From Ash Trays To Pin Cushions...

It's always good when you can find a purpose for an old item, it gives it a new life and saves it from the bin, which is I think anyway something we should do more of, it's not a new thing either, people have been changing things from their original purpose for many years, we tend to call it being thrifty or frugal these days, but it's not new but it is a good idea, it saves things from landfill, it save you money.

So here's something I recently gave a new life to - 

Not that useful these days.

A pair? of small brass shoe shaped ash trays with some nice engraving, they've had some colour added to the inlay as well, they are quite nice and obviously served a specific function, but these days fewer people smoke which isn't a bad thing, but what to do with a couple of old ash trays?

My first thought was pin cushions, my reasoning was that they are small and have a novelty value which is probably why they were ash trays in the first place.

To turn them into pin cushions was easy enough, all I did was get rid of the section on the back that would have held the cigarette, as these are brass I had to use my multi-tool.

Ready for modification - 

Time for some surgery.

It didn't take long to grind away the back section, I used a small sanding attachment to remove any sharp edges and that was it basically, the next step is make a cushion.

Ready for a cushion.

The cushion was made from some old red velvet as it goes well with the brass (better once the brass was polished) and stuffed it with some wadding from an old pillow, I haven't detailed the steps, but basically I stitched a sausage shape from the velvet and stuffed it with wadding, then it was glued into the shoe.

And this is what I ended up with -

I'm pleased with them.

So there we have it, a pair of quirky pin cushions, a good size for a sewing box or bag and a good use of old objects that don't really have a purpose anymore.

Thanks for visiting.

New life into an old box...

I thought it was about time I wrote a post, so here it is and as the title says I'm breathing new life into an old box, an old work box / sewing box to be precise.

Now some people will says that old pieces of furniture like this should be left as they are, and for the most part I agree but not always.

Here's the work box - 

It is a nice little work box on barley twist legs, has the added bonus of a storage drawer and a second shelf so it's useful and structurally sound although old rickety joints are easy enough to fix.

The finish or rather whats left of it is not so good, so it needs removing, which is what I'd just started to do in the picture above.

Before that I took out the old lining, now some will say I should have left it and had it been in in good condition I might have, however it had some staining same goes for the drawer lining, it also had an aroma of old so it had to go.

Removing the lining - 

Was probably quite nice in its day.

The lining came out easily enough, although it did leave some of the old card backing in place so to remove that I used a bit of warm soapy water and a scraper much in the way you do when removing wallpaper, so basically wet the card and scrape off.

Like so - 

It's a bit sticky.

The glue used can get a little slimy and sticky but I've found that it will wash off with soap and water and once done you're left with clean wood, which can be sanded and stained, or re-covered.

I also took out some of the woodwork as it needed replacing because I removed the lining.

Wood out - 

Was never meant to be seen, so they cut costs and used what they had.

With the clean up done it was basically sanding and a fair bit of it, which I did by hand and not using a powered sander the main reason is that over the years I've found the types of finishes used in the early part of the 20th century (which when the box dates to) kind of heat up with the friction of an orbital sander and once they do they clog the sanding pads quite quickly, so I just used some 80grit sandpaper and a cork block, it didn't take long and saved on materials, I could have used a chemical stripper but I try to avoid those where possible.

Top sanded back to bare wood - 

Roughly 10 minutes work.

Sanding revealed a lovely oak top, most likely quarter sawn oak, once the top was done it was just more of the same, so I started with 80grit going with the grain and once it was done I used 120grit and once I was happy it was pretty much done.

All sanded - 

Ready for some wax.

The only repair needed was replacing the wood divider that sits between the bottom of the box and drawer, I used a thin piece of reclaimed oak for that.

And it's all done -

Ready for a new life somewhere.

Once I'd sanded it I wiped it over to clean the wood and then I waxed it with an oak coloured wax which once dry I buffed to a shine, then I coated it with a clear wax and again buffed it to a shine, overall I'm pleased with the results and the box is ready to live on, it is still a useful and compact piece of furniture, some people may say it's not fashionable, it's brown furniture I disagree.

