Update! I should mention that I did not make this up! I did not wake up one day with a hankering to poach salmon in my dishwasher — I woke up one day and watched a guy do it on TV. I can’t remember who it was, but some quick Googling leads to official-type recipes, lest you take my word for it.

 You need exactly this much:

• 6oz salmon fillets
• salt and pepper
• olive oil
• heavy-duty aluminum foil
• a dishwasher with a heated drying cycle
• dirty dishes

Prepare the salmon by lightly drizzling each fillet with olive oil; sprinkle each with salt and pepper. Go easy on the oil — only about a half-teaspoon per fillet — the salmon is fat enough on its own.

Look, I’m not gonna lie: wrapping the fish is pretty key here. Do it wrong and you’re left with salmony clean dishes and lemony fresh fish. It’s important to use heavy duty aluminum foil. I use two sheets of foil per fillet. Wrap the foil snuggly, but not too tightly. You’re steaming the fish, after all.

Add each wrapped fillet carefully to the dishwasher’s top rack, taking care not to puncture the foil. Set the dishwasher to a normal wash and make sure to activate the heated drying cycle. If your dishwasher doesn’t have a heated drying cycle, I’d suggest any of these recipes (artfully replacing the dishwasher with an oven).

And, yes: you can wash the dishes and bake the salmon at the same time.

Feelin’ crafty? Here’s a print-ready PDF. Note: Depending on your type of transfer, you may have to mirror the image before you print it.

Download: Smith & Kapernick & Crabtree & Davis & Gore Shirt Transfer

Mick and Rose on the Gator, pre-transformation

The gator was in rough shape. These things are actually built to take a beating, and this one had been put through its paces. Vinyl lettering had been applied (and now partially worn off), the frame was roughly sanded (presumably for a paint job that never came), and there was dirt and gravel in every nook and cranny. The two batteries that came with the gator wouldn’t hold a charge for more than ten minutes. And the gearboxes were stripped; when there was juice in the battery, the car would slip out of gear, only managing to stutter forward.

Dissembling the Gator

The Gator dissembled, cleaned, and ready for paint.

With a little work, a Philips and flat screwdriver, and a socket set, I was able to dissemble the entire gator, exposing every part. Once dissembled, I cleaned everything individually, getting each surface ready for paint. If you’re trying this at home, a word of warning: some of the body joints require a good bit of pressure to dislocate the plastic connections — but proceed with caution: break a tab/slot connection and you’re ordering another replacement part.

Paint

Each part repainted.

I covered nearly everything with black spray paint (I used about eight cans of Valspar flat black from Lowes). I didn’t have to sand many surfaces thanks to the condition the gator was in when we got it, but it still took several coats to cover well.

I used a Rust-oleum hammered silver spray paint to highlight the trim, and hammered black over most of the hood, bed, and body. Lastly, I used Rust-oleum John Deere Yellow spray paint over the seat and a few trim pieces.

Finishing

Non-skid tread tape from 3M, cut and applied to the fender and bed.

To give an added dark-knight touch, I cut sections from 3M anti-slip tape and applied them to the front fenders, raised sections of the bed, and the recessed detail areas on the rear fenders.

Lastly, I bought a battery-powered Super Soaker squirt gun, dissembled and painted it to match the gator, and mounted it to the passenger-side fender. Because it’s a fixed-mount, I positioned it upside down to keep the battery access door exposed.

The weaponry: a fixed-mount, battery-powered super soaker

Unfortunately these aren’t designed to be used upside-down, so I had to trim the feed tubes inside each water clip. After taking apart the squirt gun, I’m pretty sure I could have rebuilt the gun’s engine and water supply into something mounted internally in the vehicle. But where’s the fun in that?

Assembling the Frame

Mitre the Posts

In order for the tent to sit flat on the ground, mitre the post feet at 22.5°. The original tents I’m working from mitred the top of the posts for aesthetics, but I’m applying the same technique to the base for a little more stability. To get the cut perfect, I’m using scrap PVC and a clamp to align the posts while making the cut (Fig. 1). You could make this cut prior to staining, but I found it was easier to work with the boards with both ends square.

Fig. 1: Mitre the ends of the posts at 22.5° to allow the tent to sit flat.

Attaching the Stringer

I made a small blank from scrap stringer stock, and traced the outline of the stringer on the posts.  Clamp two posts together and trace the outline of the blank. This represents where the stringer will connect with each post (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Use a 1×3″ blank to trace an outline for the stringer position.

Drill two holes inside the outline of the stringer (Fig. 3). It’s also a good idea to start each screw in place to prepare for attaching the stringer.

Fig. 3: Pre-drill the holes for the stringer screws.

The sheets we’re using have a larger hem at one end. I opened the stitching on the sides of the large hem and fed a stringer through the sheet. With one end of the sheet connected this way, you need only staple the other end. Carefully connect the post to the ends of each stringer by setting the screws (Fig. 4). Take care; it’s easy to split the ends of the stringers and posts if you’re off-center or muscle it together too much.

Fig. 4: Carefully screw the posts to the stringer.

