• PROJECTS •

[balthazar]

Well, the current 'house arrest' scenario across the country is going to force folk to amuse themselves in new ways, perhaps trying something new or different.  So this here thread might be a spot to post up some 'projects' people are working on, even if little stuff, to pass the time productively.

I had this '50s school desk for prob 12 years now- came from a garage clean-out. Super clean, but I advertised it a few times and took it to a swap meet a few years ago- plenty look but there's no takers. So (because it's not built for adult-sized humanoids) I tossed the top and cut the steel post off, now I have a lil shop chair. It's not too low for adult humanoids to sit on, tho it's not what you'd call incredibly comfortable. If I end up never using it, I'll toss it, but here's a chance at a 2nd life.

Whatcha workin on?

[balthazar]

^ A few hours after I cut the above desk, rendering it a mere chair, someone contacted me to see if it was still available. ?

- - - - -

Had one of those upholstered office desk chairs by a front window. The seat fabric was split up but the cats like to sit on it to look out the window. Have a dumpster on site, so tossed the bulky office chair and slapped a quick platform together for the cats instead. Scrap plywood Sanded smooth, Eucalyptus rods from someone’s wall exercise apparatus, with a bracket to the underside of the window sill. A quickie. 

[balthazar]

My son & his girlfriend had this 'drunk monkey' pic they liked, so I whipped out a frame made from lathe I had in stock- it came out of a house that got gutted of it's plaster because the homeowner 'hates cracks in plaster', so we drywalled the entire 3-story house, originally built in 1880.

[balthazar]

This was my mother's 'painting box'- it's prolly from the 50s. Certainly not a quality piece... but thought I'd at least make it structural again. Top & bottom are plywood, which was all coming delaminated. So over a period of evenings, I glued & clamped it various ways, plus used wood filler in some sports. Had to repair the rear of the lid where a jagged section was missing, making the hinge on that side non-functional. Anyway- it's back together. Mom (& dad) paint regularly, but I don't expect she'll use it, but maybe she'll enjoy having it again; she has a studio room down her basement (I think it's been in my stash of stuff for over 10 years now).

[ocnblu]

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[balthazar]

An original floor mat out of my now-gone ‘64 Catalina. It was torn across the top (2 pieces), so rather than just toss it, i made some low-brow wall art: 

[Robert Hall]

On 3/21/2020 at 2:19 PM, balthazar said:

Well, the current 'house arrest' scenario across the country is going to force folk to amuse themselves in new ways, perhaps trying something new or different.  So this here thread might be a spot to post up some 'projects' people are working on, even if little stuff, to pass the time productively.

I had this '50s school desk for prob 12 years now- came from a garage clean-out. Super clean, but I advertised it a few times and took it to a swap meet a few years ago- plenty look but there's no takers. So (because it's not built for adult-sized humanoids) I tossed the top and cut the steel post off, now I have a lil shop chair. It's not too low for adult humanoids to sit on, tho it's not what you'd call incredibly comfortable. If I end up never using it, I'll toss it, but here's a chance at a 2nd life.

Whatcha workin on?

I remember using that style of desk in elementary school in the late 70s.  Same details.

[Robert Hall]

Now that the weather is getting springy, I'm doing a few projects around the house and outside.  Installed kick plates on the lower part of the door leading to the basement (the dogs have eaten away large parts of the wood).  A temporary fix until I replace the door w/ a steel one.    

The screen door on the side entrance to my garage opens very roughly, something wrong about the aluminum door frame and how it meets the door..too tight.  Removed the frame side, redrilled the mounting holes to move it further from the opening by maybe 1/2 inch.need to reshape it or file some on the edge of the door so they don't bind when the door is shut tightly.   Got some mulch, top soil, fertilizer and grass seed to work on building up a low spot in the yard and re-seed some bare spots...working on ideas for places to plant additional trees...

If I could be 1/10th as good of a handyman my Dad was, I'd be happy..he was so good with all sorts of tools and had a lot of common sense and practical skills..he could bleed brakes, set timing, do bodywork, install bathrooms, rewire a house, bee keeping, planting orchards, etc all while being a school administrator. . working w/ tools and stuff is still pretty unnatural to me.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Robert Hall

[balthazar]

Maybe it is a '70s piece... or they hung around that long.
Now they probably have a contracted mandate to replace all school desks every 2 years.

