OFF TOPIC blog

Two years ago I began building ‘STUFF’ out of cedar. I found that I could buy an eight foot, rough cedar, 2X4 post at Home Depot for about $5.50.

Once I got the thing home I would cut it up on the table saw into 2 inch by one inch 8 foot sections. I trimmed off the rough sides, cut out any knots and imperfections, glued some of the pieces together to make 2X2 inch posts or six inch square sections 2 inches thick or any other size that came to mind.

I liked the way plain varnish darkened the cedar and brought out the beauty of the wood without need for stain.

I began building floor lamps and desk lamps. Each made from 100 percent cedar, even the shades. Those very thin trimmed rough sections ended up making perfectly good lamp shade material.

Recently I came into possession of a small table lamp that was a touch on, touch again to make brighter, touch a third time to make brightest, and touch again to turn off. It soon became one of my favorite lamps until recently the touch mechanism quit working. Touch it as you may it remains on bright. After I could not get the base appart, I gave up on this six dollar thrift shop item.

I retired it to temporary spare computer service. The shade attaches to its light bulb with a wire hoop. I turn the hoop clockwise, seating the bulb to turn it one. Turn it counterclockwise, unseating the bulb to turn it off. It never had a real on/off switch. Just the high tech touch on/bright/off function that quit working. Now it has a really low tech but effective way of turning it on and off. Very primitive but not as bad as unplugging it and plugging it back in.

Now I needed a replacement.

Several months ago we replaced eight 100watt ceiling mounted wall washer spots with compact flourescents.
The first thing we noticed was the new compact flourescents do not work well with incandescent dimmers. The dimmers were replaced with ordinary switches.

Not wishing to discard perfectly good incandescent dimmers, I decided to use one to invent an new desk lamp. One that had a dimmer feature.

I used my fostener bit assortment to hollow out the base of one of the desk lamps. Then I mounted the dimmer inside the hollowed out recess and glued it in with hot melt glue. Got it wired up and presto, a nice incandescent desk lamp with dimmer.

Works great and is a near perfect replacement for that touch lamp that failed.

Ah, toy trains. I remember my first toy train. It did not need a table. The three rail metal track was layed out on the floor and the engine was powered by an electric motor.

This train does need a table. The track is made of wood as is the train and it is powered by the little hands of a two-year old.

A nice train table and two storage boxes- were priced at $300. I thought that was way too high until I started building it. Building it yourself saves more than half the cost but after the rubber feet bumpers, casters, chalkboard paint, varnish, wood and miscellaneous materials were purchased we were $90 lighter in the pocket.

Before you rush out and spend money on materials be sure you have all the tools to build this project. At a very minimum you will need a table saw and belt sander. It is assumed you also have the normal assortment of hand tools. Electric drill, drills, screwdrivers, paint brushes, hammer, nails and so forth. You would do well to see about gaining access to a drill press to drill the holes through the legs. The legs need holes for screws. This allows you to break down the frame for transport or shipping. If you are going to use the table where you build it, or have a truck, it would certainly be possible to avoid the holes and screws and permanently mount the legs.

Chalkboard paint? Chalkboard paint is fairly common and makes a reasonably good chalkboard. We wanted the top of the table to be a chalkboard so that it could serve a double purpose.

I have also heard that you can make your own chalkboard paint. Here is a link that tells you how to do it.

Table top inside dimensions are 48 X 32 inches. This is the dimension of the top itself, before it is framed. The skirt keeps little train parts from falling to the floor. The top dimension is sized to allow colorful landscape posters to cover the top. Makes the train layout look more natural.

Here you can see the bolt holding the end piece to the table leg.

That is chalk on the chalkboard top. One of the ways of conditioning the blackboard is to cover it with chalk after the paint has cured for three days. Rub chalk all over it. Let it sit a few minutes. Then erase the chalk with a clean, damp rag. This was done before the final trim was installed around the table top. I have not figure out yet how to remove the chalk dust from the patio. I suspect a garden hose will be involved.

See the prevarnished lumber leaning up against the wall? That is the skirt material that will be installed around the table top. It is prevarnished so that we dont slop paint onto our blackboard top. Notice also that the skirt material is clear pine. No knots or imperfections. We cut that wood from a larger pine board on the table saw and discarded those parts that had knots. That is far less expensive than buying clear pine.

The chalkboard paint was also used on the storage box covers. So you can either sit on boxes with covers in place or draw on them with chalk or remove the covers and draw on them. Lots of possibillities.

The table legs are 3×3 inch pine and were made from two joined lengths of 2×4. The leg assembly is in four sections. Two of the sections had legs securely attached with glue and dowels. These two sections were fitted to the skirt framing the underside of the table top. Two additional end pieces are attached with bolts and T-nuts. The attachment can be seen in the pictures. A 1/4 inch diameter, 4 inch long bolt passes through the end skirt, through the leg and is screwed into the threaded T-nut that is installed into a hole in the far side of the leg. These holes almost have to be drilled on a drill press to keep them straight and true.

The wood is pine. The actual table top is hardboard that has had three coats of blackboard paint applied. The painted top is glued to a sheet of half-inch thick plywood for support. The finish is Minwax Honey Pine Stain & Polyurethane.

I did not even think of painting the plywood directly with chalkboard paint. My guess is that would not make a very good blackboard. The surface of my plywood was too rough and soft.

The hardboard is VERY hard and the finished side is VERY smooth. Excellent blackboard material. The hardboard blackboard is attached to the plywood with glue alone. Some clamping helps but I did not have the clamps required to seriously hold the parts together and had to rely mainly on gravity and some heavy concrete blocks.

Storage boxes are made from pine shelving. Mitered corners glued and held secure with dowels and more glue. Bottoms of the boxes are hardboard riding in a slot cut into the end and side boards before assembly. Tops covers are hardboard that has also been painted with chalkboard paint.

I saw a demonstration of the new Tickle Me Elmo doll on Good Morning America yesterday. They sent him through all three levels of hilarious laughter. Very impressive!

Suggested retail price is under fifty dollars. I predict the price will double, perhaps triple and more depending on how close you are to December 25 this year.

A word to the wise, if you are considering purchasing one of these dolls, make sure you buy plenty of batteries. Those hatches at the bottoms of both of his feet are battery access hatches. I suspect he takes D cells and more than just one per foot.

Ooops, my mistake. He takes six AA batteries. I bet they need frequent replacement.

This would would be as good a time as any to invest in a recharger and some rechargeable batteries

If you have any money left over this season (HA!!!), you might also buy some stock in a company that manufactures batteries. Battery disposal companies might also do well.

As a parting thought, speculators might want to load up on a few of these dolls before parents have a chance to clear the shelves of stock. I bet a genuine doll will bring big bucks after the cheap knock-offs start shipping from some place in China.