DIY Fitness Club

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Chalk Bowl

PJ

Intro

I received a request from @VintageWeightsPGH (Instagram) to design a chalk bowl. He helped consult on the some of the features of this chalk bowl design.

Check him out: https://bit.ly/3CT93Lb - and let him know that I sent you!

I had a blast making this video. It was a relatively easy project to make, and will get a lot of use!

Here is the video:

I designed this for the novice woodworker with limited tools. The aim of the design is not to be a beautiful piece of woodworking. The design is centered on function only.

Having said that, if you elect to use more advanced/prettier joinery methods (e.g., a “mitered butt” joinery method as opposed to a “basic butt” joinery method) – go for it.

Tutorial

Step1:  Select Bowl

I originally bought a very ornate bowl with large handles (with a Lid) for $6 from Goodwill. However, I soon realized that the bowl was too shallow for the chalk blocks. Further, the handles on it made the design more complicated and/or would result in an unnecessarily large footprint for the unit. Therefore, I raided my kitchen (don’t tell my wife) and found a mixing bowl which measured out at 9.75” from the edge of the lip to the other edge of the lip. The Lid to my ornate Goodwill find DID nicely fit my mixing bowl - and this is what I ended up using as the lid.

Step 2: Setup Plywood Sheet

I used 0.354” thick plywood, but use whatever is convenient for you.

Step 3: Determine Required Footprint

To determine the size I placed my bowl onto the plywood with 2x3s around the bowl. I wanted to keep the unit as small as possible so I did not leave a large gap between the bowl and the 2x3s.

Additional consideration: If you want to hang the unit on a wall where the fasteners are drilled into TWO studs, you will want to make your unit wider so that you can easily drill into 2 studs (which are likely to be 16” on center if you live in the USA). However, I elected to keep mine more compact, and made my foot print 13.75” x 13.75”

Step 4: Cut 2x3 Lumber to accommodate desired footprint

I cut the four pieces of lumber into the following lengths:

  • ONE 13.75” Long

  • TWO 12.25” Long

  • ONE 10.75” Long

When these 2x3s are assembled together, they yield a 13.75” x 13.75” Square

Step 5: Cut Plywood

For this step you will needs a saw (i.e., Circular saw with clamps and a straight edge, or if you have access to one: a table saw). Obviously, the square I cut was 13.75”

Step 6: Measure and Mark the Center Lines on Plywood

Use a tape measure and a carpenter’s square to find the vertical and horizontal centers of the plywood, and mark with a pencil. Where these lines intersect should be the center of your plywood.

Step 7: Center the Bowl on Plywood & Mark Position

Place the bowl on the plywood in the center, and measure on all four sides. Since we have a perfect square of plywood, the distance from the bowl to all four edges should be the same. When it is centered, trace the bowl’s edge on one of the axis lines (one of the lines you drew in Step 6) of the plywood.

Step 8: Measure Bowl’s Lip

The lip of the bowl is what is going to keep the bowl suspended on the unit. The lip of my bowl is 0.25”.

Step 9: Mark Bowl’s lip Position on Plywood

Here is measured and marked 0.25” inward from the mark I made in step 7.

Step 10: Draw Circle With Compass

The pointy end of you compass should go where the two lines you drew in Step 6 intersect. The pencil should go on the mark you made in Step 9. Now draw the circle.

Step 11: Drill hole on the INSIDE of the circle

Start with small bit and work your way up to larger bits. Doing this will help you control the placement of the bit, and the bit will not travel as much. In other words, you will get more precision with this method.

The hole needs to be large enough for the Jigsaw blade to fit through.

You may notice in the video (for a second) that I have two holes that I drilled. This was a mistake – ignore this. You only need one hole.

Step 12: Cut INSIDE the circle with Jigsaw

Go slow. Keep it steady. Stop as often as you need to. You will likely not cut it all with one continuous motion. You will likely start and stop multiple times in order to maintain some level of precision with your cuts. If the hole is not perfect – don’t worry about it. As long as the bowl fits – that is all that matters. The fact is the lip of the bowl will cover up any imperfections anyways.

Step13: Sanding

Smooth it out to make it look nicer and prevent subsequent splinters. I sanded the Plywood and 2x3s before I assembled the unit together. You may even do some more after you assemble the unit together. Make sure you wear a dust mask, Goggles, and hearing protection when sanding..

Step 14: Glue & Screw

I used 3” construction screws to affix the 2x3s together, and 1.25” Construction to affix the plywood to the base.

I also carefully marked and measured where I was going to place these fasteners ahead of time in order to ensure: 1: That there was some level of symmetry to make it look nicer 2)  to prevent the the fasteners from being too close together (which would likely cause the wood to split).

Further, I pre-drilled before adding any fasteners in order to mitigate the wood from splitting.

