad nail along the edge of these pieces in order to help hold them down. Now that i have the lath nailed on the front, i'm going to use the two edges that i flushed up put them against the fence, set the width just right for the 11 inches that i had planned and flip it over on its face and trim them Off at the table saw once i've done that i'm also going to put some clamps on them. Some boards across them to help hold these down and just let them sit for a while, while the glue dries once the glue has dried, i can remove the clamps and clean it up a little bit. Look for glue, that's oozed out, uh sand it off a little bit now. Lath is very rough sawn, which is fine. That'S what i want for this look. I want that rough sawn to show through. I just want to give it a little bit of a sanding right now, while it's easy and then i got to cut the pieces for the frame now, i'm going to frame the outside along the edge with one piece and then i'm going to put another piece On the face of the body here, the pieces on the face will help cover the nails and that's going to be two separate pieces, but they're both going to need to be cut at the miter sled to attach the edge frame. I'M going to shift to my pin nailer still going to use some glue and just some pin nails to get these attached to the body. I'M going to leave the face part of the frame off for now and stain those separately and then add them later. The next step is just to do some layout, so i've got my uh face frame pieces just set on there. I want to get the final width for my mail slot uh, so i can cut those to length and get that built before we put some stain on here. So it's just a matter of kind of laying things out. I'M experimenting with placement of the hooks and the male slot, getting that final width, cutting them and just again some you know some glue and some pin nails to put that male slot together. Once i'm happy with what i have it's time to put on some stain now, i just used some stain that i had on hand. It'S uh. I believe it was minwax. Provincial was the color and it really brings out the rough sun look of these boards. Now, obviously, you could choose whatever stain you want. You could even paint these. It'S totally up to you when you build your own once the stain is dry, it's time to nail on the face frame pieces that will cover the edges, where all the nails are from the nailing, the lath onto the body itself, just going to use my pin Nailer and tack these on there real quickly now it's time to experiment with the layout a little bit and make sure i get it where i want it. Um laying out the hooks getting the spacing for the mail slot. My wife reaches in helps out a little bit too, and i want to get those marked before i apply the clear coat, and i put this all together now before i put the final clear coat on i'm going to pre-drill all the holes for the hooks as Well, as for the two screws on each side that attach the male slot from the back once i have everything ready to go, i'm going to clear coat the two pieces separately, the body and the male slot. Just because it's easier to get to i'm going to apply several coats and then come back and give it a light sanding before i put it all together, you so and here's a final look um with it all finished with the hooks attached, and you can really See how the stain brings out the rough sawn look and gives it kind of that. You know rustic feel um, like it's been around for a while. Well beyblade string launcher for watching guys, that's it for today on this project. Hopefully, you found that something very simple that you could do at home too and adjust the measurements. However, you wish to find out a little bit more about the project, be sure to stop by my website. Uh there'll be a link to that post in the description below and be sure to check out. My other videos here on youtube until next time see ya three two one: hey guys: it's uh handcrafted by