[riviera74]

4 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Maybe it is a '70s piece... or they hung around that long.
Now they probably have a contracted mandate to replace all school desks every 2 years.

They probably hung around that long.  I remember seeing that type of desk in my high school. . . . . in 1989.  Schools do not replace desks every two years because it is simply too expensive to do that.

[Robert Hall]

4 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Maybe it is a '70s piece... or they hung around that long.
Now they probably have a contracted mandate to replace all school desks every 2 years.

I'm sure they hung around a long time..my elementary school dated from around 1900, had a lot of old furniture when I was there in the late 70s.   Alas, it was torn down for building a new school in the early 00s.  Alas, every school I went to from kindergarten through high school no longer exists..all been torn down and replaced  with modern prison-style schools. 

[balthazar]

13 minutes ago, riviera74 said:

Schools do not replace desks every two years because it is simply too expensive to do that.

I was being facetious.

But you should see the recently-new high school near me. World's most inefficient footprint, marble & oak inside, cost $185 million to build, still spits out the same ratio of under-achieving graduates vs. flunk-outs as the old school. But the politicians involved can put it on their resumes all the same.

[Robert Hall]

I miss my high school..it was a campus w/ about 10 single-story buildings in Marathon, Florida..had it's own beach on the Atlantic.  I think the buildings dated from the 30s, no heat, no A/C, just jalousie windows open w/ the ocean breeze blowing through.    In the 90s it was razed and replaced w/ a modern hurricane-proof monstrosity, all locked down w/ gates and looking like a prison rather than a school 

[balthazar]

I think the only place in my HS that had A/C was the library. Single building, still there, It was built in '58.

It'd be cool to walk it again, but I don't really miss it. Some of the girls tho, I do miss them. Time has a way of fucking that all up, tho. I looked a few of them up online. Yikes. [I reserve the right to be quietly and -at times- savagely judgemental].

[Robert Hall]

5 minutes ago, balthazar said:

It'd be cool to walk it again, but I don't really miss it. Some of the girls tho, I do miss them. Time has a way of fucking that all up, tho. I looked a few of them up online. Yikes. [I reserve the right to be quietly and -at times- savagely judgemental].

Time has a way of doing that.  Some people look barely older after 30+ years, some unrecognizable.  And looking at my yearbooks, those 80s hairstyles and fashions... 

[balthazar]

This

1 hour ago, Robert Hall said:

If I could be 1/10th as good of a handyman my Dad was, I'd be happy..he was so good with all sorts of tools and had a lot of common sense and practical skills..he could bleed brakes, set timing, do bodywork, install bathrooms, rewire a house, bee keeping, planting orchards, etc all while being a school administrator. . working w/ tools and stuff is still pretty unnatural to me.

Sounds like you're doing OK!
If you can look at a problem and envision how it needs to be repaired, all you need after that is some experience with tools & stuff and you can do it. Tools are the easier of the 2 'prongs'; understanding how things go together/come apart and how structure works is harder.

[balthazar]

These are the neighbor's white pines. The ground stays wet often right where they are, and white pines have poor root structure; in wet ground with strong winds they go over. This is the latest one to start flirting with the ground from afar. I put a car ratchet strap on it - it's rated to 10,000 lbs so it should hold. But the tree has to go; now to get the neighbor to pay for it.

For a sense of scale, I'd say that yellow strap is about 14' in the air.

Edited March 28, 2020 by balthazar

[G. David Felt]

Started working on my garden and my winter Garlic are popping up. I also got new veggie starts planted in the green house. Need to take a pic.

[ykX]

@dfelt You don't have animals eating your garden?  We have bunch of rabbits and deer goes around occasionally too that will decimate any garden without protective netting. 

[oldshurst442]

On 3/27/2020 at 8:04 PM, Robert Hall said:

If I could be 1/10th as good of a handyman my Dad was, I'd be happy..he was so good with all sorts of tools and had a lot of common sense and practical skills..he could bleed brakes, set timing, do bodywork, install bathrooms, rewire a house, bee keeping, planting orchards, etc all while being a school administrator. . working w/ tools and stuff is still pretty unnatural to me.

