POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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BACKGROUND: 
 
This project was done in a home garage so we had enough space to lay a tarp on the floor to avoid any glue and stain mess. We bought few tools for
ourselves. You can even rent them at The Home Depot store. Most of the below mentioned tools made our work clean and easy enough. The total cost of the
project is approximately $350 (excluding tools).
 
TOOLS: 
Buying these tools (except Drill) are not mandatory at all. For other tools, I have added an alternate tool. Even for the drill, either you can buy or borrow
from a friend or rent it from Home Depot.

TOOL ALTERNATE TOOL PURPOSE

1 Drill For drilling holes

2 Miter Saw Hand saw For angle (45°) and bevel cuts

3 Circular Saw Hand saw Used it when cutting wood for making drawers. If you don’t have this, make sure you
cut your wood at the Home Improvement stores (Such as Lowe’s, Home Depot etc).
They help you to make straight line cuts (with no charge).

4 Sander Sand paper To sand wood. Use Sandpaper 220 grit to smoothen the wood before applying stain.

5 Nail gun Hammer We used both glue and clamps to attach wood. To make the glue area more secure, we
(optional) added few nails to the already glued area.

6 Router Drawers front panel carvings. We can buy ready made drawer front panels from Hobby
(optional) Lobby store.

MATERIALS: 

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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You may need more or less of the following material based on your mandir size requirements. We had an open space of 6’ (ft) wide, which allowed us to
make a mandir of size 32” (in).
 
MATERIAL Qty PURPOSE

1 ¾” Maple plywood (4’ x 8’)
1 We can’t fit the 4ft x 8ft in our car. So we took Lowe’s associate help to cut wood into desired
pieces. They do this work with no charge (Same with HomeDepot). Just take it to the wood cutting
area and let the associate know what are the desired size planks.
For us:
32” x 22” (3) → Bottom, Middle and Top
6” x 22” (3) → Middle & sides for base (drawer’s) section.
19” x 25 ½” (2) → Side for main mandir area.
33” x 32” (1) → Back side

2 ½” Birch hardwood (2’x2’)
1 Used for drawer bottoms. Bought it to our home and made cuts with circular saw. Also used the
leftover wood for mandir gopuram/steps. Gopuram/steps wood sizes are:
25” x 1.5” (2) & 16” x 1.5” (2) → bottom step
19” x 1.5 (2) & 11” x 1.5” (2) → middle step
12” x 1.5” (2) & 5” x 1.5” (2) → top step

3 ½” Pine Project Board 6 Used for drawer sides. I couldn’t find the link to it Lowe’s online.

4 Mandir legs 4 These legs will have screws on the top. So use the leg top plate first.

5 Leg top plate 4 Helps to screw legs.

6 Mandir posts 2 Used them for tall posts

7 Big Finials 8 We screwed 4 of them on the top step of gopuram and other 4 to the top of mandir.

8 Titebond II glue 1 For attaching wood

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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9 Gopuram crown moulding 2 Used for the gopuram/steps.

10 Crown Moulding 2 For sides and top crown moulding

11 Clamps 8 To tightly hold wood after applying glue. We had 36” (2), 30” (2), 24” (2). C-shaped 12” (1),
C-shaped 6” (2). Clamps will never be enough (if you plan to do other woodworking projects).

12 Drawer slides 2

13 Cabinet knobs 2 Home improvement stores carry lots of varieties cabinet knobs/pullers. Choose the one which fits
your taste. We went with a simple chrome and white combination one.

14 Wood Conditioner 1 Generally wood consumes uneven portions of stain based on grain. To avoid patch like paint look,
use wood conditioner before applying a stain. This is a clear one and won’t change your wood
color (until you apply stain)

15 Rustic Mahogany Wood Stain 1 This is a wiping stain and thicker ( than paint ) in nature. You need to use a clean cloth(paint
brush won’t work). This gives a nice texture than regular stain.

