Chimney from well casing

Oil-well casing makes a good chimney for a coal- or wood-burning heater in a garage, barn, or workshop. This one is 15 1/2 ft tall and sits on a concrete block. The length of the piece of casing welded to the side is determined by how far the stove is from the inside wall, and how close to the building you can erect the pipe. It is stabilized by a bracket bolted to the chimney and to a piece of strap iron attached to the building. Total cost, installed, was about $250. This compares to $450 for parts alone if I had purchased the pipe and fittings to run a new chimney through the roof.

Sponsorship for this essay is provided by wood-burning stove suppliers.

Bathroom towel post

This bathroom towel post has been around my home for at least 30 years, and I think it’s one of the slickest ideas ever, though I can’t remember whose idea it was nor where the parts came from.

It is simply a post that extends from ceiling to floor and is held in place by unscrewing (extending) a bolt from the bottom, thus creating plenty of tension.

It is made from a 4X4 post, a bolt, two nuts, an electrical box cover (or some other light scrap metal), a scrap steel base from an old bumper jack or something similar, four screws and some coat hooks.

One nut is tack-welded to the box cover, the other nut is tack-welded to the bolt about 3/4-inch from the end. A hole big enough to accommodate the bolt is drilled into the center of the post at the bottom.

The end of the bolt with the nut welded thereon is inserted into the hole in the jack base and wrenched to extend the bolt and put as much pressure on the ceiling as is needed to keep the post in position.

This idea could be adapted for a variety of applications in the home or shop.

Fence wire

Before I started putting an electric fence around my garden I was always scrounging wire for various uses in the home and shop. A quarter-mile roll like this cost under $14 in the spring of 2009. I doubt there’s a better bargain for something so flexible, versatile and strong - utility that almost matches duct tape.

This kind of wire can be used to pull stuff through pipes and various holes. You can make hooks with it and clean out small orifices. The list goes on, and if you don’t build fences, a quarter-mile of wire might last a lifetime.

Workbench on wheels

Putting wheels under a shop bench is a good way to keep your shop flexible. By using wheels that can be retracted, you can lower the legs to the floor to ensure stability for heavy work.

There’s always more demand for space than there is space in my shop. By rolling benches and tools this way and that I can maximize the floor area where work space is needed.

This bench is a take-off from a design I saw in a magazine and also some others I saw on the Internet. This is not exactly like any of them, but I don’t call it my own design either.

The top photo shows the simple but very sturdy construction, and the 2X4 to which the wheels are attached. This piece is held in place by the short, hinged 2X4 braces on either side. The lower photo shows a detail of that with the table turned upside down.

Since I put the table to work carrying heavy tools I learned that putting the wheels down and retracting them is not an easy skate. In fact, with no helper, I had to use a scissor-jack. Likely I’ll add drawers before I call it finished.

Rolling floor drawers

Any old drawer can become a sweet new rolling floor drawer if you install wooden toy wheels. The top photo shows one of one of my floor drawers that fits nicely under a low (8” high) shop bench.

The 2” wheels are from a hobby store and cost about $3 for eight. They are attached to the drawer with 1/4” X 1 1/4” hex-head screws. I put a flat washer between the wheel and the drawer, though it probably isn’t necessary, considering how infrequent will be their trips and how short will be their travel.

The second photo shows the bottom and front panel of the drawer. Note how I cut off the bottom lip of the drawer’s front panel, making it even with the sides so it wouldn’t drag on the floor. I used an angle grinder with a sanding disk for this.

You may want to further develop this system by making tracks on the floors or building spacers to keep the drawers running straight and true. As it seems to me now, I don’t think it’s necessary.

Tool rack for the shop

Tool racks are as varied as the people who use them, so it took a lot of research before I found a plan that works well, is flexible, and also is easy to build from scrap wood. 

This is a takeoff from plans for a rack published at Workshopics.com Entitled “Instructions for building the hand tool storage rack,” it was featured in American Woodworker Magazine. No matter what I’m about to say, you should go there and read this article for the original dimensions and technique. It’s a lot fancier and prettier than mine.

Here’s the rack above my all-purpose bench, featuring the hand tools I most often use, though you can’t see them all in this photo, nor is all the free space filled yet.

Tools are mounted in through-holes, slots, copper pipes, indentations, partial flat-bottomed holes and with miscellaneous hardware.

The photo below shows the basic construction: 1’ X 2” pine vertical slats nailed to the wall. To these are nailed 3/8” X 2” white oak hanger slats. Over these are the pine tool holders with 3/8” slots, about 3/8” deep and cut 3/4" from the back edge. The tight-fitting slot and the edge of the tool holder backed snugly against the wall keep the board in place until it is lifted straight up.

 

 The pine I used is Southern Yellow Pine that was, in its first life, the side of a barn. I’m not sure today’s mass-marketed pine has the same strength so you may need to go to hardwood.

Here’s a view from another angle. Likely you’ll never see another tool rack that displays more worn and mismatched tools. Notice the prominent position of the oil can and also the tool holder above that which is the shelf for my beer can.  You gotta think of these things as you plan.

The beauty of this thing, besides its simplicity and scrap-wood elements, is the fact that you can always change the holders by lifting the original ones off and burning them. And you can easily change the spacing of the tool holder slats by pulling the nails and re-nailing them higher or lower.