I wish I was also 1/10th as good as my dad as a handy man. 

My dad was born in 1926.  Folks then...whether they were adults in 1926, or were born in 1926, all had to BE handymen. It was a necessity. It was THE way of life. No choice.  Many reasons as to why that was.

My dad was a soldier during the 2nd World War. The Canadian infantry and the war taught him very valuable handyman and survival techniques.    

My dad joined the USAAF in 1950. He went to Korea.  He was a Staff Sergeant.  He was taught many trades while being with the USAAF.  Car mechanics.  Generator mechanics. Aviation mechanics. Electrician.  Plumbing.  Wood working. Metal working.  He had to improvise on how to fix things with the scarce materials he had, etc...

I learned many things from him.  How to check if brakes are good. Drum brakes, disc brakes. How to flush the radiator. If Im stuck, without coolant, to use water....in fact...before there was antifreeze, water was THE way to cool your car. He told me stories on how all owners of cars then used to flush the water out at night so it wont freeze over night...hence the name anti-freeze...

I observed and learned how to fix things. Learned how to use tools.  Problem is...I NEVER put that into practice...so now...without his guidance, I am not 100% sure of myself on how to approach handyman stuff.  I do the easy things around the house, but I will not tackle the more laborious stuff.  

Example:  In Quebec, you need a license to perform electrical stuff, because if you mess up and cause an electrical fire, you wont be paid insurance money and might even be pursued in a court of law. My dad had no electrician license, but he did all renovation electrical stuff on his own in his home,  but he knew what to do...   Plumbing same thing.    Well....I will never touch that...

Like I said...Ill do easy stuff.  Ill fix a leaky faucet.  I wont change the entire sink reconnecting the hoses and drains and stuff. Ill know what to do, on how to cut the hole in the wood cabinet to fit the sink in, how to caulk it properly, etc, but Id rather not. 

Ill caulk and re-caulk the bathtub,  I wont install a new one.  Ill change a old lighting fixture for a new one. I wont re-wire...   Although I understand what needs to be done electricity wise concerning amperage and voltage and what breakers to use and the like...

 Lack of confidence, maybe?  

I can cut wood. Measure twice and cut once. I could screw and glue it together to make a project or two. But I lack that confidence to do so. 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by oldshurst442

[Robert Hall]

18 minutes ago, oldshurst442 said:

I wish I was also 1/10th as good as my dad as a handy man. 

My dad was born in 1926.  Folks then...whether they were adults in 1926, or were born in 1926, all had to BE handymen. It was a necessity. It was THE way of life. No choice.  Many reasons as to why that was.

My dad was a soldier during the 2nd World War. The Canadian infantry and the war taught him very valuable handyman and survival techniques.    

My dad joined the USAAF in 1950. He went to Korea.  He was a Staff Sergeant.  He was taught many trades while being with the USAAF.  Car mechanics.  Generator mechanics. Aviation mechanics. Electrician.  Plumbing.  Wood working. Metal working.  He had to improvise on how to fix things with the scarce materials he had, etc...

I learned many things from him.  How to check if brakes are good. Drum brakes, disc brakes. How to flush the radiator. If Im stuck, without coolant, to use water....in fact...before there was antifreeze, water was THE way to cool your car. He told me stories on how all owners of cars then used to flush the water out at night so it wont freeze over night...hence the name anti-freeze...

I observed and learned how to fix things. Learned how to use tools.  Problem is...I NEVER put that into practice...so now...without his guidance, I am not 100% sure of myself on how to approach handyman stuff.  I do the easy things around the house, but I will not tackle the more laborious stuff.  

 

My Dad was born in 1921, spent WWII in the US Army Air Corps stationed at Miami Army Airfield..spent the war there and in the Caribbean, stayed in until '46, then went to the U of Kentucky on the GI Bill for college and grad school.  He worked in an airplane factory in Baltimore before the war (Martin?).   Very handy guy, could do anything w/ tools it seemed....furnace installations, roofing, framing and sheetrock, etc.   I learned how to dig and install septic tanks, paint a barn, remove an engine, bleed brakes... though  I haven't had to use those skills because at an early age I really wanted to be an academic (which led to my long time in grad school and career in IT). 

