Crafty DIYers

[xoxoxoBruce]

I was lucky, I'd intended to use garage door tracks, even tried a couple local installers but all they had was rusty bent take-outs. I'd dismissed that steel channel we had used to hang my 3,000 lb safe from, to get it off the truck, because it was too short. I mentioned it to me buddy and he says, oh, I have two of those. Badda bing, badda boom, everything fell in place. I still have the unused garage door opener in the box up in the attic, and the rest of that rig in the garage under the ElCamino. After she healed she didn't want it... or me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Back to the crafty...

[Griff]

That was brilliant Bruce! What'd you end up spending on parts?

[xoxoxoBruce]

I think I paid $300 for the two garage door openers, but only used one of them. Then the channel was free and most everything else was in stock. I might have picked up some paint or something, but nothing major.

My main hobby has been capability, the goal being to be able to fix, or build/improvise anything, at any hour. Of course that's an unattainable goal, but I've done pretty well. Now my brother is pissing and moaning about all the crap I've accumulated, and urging me to divest before he has to clean up after my demise.

[BigV]

I volunteer.

but I'm busy for the next twenty five years, so you'll have to just tough it out.

[Griff]

Where do you store all that good karma?

[xoxoxoBruce]

He sprinkles a little around the neighborhood every morning, keeping lawns neat and streets clean.


Old MacDonald had some wood strips, e-i-e-i-o
with a glued strip here, and a glued strip there
Here a joint, there a joint, everywhere a glued joint
Old MacDonald has a dining room set, e-i-e-i-o

[xoxoxoBruce]

I guess with leather backs not offering any stiffening, the frames would have to be extra strong. Love the joints.

[Happy Monkey]

Very interesting joint. I had to sketch it out. It's a symmetrical joint (all boards have the same cut), but a 2x3 rather than square cross-section.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I wonder what the joint at the rear upright looks like, I see it has an open notch at the outside.

[BigV]

so the corners are rounded off not for ease of assembly, but for the ease of the ass


/thighs

[xoxoxoBruce]

I believe you're correct. Or he accidently chipped one corner and made the rest match.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Looks like one of grandpa's, or great grandpa's. Olde Tyme craftsmanship.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Since everybody is playing Paul Revere yelling, the snow is coming, the snow is coming, I'll slip in another one of mine.



I had tons of small scrap pieces of various types of wood, so I laid out what I wanted on a piece of plywood, kind of an oval with squared off ends, I think if I hadn't squared the ends it would have been six foot. Screwed it down to my work table.
Aside; that work table is recycled bowling alley, on shortened wooden file card cabinets.

I cut the pieces of wood so the were more or less pointing to the center, then glued them together and to the plywood, I didn't have a planer at the time, and cutting those little pieces to the same thickness on the tablesaw is scary. Since I'm a pussy, I figured after they were glued I'd even them up with a belt sander, but I didn't relish the amount of dust that would make in the cellar. So I took a couple of steel tubes with blocks of wood on each end, and used the router like a manual milling machine cutting the glued blocks to uniform height. Then cut the outline in the blocks and plywood with a Jig/Saber Saw and sanded smooth.

Then and only then, 'cause Mama didn't raise no fools, 'cept my brother, carefully made a paper template of the opening. Took that to the mirror store and said make me a half inch beveled mirror this shape... Oh, and this side up in case my hand cut opening was a little wonky. I'd measured and eyeballed the hell out of it, but it had to be right on the money. Covered with two part Bar Finish epoxy... I'd have preferred a flat finish but chicks like shiny. Covered the back with thin plywood and the mirror is glued to that

I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out the reflection in the mirror. I was sure that's my spare bedroom by the half curtains and wood shutters, but it looks like a black rollaway toolbox and I never had one. After much photoshoping I discovered three's an amp and tom-toms. OK, that's when a friends band was using that room for rehearsals. Duh.

[Griff]

What you won't do for the ladies.

Nice piece of work.