Bumbling Along...

Well, as the old site established, She Who Must Be Obeyed and I were quite busy this weekend.  We got to see the youngest and his wife this weekend, she needed her car cleaned up as her father is coming to town this week to visit his dad.  He should feel right at home, we're hot and muggy, just like Florida, this time of year.  It is what it is, I guess.

I like winter, so I'll never be someone moving to the southern climate.  Not for me, thanks.  Aside from the weather, I'm definitely not a fan of snakes.  Hate the things.  I know they serve a purpose of sorts, but I'll just stay the heck out of their territory altogether.  Seems like a fair deal.

And for the bigish news, I'm done making most of the sub-assemblies for my new work table, mostly made from a door.  Way back about fifty years or so my mom and dad had subscribed to one of those book series that was all about crafts made with ... well, things.  One thing that stuck with me for years (and still is there) is the idea of using PVC pipe for furniture.  Yep, I said it.  I used to have a link to a web site with furniture-grade PVC bits, but I also remember the suggestion the books made to use hot sand to melt and form PVC Pipe.  Yeah.  Warm the sand over a camp stove, then pour it into the PVC and the heat and pressure will allow you to bend it, while not collapsing it. 

Mind you, this was with modern fifty-years-ago PVC, so I dunno if it would work with today's PVC.  YMMV.  However, another idea that stuck with me was a "hobby table".  The suggestion was to take a hollow-core door and PVC pipe.  Buy four PVC flanges, mount them to one side of the table in the corners, cut yourself four identical lengths of PVC pipe (with the modern 10' length being standard, that would be about 29 7/8" assuming your saw blade is 1/8" wide.  Then use the PVC for legs for your table.  When done, remove the PVC, run a length of rope through it tied together to keep the legs together, and store the table in the garage.  Yup.

Except mine's much more elaborate.  Starting with a damaged 36" x 80" solid core exterior door, damaged.  Looks like it was bent around the middle, near where the doorknob cutout is, so there's some cracks in the veneer, and some scratching.  And of course, it's got recessed panels.  The lower panel is slightly over 24" square, while the upper one is nearly 38" at the peak.  

So with two huge dips, I did still get the 1/8" MDF for $12.97, and two hunks of 1/4" waferboard.  One is a 2x2 foot square piece, one is 2x4 foot, and will be cut to size.  I've made a set of legs out of 2x6s, looking like an H, with braces on the lower portion of the H that are triangles to hold the legs square, at 28" wide top and bottom.  The bottom side of the door will have a 2x4 frame 75" long, 28" wide.  There will be five cross braces, one on each end, and then a pair 5 1/2" from the end to form a sort of socket (there will be another 5 1/2" chunk of 2x4 mounted on the inside to give the socket all 4 sides), and the middle brace will be right under the hole for the doorknob, the thickest middle part of the door which is 44" from the top of the door and 30" from the bottom, and 6" wide.  

So the door will get screwed to the 2x4 frame.  The frame will get bolted to the legs with 5" long 3/8" hex bolts, and the top will sit on top of the door, inside a frame that's actually 1 1/2" wide by 3/4" thick.  Those six pieces, because I didn't have enough room in the garage to get an 8 foot long board into and out of the table saw (I'd need about 17 feet of space, with the saw in the middle, and I do not have that, it's a little over 12 feet), have been sanded and prepped to about 90% of the way done.  Four pieces need to be cut to exact length, with one end at a 45o angle.  Then there are the two end pieces that have to be 36" long on the sort sides, and 37 1/2" long on the long edges, with both ends at a 45o to match with the sides.  No stress, there.  I have a miter saw, not a great one, but it does the work, so I am hoping in all the bumping and banging it's gotten before it arrived to me (I got it used from one of my son's friends), it's still dead-on accurate.  If I'd gotten my father's radial arm saw adjusted and working, I'd have no worries, but this... well, this is not something I am yet 100% convinced on the accuracy.  Seems accurate, but my tools might be a bit ... well, used.

So anyway, I'll be finishing that in the next few weeks.  Just gotta get the time to get it done.  Then we'll move on to the next project - a cat tower for my son's kitten.  Because, ya know, them things are extremely expensive.  I can probably do better for less.  I made the mistake of telling my son's wife we could build the little guy a castle for $80, the price I saw one at Costco.  I've got a good source for Sisal Rope, that which they typically use for scratching posts, and so now I've got ... well, I gotta get to work on that, next.  :-)  Should be fun. 

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