I dug so many ditches as a kid...'family drainage projects'.    And so much mowing (6 acres out of 150 were usually treated as lawn). 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Robert Hall

[G. David Felt]

8 hours ago, ykX said:

@dfelt You don't have animals eating your garden?  We have bunch of rabbits and deer goes around occasionally too that will decimate any garden without protective netting. 

Squirrels are the problem here, so once I have everything ready, I then put up a green plastic fence for keeping the squirrels out. No dear in this area, too suburban and no rabbits either here.

[G. David Felt]

4 hours ago, Robert Hall said:

My Dad was born in 1921, spent WWII in the US Army Air Corps stationed at Miami Army Airfield..spent the war there and in the Caribbean, stayed in until '46, then went to the U of Kentucky on the GI Bill for college and grad school.  He worked in an airplane factory in Baltimore before the war (Martin?).   Very handy guy, could do anything w/ tools it seemed....furnace installations, roofing, framing and sheetrock, etc.   I learned how to dig and install septic tanks, paint a barn, remove an engine, bleed brakes... though  I haven't had to use those skills because at an early age I really wanted to be an academic (which led to my long time in grad school and career in IT). 

I dug so many ditches as a kid...'family drainage projects'.    And so much mowing (6 acres out of 150 were usually treated as lawn). 

 

Totally respect what you and @oldshurst442 have said about your fathers. I grew up with a father that said tools never fail, you only fail if you do not learn and take care of the tools to take care of you.

Learned to do electrical, plumbing, yards, etc. nothing I could not do as my parents would buy a house, move in, fix it up and then a few years later move onto another project. As such, when I bought my foreclosed home in 1999, I gutted it and redid everything from the roof to insulation, plumbing, electrical, sheet rock, taping, mudding, etc. The only things I paid to have done on the house was the following due to not wanting to destroy my own body or it really is a special skill to get it right.

• Flooring /  Carpeting paid to have it done.
• Kitchen cabinets and counters, real skill to get it square and perfect.
• Windows, due to being a split level house, easier to pay someone to bring in the scaffolding and put in the windows. Helped my dad do enough growing up that I can pass on that.
• Commercial grade steel rebar 6" thick cement driveway

The rest of the house was me, so confident I can pretty much do anything though as I get older, easier to pay the younger folks to do the heavy lifting.

[balthazar]

I guess my father had me earlier than you guys; he was born in '41. His father was a career cabinet maker & union carpenter, he could build or restore anything out of wood.

My father is a retired mechanical / aerospace engineer. He did plenty of projects on our houses (patios, paneling, brickwork, etc), I would say he's pretty well mechanically inclined, but he hasn't really pursued that avenue over the years. He worked for the Department of the Navy at the Jet Propulsion Lab, so he was exempt from what would've been Vietnam for him.

I went to school / worked for 10-11 years in graphic design, then jumped to construction / excavation. In the contracting/carpentry field for 20 years now, I have done everything from digging basements to roofing and EVERYTHING in between. I'll do electrical short of going into the panel box, and I'll do plumbing short of soldering/ the supply side. Have done many toilets & tubs. I never took any courses, tho I did learn working the 7 years I did with my brother. I would see how a job was done and pretty much 'boom'; I could do it.

I think it was growing up around my grandfather that gave me an appreciation & respect for tools. That, and I've always been a vintage car nut, so that pretty much demands those skills.

[balthazar]

I took the body off the frame on my B-59, never knew anyone before that that did that job. I may have read one article in a car magazine. Seemed common-sensical to me. I also fabricated / welded the dolly its on in the below pic :

[oldshurst442]

That is how my dad did stuff too.   He did all kinds of stuff around the house. And when he wanted to make more than one of a particular object...he created jigs to replicate that very object he wanted fabricate.

Working at Canadair and manufacturing aircraft, he learned that skill as that is how aircraft production was made back in the day. 

It's awesome Balthy that you could work with metal to fabricate jigs like that. And I bet you could work with any metal you could find.  Scrap metal or otherwise!  

Just like my dad.

I snapped his Chevy Celebrity's rear beam axle that connects both rear wheels (dont ask how I did that)  and he, with a scrap metal bar he had laying around, he Frankensteined a repair job.  Wasnt perfect. But it worked.  