Securing the Sheet

With the stringers attached and the sheet connected at the large-hem end, you can attach the posts to the PVC joist, and all that remains is attaching the open end of the sheet. The easiest way to secure the sheet is to open the tent completely flat, and wrap the loose end of the sheet around the remaining stringer. I secured the sheet with staples (Fig. 5). Don’t pull the sheet too snug, or you’ll end up with a bow in the PVC pipe; a bit loose is fine.

Fig. 5: Wrap the sheet around the exposed stringer and attach with staples.

Finishing Touches

In the original post’s comments, someone wondered what kept the tent from opening flat and falling on a child (which seems like a valid point). So, in the interest of not scaring the bejeesus out of the kids under a collapsed tent, I added a small length of chain to the edges of the posts on one end (Fig. 6). This discourages the tent from opening flat.

Fig. 6: Cut a small length of chain and attach to sides of the posts to prevent the tent from opening flat.

Lastly, to prevent the posts from traveling laterally down the PVC joist, I cut the ends off two PVC caps and positioned them inside the posts along the pipe (Fig. 7). I glued them in place with regular-duty PVC glue. This is probably overkill, but I wasn’t sure how everything would loosen up or expand over time, so it can’t hurt.

Fig. 7: Cut the end off a cap and glue in position inside the posts to prevent the posts from sliding laterally along the PVC.

Final Thoughts

I think the finished product looks really great, and only time will tell if they get the seal of approval from the kiddos. The best part is they fold nearly flat for storage (Fig. 8) — and Maherly discovered a great second use for the folded tents, but that’s a post for a different day…

Fig. 8: The tents fold nearly-flat for storage.

The Finished Tents

This post is Part One: I’ll prep the material and finish the wood. In Part Two I’ll assemble the frame and attach the sheet.

Building the Frame

Cut to Length

I started with medium-grade 1″x3″ pine. No need to go top-shelf, but since they’ll be exposed in the room I stayed out of the bargain bin. I ripped two 8′ boards down to four at 48″ long (Fig.1).

Fig. 1: Two (2) 1″x3″s, clamped, cut to 48″

Drill for the Crossbar

The ¾″ PVC crossbar I chose has an outside diameter of ⅞″, so I drilled a ⅞″ hole through two boards at a time. The center of the hole is 2½″ from the end of the board, on center. Aside from a nice cosmetic detail, it’s important to offset the crossbar a few inches from the end of the boards, rather than close to the top. The overall assembly will be a bit stronger, but more importantly, twin sheets aren’t exactly 96″ long (despite the measurements on the label). The extra few inches will ensure your sheet will fit over the whole assembly (and not be too short).

Fig. 2: Drill a ⅞″ hole for the ¾″ crossbar.

Route the Edges

Our kids are still pretty small, and sharp corners aren’t going to do us any favors, here. So I departed from the original design by routing all the edges with a ¼″ roundover bit (Fig. 3). As evidenced by the pic, my router and I are still coming to terms with each other, but nothing a little sanding won’t fix. If you don’t have a router or prefer the look of clean lines, I’d recommend moving on to a healthy sanding.

Fig. 3: Route all edges with a ¼” roundover bit.

Sand, Then Sand Again

To get a nice finished look and clean up any router trails, I sanded everything in two phases: a first pass with a medium-grit (100) paper (Fig. 4), and a second finishing pass with a fine-grit (180). The result is super-smooth — splinters, be damned!

Fig.4: The frame routed (left) and sanded (right).

Prepare for Finish

The original design left the wood unfinished (I think), but I decided to finish the frame with a stain/poly all-in-one. You could paint the wood, but the natural opening and closing of the tent might hasten the paint toward rubbing off. To prep the lumber for stain, wipe it clean with a damp cloth (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Wipe down the boards with a damp cloth

Apply the Stain

I chose a Minwax stain/poly all-in-one (Fig. 6) in Bombay Mahogany Gloss (a deep, reddish-brown), and applied it with cheesecloth.

Fig. 6: Choose a good quality stain/poly all-in-one to save time.

;

The boards are a manageable 4′ long, so it didn’t take much time to apply two good coats (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7: Apply at least two quality coats of stain.

Cut the Stringers and PVC

The frame gets strength and support from the stringers — pieces of lumber running the depth of the tent that serve double-duty by keeping the sheets tight. I chose a depth of 4½′ for our tent — slightly shorter than the originals. A shorter base (in this case) will strengthen the frame, and using 1″x3″ stock means some savings on the wallet. I have enough lumber for two tents, so I clamped four boards and chopped them to 52″ long (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8: Clamp four (4) 1″x3″s and cut to 52″.

The PVC joist ties the frame together and holds the sheet up. For a depth of 54″, cut the PVC to at least 54½″ to allow some overhang for the end caps (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9: Cut the PVC to 54½″, or slightly longer than the depth of your tent.

Finish With Spray Poly

To finish the exposed pieces of the frame you could add another couple coats of stain/poly, but I cut right to the chase with a spray-able polyurethane. Following the directions on the can, I added two coats of polyurethane to the frame, giving it a nice gloss and protecting it from crayons and markers (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10: Apply spray-able polyurethane to the frame.

And that wraps up part one! Let everything dry, and come back later this week to put it all together!