It's a lovely antique oak work box that belongs in a nice room in a house and not in the bin or on a bonfire.

Thanks for visiting.

Cutlery canteen up-cycle...

This is a project I completed a while ago, but I was pleased with the results and it was better than putting the box in the bin, it's worth thinking about other uses for things before chucking them out, especially when peoples finances are, shall we say stretched.

During ww2 the UK government at the time introduced the 'Make Do And Mend' campaign (amongst others) and perhaps in the world we currently live in it's something we should re-visit, anyway, below is a video I made of me re-purposing an old cutlery canteen.

Here's the video -

Turned out nicely, and had I not converted it, it would have ended up in landfill, which would have been a shame.

Thanks for visiting.

Re-purposing some old boxes...

I recently got round to doing something with some boxes I picked up a while ago, there were originally used in the printing industry, and they held monophoto negative plates and other plates.

As everything these days is digital there was a chance the boxes would have ended up in landfill, but I've given them some tlc and turned them into artists boxes, quite pleased with the end result.

You can often find things like this at car boots, flea markets and local market places and boxes are always useful and can be quite decorative, I've added some pictures of some of the boxes I've renovated at the end of this post, sometimes it's not so much renovating the boxes as it is repairing them and making them usable again, maybe repairing splits in the wood, or fixing hinges and if it stops them going in the bin then that has to be good thing, I've also found that old boxes despite any faults are more often than not better built than things you can buy these days.

Here's the video of this particular set of boxes - 

And here are some others - 

This one was an old letter box, probably from the 1950's, a lovely Oak box that just needed some tlc.

The box in the image on the right was another one used in the printing industry, this box held large glass plate negatives, it's a great size for a bookcase as you can see.

So there we are some good sturdy boxes saved from the bin, has to be a good thing.

Thanks for visiting.

Sewing Box Renovation...

It's been a while since I've written a post on here, the last few have been cross posted from my Youtube channel, so I thought I'd do things the other way round maybe.

I have over the years repaired many things, and this sewing box that I recently acquired was in need of some attention.

Sewing box (cat for scale) - 

The box was made around 1930 / 1940 and it's made from Oak, and has it's original Bakelite casters, a nice thing, it was lined with a silk like material, however over the years it had become badly stained and I think maybe moths had been at it as well, the wood work also needed some tlc, nothing drastic just joints re-gluing and the finish was very patchy.

So as with most jobs like this it has to get worse before it gets better, time to take stuff apart, which wasn't that hard seeing as time had done some of the work already.

Pile of bits - 

You can see the green material, which was glued to very old board, what was also interesting is that whoever made the box had used 2 bits of board to fix the legs to the box part, which meant I needed to find a way of fixing the 2 bits back together, but first sanding the old finish off and removing the years old glue that seemed to be everywhere.

Right most of the sanding done, time to start putting things back together, a good idea when doing something like this is to use a tub with a lid for any screws and other fixings you take off, that way they don't get lost.

First the top section which makes up the box needed to be glued back together - 

I had to do this in stages, but it worked well in the end and once that was done it was on to fixing the box section back onto the legs, to replace the board I removed I cut thin strips of oak salvaged from an old table (made around the same time as it happens) and used these to glue and pin the 2 sections together, I used a load of clamps to make sure there was good contact between the 2 sections.

Many clamps - 

I also used strips of wood as wedges to push the strips of oak into the top section, this was also necessary as the top had a bow in 2 sides which is now gone.

In the image the black lines indicate the new strips of oak that fix the 2 parts together, the bits with red marks we just wedges.

 

I did also need to cut a new pieces of wood for the base of the main box, the drawer and the 2 smaller top boxes as these had been lined with the green silk and none were salvageable, another good tip if you do anything like this is to try and remove the parts in one piece as this will give you templates for any new parts you might need to make, just makes life easier.

