Projecting, tinkering, fiddle-farting around: whatcha building? (3 Viewers)

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I'll start another thread on it here soon. Long story short I have a woods that had dozens of large perfectly straight Ash trees. Emerald Ash borer bug comes from China and killed them all. So I bought a hobbyist sawmill to process them rather than let them rot. So I have thousands of board feet in the barn.

That structure is kind of a hybrid. Didn't want to waste 8 X 8 sill beams on a little building like that. Those rim joists (I guess) are 4 X 10 which don't allow for a proper timber frame joint in the corner so I used 3" angle iron and bolts at the corners. Since then I've driven 1" oak dowels with epoxy to lock them together. The joists are true 2 X 8 and I did chop joist pockets for those timber frame style. The ends of the joists are cut at an arc narrowing down to only about 2" in the vertical direction. This doesn't affect strength and takes away the stress riser at the inside corner if I has just notched the joist to allow for the tenon to go into the joist pocket. Flooring is 2" Ash. It's pretty solid to walk on to say the least.

All the rest of the structure (including sheathing) will be Ash with the exception of siding and roof covering. I actually have an attachment for the sawmill that can make tapered lap siding (or roofing) but all of big straight trees are gone so I'll have to buy siding and steel roofing.

It's turning out to be a fun project and the GF and I are looking forward to sitting in there with the wood stove going this winter watching the snow fall.
 
Caught doing a bit of welding.

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Been searching for a vintage 1973 Craftsman 10 drawer upper to replace my original 3 drawer upper and 'newer' (1990's I think) intermediate box:

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Found one on FB Marketplace that was local, so I went and made a deal for it. Also came with a 3 drawer + bay lower, unfortunately, missing the lower emblem. They were in pretty decent shape for being 47 years old. Both had a bunch of black goo on them, which appeared to be asphalt based (roofing tar?), so I spent three hours with the pressure washer and Super Clean degreaser to get it all off. It was in the 40's outside, so I moved it all to the basement and finished cleaning the drawers in the utility tub:

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The bay door needed some hammer work to get working properly, but nothing too evil. Here's how it looks cleaned and assembled:

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Now to switch things around:

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I used the intermediate box along with another (and smaller 3 drawer) to organize all my measuring 'stuff':

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Next project is another vintage (1970) 2 drawer gray/red upper box that I got free from a neighbor. It's in rough shape, mostly surface rust, but no major dents. It'll get the full resto this winter.
 
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With the temperatures in the 70's this weekend, got some more house painting in before winter.

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years ago a buddy told me about PSP/Marston Mats and how they were the thing for a while...
I convinced another friend to get a pair when they came up from Cali, they were heavy, unwieldy, and inadequate for his needs at the time, years and years ago as he was getting into modding his H-6 outback. I ended up with them like 3 years ago. :cool:

So this week I finally got around to modding them ... I borrowed the nieghbor's plasma cutter and went at it! I cut down to 4-ish feet long, cut side tabs off, and weld some angle onto the for rigidity, but not too big to make them too unwieldier and heavy. I scoured my little town and eventually found some 1/8" 3/4 angle iron...
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They still bow a little under the rear of the Impreza (which is fully a ton lighter than the GX empty...
 
But inverted and doubled they're stout!
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they're 30# each o_O but I'm coming up with a secure way to mount them on the roof.
They'll work nicely on the short unistrut crossbars I confobblecated for the roof box.
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I got my 'new' workbench installed in my lake house garage:

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I re-used the laminate counter top the previous owner had sitting on 60+ year old cabinets, attached a 2x6 sub-frame to the legs for additional support. The legs are vintage Bethlehem Steel ones that my son liberated from a former workplace. They have been blasted and powder coated. They are bolted to ripped/cut pressure treated 2x12's, which in turn have been bolted to the concrete.

This is a light/medium duty bench, and it won't see heavy work. Even though the Yost vise is way overkill...
 
I got my 'new' workbench installed in my lake house garage:

View attachment 2495908

I re-used the laminate counter top the previous owner had sitting on 60+ year old cabinets, attached a 2x6 sub-frame to the legs for additional support. The legs are vintage Bethlehem Steel ones that my son liberated from a former workplace. They have been blasted and powder coated. They are bolted to ripped/cut pressure treated 2x12's, which in turn have been bolted to the concrete.

This is a light/medium duty bench, and it won't see heavy work. Even though the Yost vise is way overkill...
Super rad legs!

I covet the heater dood! 🤘😈🤘
 
Super rad legs!

I covet the heater dood! 🤘😈🤘
Thanks! I would imagine they are probably close to 100 years old. And heavy. The powder coater batched these and another set of three legs in with a larger order, so I got a bit of a break on price.

The heater does a fine job of keep the garage warm. I could probably get three full size cars in there with a bit of wiggling (there's only two overhead doors). But, I need most of the space for storage of boating 'stuff' and outdoor furniture during the winter months. Luckily the previous owner had everything drywalled and insulated. One of the few things he did right when he re-did the entire house.
 
Had to pull out a dead arbor vitae to replace it with a new juniper.

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Mixed concrete and poured two 30" round service pedestals for each of my 1000L hot water tanks.
Floor is sloped at 1/4 inch a foot and made the two pedestals level with each other so that the piping will be level with each other.
This was done so that the tanks are never sitting on the floor in the event we have water issue in the mech room.

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Been searching for a vintage 1973 Craftsman 10 drawer upper to replace my original 3 drawer upper and 'newer' (1990's I think) intermediate box:

View attachment 2481310

Found one on FB Marketplace that was local, so I went and made a deal for it. Also came with a 3 drawer + bay lower, unfortunately, missing the lower emblem. They were in pretty decent shape for being 47 years old. Both had a bunch of black goo on them, which appeared to be asphalt based (roofing tar?), so I spent three hours with the pressure washer and Super Clean degreaser to get it all off. It was in the 40's outside, so I moved it all to the basement and finished cleaning the drawers in the utility tub:

View attachment 2481312

The bay door needed some hammer work to get working properly, but nothing too evil. Here's how it looks cleaned and assembled:

View attachment 2481313

Now to switch things around:

View attachment 2481316

I used the intermediate box along with another (and smaller 3 drawer) to organize all my measuring 'stuff':

View attachment 2481317

Next project is another vintage (1970) 2 drawer gray/red upper box that I got free from a neighbor. It's in rough shape, mostly surface rust, but no major dents. It'll get the full resto this winter.
Baddass man. Really love the old school Craftsman stuff
 
looks safe ;)

I was below the "do not stand above this rung" on a 24' ladder. Maybe not "safe," but well within OSHA's requirements. ;)
 
I had just started working on a greenhouse addition when a miniature collector and old customer of mine contacted me wanting to know if I would make her a miniature Vampire killing kit.
I had never heard of such a thing so looked it up and this is what I came up with.
It took about a week to make and it paid for the greenhouse panels and lumber.

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