We didnt have a lift either. He used  what we had to lift the car. A couple of jacks and a jig to hold the car high enough so he could bolt and weld the shyte together.  Aircraft grade nuts and bolts and the like...

I just wished I was more serious about learning those skills from him. I just wished he FORCED me to learn those skills. He taught me. I observed, but I know he was aware that I was more into playing sports than to learn do it yourself skills from him. He was the one to teach me  how to catch a baseball, how to bat, how to skate too...  He taught me how to use tools as well...

I guess, he knew I wanted to play sports more than fix things, so he was more serious in showing me how to play sports...

Cant fault him there..  He was in tune to what I wanted more.  

(You were a GREAT dad, dad!    I love you!)  (tearing up as I write this!)

 

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by oldshurst442

[G. David Felt]

2 hours ago, balthazar said:

I took the body off the frame on my B-59, never knew anyone before that that did that job. I may have read one article in a car magazine. Seemed common-sensical to me. I also fabricated / welded the dolly its on in the below pic :

Off to the paint shop?

[balthazar]

Epoxy primer. It had the lower rear quarters & rocker replaced, and the initial bodywork there wasn't right, so it got stripped off (the filler) and redone also.

[balthazar]

Whipped this up this morning. Metal frame is from a '60s window A/C unit I scrapped, board is one of the shelves from my wife's changing table I scrapped, and the lights were from an '80s master bath I redid last year. I had the idea of making a lit-up advertising sign with the A/C frame. Now... I have no idea what to paint the actual sign up as, so this will go back in the project que for the future.

[balthazar]

I made this rack years ago, but in the course of purging & re-arranging things in the basment, this is the first time it's been naked since I made it. Fabricated from an old iron bed frame, it's to store long pieces of lumber/trim. Never know when you need an odd piece.

[Robert Hall]

Put together this fire pit from a kit from Home Depot, light enough to carry out to the yard or patio.  Got a box of birch firewood.  Should be fun for evenings out in the yard...

[balthazar]

^ At least someone is doing something! :D

Here's my hillbilly fire pit: the base to an actual one, a rim that would fit my '40 except someone prior to me inexplicably cut the center out of it, and an old grate I cut to fit in it.
If I were to use it as a fire pit, I'll have to put some steel screen across the bottom. To date, I've put it on the ground without the firepit stand and used it to burn papers when I have too much for the wood stove.

[balthazar]

Worked in the shop today, it needs it's once-every-3-years cleaning. Always of the mind to organize & purge. Made good progress, more tomm.

Been a long time since I posted a pic of it (if I ever have), here's one from 2013. The '64 is gone, and the green container box has a hinged door on it instead of just a tarp.

[balthazar]

Another quickie today : My family had a cabin on a lake in NY State for decades, and we had a float out in the water to swim to. My son carved into the sideboard of it years ago. When we sold the place in '13, we broke up the float, but I saved this one board. I cut it down, drove two 4-in screws down to hold the crack/pieces together, and gave it a light sanding. He's going to deepen the carving and wall-hang it. Before / after :

[balthazar]

Apparently I have a bunch of 'quickies' in me.
This is the steel surround for a '50s Craftsman table saw. The guts were rusted up, so I scraped them, but this shell has been sitting around probably 2 years now. Had some scrap 2x10 so I made what my buddy calls a 'step upon' - it's pretty sturdy and a lil over 11" tall.

[balthazar]

About all that's left of me once daily '64 Catalina; both rear door sill plates. They are rough - not good enough for driver quality (besides I believe repros are out there). Since my disease doesn't readily allow me to throw out automotive pieces older than me, I came up with a plan. Kept the center section, and radius-cut the 2 bad ends off. Some steel wool and Poof! another wall hanger.

[ocnblu]

On 4/22/2020 at 12:54 AM, balthazar said:

Apparently I have a bunch of 'quickies' in me.
This is the steel surround for a '50s Craftsman table saw. The guts were rusted up, so I scraped them, but this shell has been sitting around probably 2 years now. Had some scrap 2x10 so I made what my buddy calls a 'step upon' - it's pretty sturdy and a lil over 11" tall.

I need this for when I need to make a point on the internet.

[balthazar]

It’s available for rental.