16 Minwax Polyurethane 1 This is the final one you apply to wood to give a glossy (professional) look

17 Paint tape 1 Whenever we were making cuts, we applied paint tape and used pencil to draw the cut line on the
tape. The painter’s tape help to cut wood (esp plywood) finely without any mess.

18 Brass plated cup hooks 1 pack (25 For hanging bells

pieces)

19 Bells 2 pack (12 Bought from Michaels

pieces)

20 Small finials 8 Bought from Hobby Lobby

Other than above mentioned materials we had used: ​paint brushes​,​ clean cotton cloth (used for wiping stain with cloth), pencil, measuring tape, hand gloves

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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STEPS: 
Step 1: Making drawers section first 
 
1. We used the cut wood (see materials section 1) to glue and clamp the bottom, middle and sides form making the drawers frame. At this point we
didn’t attach any wood to the back. The finished drawers section will look like the below figure.

Note​: The below picture isn’t the exact one from our mandir. Took this from online to provide an idea. The only difference is we didn’t do the middle
till the front. We left some space in the front to add 3” front panel (see next step)

 
2. We glued 1” wood to pad the corners and a 3” wood to pad in-between. At this point we added drawer slides.

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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Step2: Making the drawers: 
1. Cut the materials (#2 and #3) to the desired sizes of the cabinet
2. Glue and clamp the cabinet pieces.
3. Screw the sliding part of the drawer slider cabinets. Add cabinet knobs. Check the following picture for a clear idea.

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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Step3: Making the main area 
1. Glue and clamp the remaining cut wood (see materials 1) - sides, top and back wood to prepare the main area. Sides are just 19” (which leaves 3” in
the front to accommodate mandir posts)
2. Glue and clamp this section to the base drawer section
3. Add crown moulding as necessary by glueing them.
4. Mandir posts came with the screws. We cut the mandir posts screw side (see materials 6) to the desired size.
5. Glue the mandir posts to the main area. See the below picture

 
Step4: Add legs 
1. Drill holes and screw leg top plate (material #5) to the bottom of base drawer section.
2. Screw the mandir legs (material #4) to the leg top plates.

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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Step5: Making gopuram/steps 
Use any ½” plywood as backing wood for the crown moulding. We bought 1.75” wide crown moulding for the mandir steps. We started making our
mandir steps by taking the basic idea from ​http://www.whatscookingwithdeepu.com/pooja-mandir-2/​.
1. Glue and clamp 25” x 1.5” (2) & 16” x 1.5” (2) (see material #2) for the bottom step. This will create a hollow rectangle.
2. Then glue and clamp the crown moulding (see material #9) to this rectangle.
3. After gluing you will see a 0.25” step on all sides (1.75” - 1.5” = 0.25”). Then place any ¼” plywood to fit in that 0.25” to make it like a box structure.
4. Repeat the above steps to make other 2 (middle & top) steps.
5. Drill holes to screw big finials (see materials #7) & small finials (see materials #20)
 

 
 
Step6: Staining/Finishing: 
We cannot stain the whole mandir at once. Choose a part/section of mandir and repeat the following steps. Don’t be in a hurry to stain everything at once.
1. We are not sure how the wood responds to the stain. Some area of wood needs more than the other area. To avoid such inconsistencies, apply wood
conditioner (see material #14) using a paintbrush to the mandir. This makes the stain to penetrate evenly to the wood. For more details, see
instructions on the can.
2. Use a clean wiping cloth to apply the thick stain (see material #15). Apply a good volume of stain along the wood grain (not against wood grain).
After few minutes remove the extra remaining stain. For more details, see instructions on the can.
3. To give the mandir professional wood look, apply polyurethane (see material #16) using paintbrush to wood and let it dry. You will see a
professional glossy look.

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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4. Use wood filler to fill any holes made by the nails.

Step7: Add bells 
1. Screw the brass plated cup hooks to the top mandir wood.
2. Hang the bells to cup hooks.

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge
  
POOJA MANDIR STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS 
 
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Final Result:

Note: ​We may have missed few notes in this article (as we are preparing the document after making it), in case of any questions please provide comments
to this article. We’ll try to answer to the best of our knowledge