Step 15:  Cut TWO 45 Degree Triangles out of 2x4

I used 2x4 instead of 2x3 because I wanted the triangles to be a little bigger. These triangles will act support braces, providing additional stability to the unit.

These triangles are RIGHT triangles that I cut with my Miter saw set at 45 Degrees. You of course can elect to make RIGHT triangles with something other than 45-degree cuts, but at least one of the angles in the triangles needs to be 90 degrees (in other words , it must be a RIGHT  triangle).

Further, the two triangles need to be identical or the unit will hang crooked.

Step 16: Glue & Screw 2x4 Triangles

If you find it difficult to get these two triangles flush with the rear edge of the unit (because adding the screws moves the triangles “off kilter”, then try this instead: simply glue first and let the glue completely dry. THEN screw AFTER the glue is dry.

Step 17: Paint or Stain

I painted mine the same color as the wall on which I am going to hang the unit. This makes the unit “blend in” with the background of the wall.

Step 18:

The lid is optional, but nice to have. Having a lid will minimize chalk dust from getting blown around your gym from wind, fans, etc.

In this step we use JB Weld Epoxy to  affix magnets to the bottom of the bowl and a 7/8” Washer to the underside of the lid. This allows us to “store” the lid under the bowl when the bowl is in use. The reason the epoxy is necessary was due to the fact that the bowl and the lid are both aluminum and magnets do not stick to aluminum.

Alternatively, you can store the lid on Robe Hooks or on the Stainless-steel cup holders (see Step 19).

Step 19: Customize

The unit is essentially a shelf – so there are tons of things you can do here to customize your unit.

Cup Hooks: I added 1.5” “Cup Hooks”. This will allow me to store “light weight” items such as wrist straps, lifting straps, soft loop tiedown straps, carabiners, etc. II only added three, but there is plenty of room to add more. You could have these all around the base of your chalk bowl shelf.

Robe Hooks: These are more heavy-duty hooks. Be fair wared that the holes for the screws for robe hooks are usually in line with the tip of the hook. Therefore, a drill just will not fit and  is consequently impossible to be used to drive the screws in. Instead I pre-drilled the holes, and then “hand tightened” the screws through the Robe hooks. This took some time (about 20 minutes).

Cup Holders: These stainless-steel cup holders are awesome. NO more looking for my coffee or pre-workout. Also – they are quite large. Reminder: See “Shopping List” below to get the same ones that I used.

Some other Ideas:

  • Stencil a Name/Motto on the front/Sides

  • Instead of buying the stainless-steel cup holders, cut out extra holes for Cups. By this I mean, I could have used a compass to draw two “cup sized” circles, and then used my jig saw to cut out those holes. Your cups would just sit inside those holes. However, you will need to be somewhat precise with the size of hole you make to ensure that it properly fits the cup(s) you want to use (not too big, not too small). However, I wanted to accommodate cups of many sizes – which is my I elected not to go this route.

  • Add Trim around the edge of the top of the Plywood. This will add a “lip” to the surface, and better prevent items set on top of the unit from falling off

  • Add a piece of Trim on top of the surface of the plywood - about 2” from the rear edge. This will allow you to use the unit as a “Tablet device shelf” – where the tablet leans against the wall, and the trim will keep it propped up against the wall. NOTE: Chalk dust is not good for electronics – so this is a bad idea if you do not have a lid for your bowl and/or want to use the chalk bowl with the tablet present.

  • Attach a Power Strip, extension cord under the unit and drill a hole through the plywood for charging cables to be fed through. This way the shelf can be used as a place for charging your tablet, phone, ear buds, etc. However,  chalk dust is not good for electronics – so be smart about when to charge, and when not to charge.

Step 20: Hang on wall

If you have a stud to drill into – do it. To find the stud – use a stud finder (see “Shopping List” below if you need one).

However  I did not have stud to drill into – so I used 4” Toggle bolts.

I used a 5/8” Spade bit to drill two holes through my unit’s rear 2x3s. Through these 5/8” holes, I fed the two toggle bolts. The result was a very secure fit against the wall. However, since I did not drill into a stud – I will be careful about how much weight I end up hanging from the storage hooks.

SHOPPING LIST

🛍 🛒SHOPPING LIST WHEN SHOPPING, PLEASE CLICK FIRST TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: By shopping via any of these links, I get paid a small commission which helps support the Club’s costs such as Web Hosting the website.

💪SUBSTITUTES:

🏋️GYM GEAR:

🪚TOOLS:

🔩FASTENERS:

👽MISCELLANEOUS:

 Once you try this for yourself - be sure to let me know how it worked for you! Happy Lifting!

SHOUT IT OUT: If you Build this project and want to brag about it, please use the #DesignBuildLift hashtag so that I can feature your amazing creation on my social media to help inspire others!