[balthazar]

Here’s my trusty ‘64 Sprunger drill press, made in Topeka IN. Works great, use it all the time. Switch went bad so it got a new switch, new grounded cord, and cleaned up/waxed the vertical post & table. Maybe I’ll restore it when I no longer need to put holes in things. 

[G. David Felt]

Pandemic projects. So in my 12th week of working from home. Actually loving it saving 2hrs a day in NOT having to commute to the office. As such I have gotten back to my enjoyment of wood and projects. I figure @A Horse With No Name who is a kindred spirit would enjoy my wood projects.

So during this time, I hit a mental road block on a project and remember my math teacher who always said there is a solution, just go do something different and come back and you will find the solution. So I did just that, went out to my shed, used scrap wood, screws and stain to create a small table for my BBW area.

My other recent project was a bit bigger, the wife wanted an easier time gardening, so I figure why not build her a decent raised bed. The last raised bed was a 2ft high plastic bed, $400 from Costco. 3ft x 10ft x 2ft high. I thought I could do this better with natural wood. So off to searching the web and then Home Depot and here is my raised bed I built for the wife out of 4"x6"x10ft timbers. This ended up giving me a 5ft wide by 10ft long 30" tall raised bed for gardening.

You can see the Costco plastic bed with Garlic growing, planted early winter to the left.

Stacking it into the ground. 3/8th rebar, 3ft long. 2ft into the ground, 1ft of wood. Drilled hole and then pounded the bar in.

Finished bed with liner installed.

Bed filled with Black Gold compost / dirt. Great way to grow healthy veggies.

So the wife is on an organic kick, all things nature, no chemicals and as such I was researching various ways to make this last even longer then the estimated 15 to 20 years or so. As such a coworker introduced me to a Japanese technic of making the wood water and fire resistant. The technic is called Shou Sugi Ban. This is taking a torch to the outside and charring it and then wire brushing it down to have a harder wood surface. This take the softer carbon parts of the wood and harden it.

My coworkers veggi bed, in the future any more beds I build will have this done on the inside and outside first before liner and dirt is put in.

My Shou Sugi Ban veggi bed now that I have done the technic on it.

More info if your interested in the Shou Sugi Ban technic here on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shou+sugi+ban+technique

Cool table project done here on this same technic.

 

[G. David Felt]

Good Video if your into gardening and want organic beds.

[balthazar]

Mr Felt- question.
What's the purpose of the vertical 4x6s? I see you have D-rings on them.
Curious, because they're obviously not for structural reasons.

[G. David Felt]

22 minutes ago, balthazar said:

Mr Felt- question.
What's the purpose of the vertical 4x6s? I see you have D-rings on them.
Curious, because they're obviously not for structural reasons.

The 4x4 posts while having the 4x6 screwed into them are for tenting. This allows us to have from heavy clear plastic early in the year when frost is still possible over the starts planted to protect them to using the lite weight cloth coverings to keep insects out but allow rain to fall on the plants. At this stage except for the lettuce as this helps keep it very clean, the rest of the veggie plants are established enough to grow with out tenting needed.

Here is how it looked earlier this year after we had already gone from clear heavy plastic to just tenting against the sun.

The posts will also be used as I will secure some lattice work for the squash plants to grow up on and let the squash hang and grow big, but clean. Planning to secure lattice this weekend if it does not rain.

It will look like this.

Lattice also allows the plant while growing and keeping the veggies clean to spread out easier so it does not mildew here where we tend to get plenty of drizzle.

[ocnblu]

5 hours ago, dfelt said:

enjoyment of wood

 

[balthazar]

I got so much shit.
Believe it or not- this alley is the after pic of cleaning it out. There was a full sheet of ply, a spare B-59 hood, and a bunch of other flotsam that prevented walking down that side. Threw some stuff out, hood is leaning against the outside of the building until I can get it into my storage container.
Can't necessarily tell from this, but the car is shifted over (to the left) about a foot & a half past the door opening.

Going to return that snazzy piece of art to a car (instead of a shelf), air the tires, move it over, and roll it outside, wash it.

It hasn't been outside... I can't remember how long it's been. I remember it outside... dimly, once. My son has been itching to work on it, and even tho I can't mentally process major complex surgery on 2 vehicles at once, perhaps I should actually try.

[ocnblu]

It is good to open the purge valve once in a while.