Mystery Machine From Scooby Doo Dog House

My name is Jeremy Snyder, and I am a 17 year old student at Westlake High School (Ohio). Under the direction and supervision of my STEM teacher Mr. Scott Kutz, I created this project based Instruct able to give my black golden doodle Gus a crate and bed to relax and have a place of his own. In this project, you will use the Autodesk Inventor and AutoCAD programs as well as different wood working methods to create a unique and creative dog house bed.

5 x 2"x4"x8' boards

2 x 4'x8'x1/4" plywood sheets

Green spray paint

Blue gloss spray

Orange spray paint

Cricut or other robotic cutter

CNC machine

dog bed

various size screws and drill bits

In order to make this crate both comfortable for your, you must learn what bed your dog will require to be able to comfortably lie. On top of this, do some research on the mystery machine. Learn the shape and all the designs on the mystery machine to better know what you are building.

Making a sketch can help you visualize what you are about to build. While you are doing this, decide the relative dimensions you want this to be and how big of parts you will use. This does not need to be exactly to scale.

When doing this, use the exact dimensions of the pieces you will be using in the build 'so you know how many materials to buy as well as the cuts you will need to make when you get the wood. The planning stage of any project are very important. Take your time when planning everything out so that you don't need to correct any mistakes further down the road.

This step is optional and does not need to be done but, using Autocad files make the process of using the CNC machine a lot simpler and easier.

Once you have the autocad files, you can cut out the shapes you need out of your plywood on the CNC machine.

Once you have the plywood sheets cut to shape, you can use them to make sure the cuts you make in the 2"x4"s are the correct size and angle so that later, the plywood will correct fit on the frame.

Sand your wood after you cut it to make it smooth and to prepare it for when you paint it later in the project. You can also use this step to fix any imperfections with your cuts or mistakes the CNC machine made.

In this step, you will put together the base that will hold the dog bed. This simple and just involves using 8 screws to make a rectangle with some of the 2"x4" pieces you cut earlier in the project.

This base Color will be blue for most of the pieces but, some you may want to paint green for the base coat of paint so as to waste less paint that will be covered up by later layers. Do not worry about any of the spray paint getting onto the back of the wood as this will be covered up later. Spray outside if you do not have a ventilated area indoors and it is a good idea to wear a mask while spraying.

Use the shapes you made earlier to make these designs the correct size and shape for what you are building. Just guessing on what size to make the stencils and not using the parts you made before for this step is a bad idea and you will likely make mistakes that you will have to correct later in and take more time to finish.

This step is pretty self explanatory but, some of the Stencils you need may be bigger than the mats you have so, if this is the case you can tape two of the Cricut mats together to allow for a larger cutting area.

Use (insert name of glue later) to attach the stencils you made but, wait for it to dry enough that the stencil comes of easily. Once you have the stencil attached, cover the rest with newspaper and spray.

You will put the two parts of the posts together using screws. Be careful when predrilling the holes at an angle because you may break a drill bit or two. After this, you will attach the side posts to the top bar using screws. Be extra careful to make sure the top bar is the correct length or you will have problems fitting the outer panels on the frame later on.

This step is optional but will make the inside of the build look a lot more uniform and neat. I used a brush to apply paint in this step to be extra careful not to get any paint on the other side of the panels.

In this final frame assembly step, you will attach the box you made to the posts. For this, you can just use screws from the outside of the posts through to the box.

To finish off the build, you will attach the panels to the frame. Use clamps to hold the panels in place and screw them down. I made a few mistakes with my cuts earlier on so I had to improvise in this step a little bit and cut a little bit off the front piece. This negatively impacted the aesthetics and shows why you need to be extra careful when measuring for your cuts. Once you do this, you are finished!

Though the end result was not exactly what I had imagined, This was a great learning experience and the mistakes I made along the will teach me what not to do in the future. That being said the finished product was pretty good but with room for improvement. All that matters is that I made a usable area for my dog, Gus.