Nothing Stellar, But At least Some Shop Time

[Pappy]

I have been getting to eat a bit of sawdust over the last week or so. Didn't produce anything really noteworthy, just a couple of small needed items.

Never had anyplace to hang clothes out of the dryer in the laundry room. A bit of design on the fly solved that. The metal over-the-door hangar was from a neck traction unit I got from the VA several years ago. The wall mount is simply 2 pieces of Maple, notched top and back to hold the hangar, with a single key hole slot near the top. The screw is driven directly into a stud.





A while back I built a free standing shelf to go in the end of the hall. The depth of the shelves were blocking the boss's power chair from getting into the front room so she had it moved to the living room. The clock that was on the top shelf also serves as a night light, so she asked for a simple wall mounted shelf.

I used some Cherry cut offs from a previous project to fit the bill. I almost cut it too small, er....., I mean, I designed it to be a near perfect fit for the clock. It is unfinished at this point. I have some gel varnish ordered to try on it. The wife decided against having me stain it.

The brackets are tenioned and glued into stopped dados and it is mounted to the wall with screws in key hole slots.





Next, my neighbor's 8' trailer has a slide in tailgate. The tailgate is usually a rough cut chunk of plywood that gets replaced when it falls apart. Talking to him one day and seeing the latest version, I decided to build him a more permanent tailgate. Simple 2x4 frame with a plywood insert. Didn't take pics of it.

I also made a replacement back slat for a rocking chair in the nursery at their church. After I get the chair and replace the broken slat I will post a pic.

One final project is posted in 'tool talk'.

[Bruce Cohen]

Hey Don,

I think that's pretty cool.

Bruce

[Ed62]

Nice use of a neck traction unit. And that near perfect fit of the shelf was making good use of the brain.

Ed

[Bill in Buena Park]

Shop time well spent Don. Nice pieces - and even the small projects can be extremely satisfying.

[Black wallnut]

I like the purpose built projects. Small projects can be just as rewarding as the big ones.

[LCHIEN]

Clothes rack

Just thought I'd post a simple clothes rack i built many years ago for the laundry room. Doesn't look as nice as Pappys but its built with very simple hardware you can get at the any hardware store.

Very simple, uses a 1.5" closet rod, a closet rod hanger plastic thingy, and a hook and a screw eye. Probably best to keep the rod under 2 ft, its a very good lever and force multiplier esp. if your wife wants to hang everything at the far end!

You can see from the pictures how it works. the screw eye can be screwed in or out more to control the angle of the rod. To store this out of the way, just lift the far end of the rod and unhook it, then reverse the hook to put the hook thru the eye with the rod pointing down and its out of the way. The hook eye should be a little stouter than the one I got, but it has lasted 17 years so far.

I put a extra 1/4" dowel piece on the top end of the closet rod to keep any hangers from sliding off.

[lrogers]

"Little Projects" have their place and are very useful too. Good for stress relief.