building the packing crates

Here's the item I'm building the packing crates for- doesn't look like much, does it? In fact, these are components of a very important piece of oilfield equipment, and are all precisely machined and heat-treated stainless steel. It's all very heavy- and this isn't even the part that does the work! I'll explain what it is at the end of this post.

These pieces are sitting on my small cabinet maker's workbench, which I built from old military bunks picked up at auction, and a solid oak entry door, picked up from beside a dumpster ( it was *heavy*- I don't blame them for not actually putting it in the dumpster!)

Here, I've machined the blocks to hold the items- I used scrap wood to build a locating jig so that they would all be the same, and a forstner bit to get a clean, precise hole.

Here are three semi completed crates- they still need sides, ends, and a top. The long piece in front is marked with layout lines, so that I can just lay the pieces on top of it to get them all right, and don't have to fuss with doing layout on each piece. In the left top of the picture is an uncomplted post office box bank- still needs a base. It's made from the same white oak door I used in building my bench. Just beautiful wood- I'm proud to have saved it. I built that bench probably two years ago, and I've just now figured out what to do with the remaining wood- it was worth the wait!

Here's a piece of the plywood I picked up last week, waiting to be cut to size for making more crates. Even the short pieces will get used for something- no idea what, yet, but plywood always comes in handy sooner or later. It's keeping company with an old waterbed side that will probably get used in some of these crates, as well. Old waterbeds are a great source of reasonably good lumber, since they've gone out of style. In fact, I've just planed a couple of them down, and I'm planning to make a coat rack out of them for our new house.

The items pictured above are the body for an item called a "downhole clock", used in drilling holes that might be turned into oil wells. In use, all of the sections screw together, a special clock is inserted into a waterproof section of the body, and the whole assembly is lowered into the drill pipe, until it hits bottom- then tension is put on the line, and the crew waits for the clock to hit it's preset timer (this is kept track of by the driller (crew chief), with a stopwatch). When it is pulled up and dissassembled, the clock will have punched a hole in a special piece of paper, showing the angle at which the body was hanging- and thus if the hole is going crooked.
If this sounds like a lot of trouble, you're right- it is! But it has to be done- these are necessary equipment on every drilling rig. My brother repairs and sells these clocks for people in several states. Apparently he's one of the only competent person doing this, as he keeps quite busy.

The joys of keeping your eyes open!

Last Sunday, as I was running around town looking for plywood, I noticed that an infamous local junk shop that hadn't been open for several years had a roll-away dumpster parked in front of it. Later on in the week, I noticed a big hand lettered sign that said "free antiques", so I stopped in for a look. I wish I had had my camera along- the pile of stuff was unbelievable! None of it was really worth picking up, unless you just needed some old dishes- but the shelves were all made out of some pretty decent wood! I made up my mind right then to bring my trailer to town the next day.
Friday, I finished up at work as quickly as possible, and ran straight over to this place. The cleanup crew had been working at an unbelievable rate over the last 24 hours- there was nothing left but dust and some of the shelves! This was okay with me- saved me lots of work! The shelves were free for the taking- all I had to do was break them down, and load my trailer.
I took a number of tools, including a cordless drill and handsaw, but all I really needed was a couple of hammers- everything was simply nailed together!
I got two shelves like this one, which is a full eight feet long- the shelves were 3/4" ply, the backing 1/4" ply, and the kicker board was a nice piece of old growth pine!


Two shelves like this, again a full eight feet long. I just tossed the "shaped" supports. Got that big box on the right, too, and the nice pine boards laying on top.

This doesn't look like much, but it was formerly a shelf unit as tall as me, and eight feet wide- made entirely of old pine! This item was the main thing I had wanted- they had just collapsed it when I got there, getting read to throw it in a dumpster- what a waste that would have been! I'll end up making all kinds of nice items out of this!

Here's my trailer with the full load- it was heavy, so much so, that I had to be careful driving it home. I could really feel the weight affecting how my truck manuevered. I've got lots of nails to pull ( couldn't take the time yesterday), but that's okay. This will take care of a lot of needed shelves, plus the new workbench I am wanting to build in my shop, plus some stuff to sell! All in all, a very satisfying day of real recycling!

I had to go into work today (my Sunday on the rotation), so I took my trailer with me to see if I could find any materials. Normally, I'm just looking for whatever turns up, but today I was specifically looking for junk wood. The reason for this is that my brother has asked me to make some packing cases for
some items he needs to ship to a customer. Since these items are heavy and made of steel, he decided to get me to do it instead of messing with it himself (I'm the family woodworker- we have a specialty, and that's mine). It's not important what the crates are made of, just that they are strong and secure, so
off I went in search of stuff!

I didn't have to look far for this pile of 3/4" ply- just went by the local countertop contractor- they've provided me with lots of good ply in the past, included that that I used to build my work bench (with a nice, smooth laminate top, thank you!).


Look at this good pile of wood! The border on the big one is red oak- I might use that for something, and I might not. I've got lots of red oak on hand.

I was sad to see this in another location- all that nice wood, buried with bricks. I could probably have gotten it out, but it just wasn't worth the trouble- there's always more somewhere else.

So, I got home with a nice trailer load of used 3/4" ply, perfect for making heavy packing cases. Stay tuned, and I'll show you how I put it to use- as well as the item I'm making them for. Points to anyone who can identify it :)

Real Recycling

While I'm not much on keeping a journal, or sharing what goes on in my life, I've thought for some time that it might be a good idea to set up a blog on recycling for real. Not the holier-than-thou-make-your-neighbors-do-what-you-think-they-should-no-matter-what type of recycling, but the real thing- finding something that is no longer in use, and then using it again.

Sometimes I use things for their original purpose, if I happen to have a need for that item. More often than not, I use the things I find as raw materials to make something entirely new. As a woodworker, I've found that using found materials (as opposed to those bought in predetermined sizes and lengths) has unlocked a level of creativity that I never knew I had. With this blog, I'm hoping to encourage others to do the same kind of thing.

You won't find any of the trendy snake oil here- we don't separate our trash (a little bit of easy research will tell you that most of it goes straight to the same landfill, and simply makes people feel good- at a much higher price in time and fees), and I don't do the things I do to "save the earth". The Earth is doing just fine, especially in the United States of America- the cleanest, best protected country on the face of the earth. What you will find here is simply a record of things I find, and what I do with it for my own purposes- and cleaning things up, and keeping good materials out of the local landfill at the same time! As in most things, simple self-interest does a better job than any government strong-arm program ever will.

I've got some materials around the house here already, and my eye on some more that I hope to pick up this weekend, so hopefully, the fun will begin soon!