I Made Counter Space

Since the first time I saw my current house, I've liked with one exception. There's not a lot going on for counter space. There's a decent space between the stove and counter that's a prime spot for some more flat space, but since the place is rented I can't just go attaching things to the wall all willy-nilly. I thought about a table, but there would be a cabinet door blocked off if you put a normal one there. There was only one thing for it, I had to make more room.

After a trip to Indoor Lumber Yards and Conglomerate Hardware Stores Anonymous I had 3 pine 2x4"s and a pine tabletop cut to fit the space betwix the counter and stove. When I got home it was pretty hot (close to 100F in the sun) and I was feeling antsy, so I cut parts to make the table with four legs quickly and went inside to assemble it.

The next day my room mates brought up that our rabbits tend to eat food when given the chance, and that with a table leg in the way their bag of food wasn't too easy to get to. Today I remedied that problem (much to the rabbit's and room mate's appreciation) by taking apart the whole thing, recutting most of the pieces, adding diagnonal braces, and ultimately elimingating the offending leg. It's now got two legs on one side, and the build of a school desk on the other. I also screwed down the top, filled the screw holes with wood putty, and coated the whole top in some olive oil so as to avoid staining so easily.

The whole thing is cheap to make, very sturdy, looks pretty nice, and is really useful. Usually I only manage to get two or three of those.

Also, I have a new Flickr account just for The Stuff I Made. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestuffimade There are some more photos of this there.

I Made Metal Stick to Metal

I decided to give my new welder a go recently. It's a
small 110v flux-core wire welder and it's pretty handy for anything under 1/4". Anyway, after my dad giving me his old spare set of welding gloves and an old welding mask I struck some arcs and gave it a go.

A few years ago dad had me try welding on a small trailer that needed some work. The results were a "porcupine" of welding wire as he put it, so I figured I'd have to do better this time. After getting a feel for making a few beads on a piece of scrap and burning my name through a piece of thin sheet metal, I decided to try something more substantial. Taking a pile of steel scrap I had around, I fashioned it into an arm that moves at the elbow. While half-way through working on it my roommate ordered pizza and I had to go sign for the it. The delivery guy almost fell over when I walked up with the mask, welding jacket, and one glove still on.

I also made a small metal bracket from some political yard sign metal (the same as the fingers on the arm) for my room mate so his new air filter can bolt up properly and not wear holes int itself. it's pretty much just a rod with a loop on each end welded so a bold could go through.

Once I'd finished the arm and bracket I felt more confident with my welds not falling apart, so I gave a shot at making a work bench. It's made of some metal shipping crate frame that I held together with baling wire while I tacked it together. It's pretty self explanatory to look at it, and sits pretty solidly, but I wish I'd had a magnetic square, as the corners are nowhere near square. Ohh well, it'll still work nicely. The table top is just chipboard and I painted the whole thing so it won't rust or peel too badly. I'm probably going to make it so I can bolt my Skil-Saw to it and use it as a table saw. I'd also like to get a vice mounted to it as well. At the moment the whole thing is just holding up my