I've made a few neat things out of this wine barrel that I got for $35 off of Craig's List. So far, a few candle holders, a couple clocks, and a wine rack. Since I broke the barrel open I've had several ideas for what to do with the hoops. If I were to cut them up they'd make nice accents on the candle holders or wine racks. I might even find a way to use them to make Roman numerals on the clocks. At this time, I don't have an easy way to cut them up so I decided to use them whole.
The hoops are oxidized and weathered and should make some wonderful yard art, I believe. Perhaps placed between the jockeys and gnomes, but in front of the crudely painted, not-so-funny, plywood cut-out folk art.
In an earlier post I commented that my wine barrel anatomy was sub par. Not so anymore. Prepare to be amazed:
Since the two bilge hoops encompass the widest part of the barrel they were the outside of my globe. These were followed in succession by the quarter hoops and finally the head hoops. I measured the diameter of the bilge, quarter, and head hoops individually, multiplied it by (go team hold that line) 3.14159 to get the circumference, and followed that up with some wicked division (by 2 & by 4) to figure out where to drill the north and south pole holes in the bilge, quarter, and head hoops, to make the poles fall on exact opposite sides. I used some extra mounting bolts from my TV for the poles. Unfortunately, I didn't have any nuts that matched the thread so I had to run to Home Depot and spend about $2 for a dozen nuts. I place a nut between each pair of the bilge, quarter, and head hoops and tightened the whole business down with my drill.
To finish it up, I rotated the bilge, quarter, and head hoops to roughly space them equidistant apart, and then tossed it in the flower garden.
You are truly a piece of work! You have discovered your God given gift to create things beautiful and functional out of things most people throw away. Way to go, guy. I love what you are able to do. Your jealous dad.
ReplyDeleteI'm with your dad, where did this suddenly come from? I've know you since 1985 and this just came out of the blue, like an old man making a dangerous left hand turn in front of your motorcycle when your going 55mph and your like whoa...I digress. Seriously, I think it's pretty dang cool man.
ReplyDeleteI think it's coming from my wife (to be). Not that she's getting me to do it, but she's taught me to look at things from a different angle. She's very environmentally conscious and tries to reuse as much as possible. She saves produce and coffee bags (even the twist ties) and uses them over and over when we go grocery shopping. Uses broccoli rubber bands to keep her pant leg out of the bike chain. I've always been pretty good at coming up with alternatives to solve problems. Like if I didn't have the right tool for the job or if I needed to Jimmy rig something. Because of her, I no longer see the end of a product's usefulness just because it served its intended use. I've started thinking "what else can I use this for?" Plus, I've been unemployed for the last 9 months. Gotta do something besides watch Netflix when I'm not looking for work.
DeleteAw, shucks... We make a good team - both pack rats by nature and outta-the-box thinkers. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's in your genes, andrew jacob. Your grandfather, with whom you share a middle name, never assumed an item was actually dead when it died. He'd either resurrect it, regaredless of the effort involved, or he'd canibalize it for parts for the next thing that broke down. And then there's the inventor on your mom's side. The artistic thing may be your very own genetic mutation in this otherwise plebian family. In short ( oh shut up) you definitely rock!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the comparison to Grandpa. I've seen pictures of the work he did on cars and have some of his guns that he made or accented. I'm particularly impressed with his cross hatching work on the .22. It's amazingly intricate and straight. I wish I had his patience, but it looks like that went to Kris.
DeleteSharon - no one can argue that he rocks or that he shares traits with our grandfather. But middle name? uh uh. Andrew Michael, he be, not Andrew Jacob.
ReplyDelete