Once I had it all glued and pinned back together it was just more sanding to remove access glue and then the wood needed to be stained (I used a light oak stain) mainly because the sanding process removed some of the colour, and after the stain had dried I applied a dark oak wax and buffed it to a nice shine, and then I've applied a further clear wax to help maintain the finish.

And here it is, all done and ready for many more years of service, very pleased with the end result.

Saved from landfill, now just got to sort the other one I have out (some assembly required)

Yes there's a bit more work in this one, but once it's done it should look similar to the one in the picture below, which was another sewing box I renovated a while ago.

Thanks for visiting.

Cleaning up old door hinges...

A short how to on removing paint from door hinges, I use a blow torch because it's quick and I'm lazy, but you could just wire brush the hinges, or use a heat gun (the kind for stripping paint) solvents would work as well, like the liquid paint stripper you can buy, I just prefer this method.

Works on steel hinges, I'd be careful if the hinges are brass though as excess heat may warp the metal, easiest way to tell would be to use a magnet, a magnet won't stick to brass.

After the hinges are cleaned a small drop of oil, or spray of WD-40 will make them work like new and they'll be ready for use on another door, this would work on hinges used on windows as well, and the casement stays, basically any metal that is covered in paint could be cleaned using this method, but make sure you use a well ventilated area when doing this, and be aware that the metal will get hot, so wear good heat proof gloves, or hold the hinge in some grips.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

A video of a much needed repair to one of our sets of wood framed double glazed windows, the repair was carried out a while ago now and is holding up well, and I have since carried out a similar repair to one of the other windows on the house, which is the bonus of having wood frame windows, it's easy to carry out repairs like this, tends to be a bit harder on upvc windows.

You can see in the video that the bead that holds the glazed unit in has started to rot, so this is me carefully cutting out the rotten wood and replacing it with a new piece and making good.

The alternative to doing this kind of repair maybe to strip the paint off the wood and apply a wood plasticiser, there are products you can buy that essential soak into the wood and set hard, they also prevent further damage.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

Replacing a failed sealed unit...

This is a job I've finally got round to fixing, basically one of the double glazed units (sealed units) in our wood framed double gazed windows failed a while ago, by that I mean condensation was building up between the 2 panes of glass and rather than replace the whole frame i decided to just replace the sealed unit.

I found a company near to us who can make sealed units to whatever spec you want so I ordered one, much cheaper than replacing the whole frame. The sealed units in upvc windows can also be replaced in a similar way and it's cheaper to replace them rather than the whole window frame, how to's can be found online and a few minutes searching will find companies near to you who can make replacement units, you will need measurements though.

Here's a video of the process, obviously this will be different for upvc windows -

Thanks for visiting.

Homemade propagation station...

A lot of plants can easily be propagated using water, we usually just use jars of various sizes, but I thought I'd make a proper propagation station, you can buy ready made ones in all sorts of different styles and shapes, and with different types of glass, but I wanted to recycle some old spice jars and some old pallet wood so these cost nothing to make, I'm surprised at how well they turned out, and they look quite good as well.

Here's how I made them -

Rooting cuttings in water works for many different plants, and these are a good way to see the progress of roots growing, and they cost nothing but a little time to make.

Thanks for visiting.

Making an adapter for our vacuum cleaner...

We recently acquired a new hoover (vacuum cleaner) but it didn't have a brush attachment, we could have bought one, but it was quicker to make one of our old ones fit, all I did was use part of another attachment that I don't use, not a huge saving money wise but a saving none the less and it saved time in trying to find the right sized attachment online and getting it posted to us.

I could have cut out some of the steps as they aren't really needed.

Here's the video -

Thanks for visiting.

How to repair a puncture...

A rough guide on how to repair a puncture in a bicycle inner tube, or at least the way I've been doing it for years, it's a simple process, it can be done almost anywhere as long as you have a repair kit and a pump.

There are products you can buy that will temporarily fix a puncture really quickly, Tire weld is one that springs to mind, technically made for cars but it does work for pushbikes.

Anyway hopefully this will prove useful -

Thanks for visiting.

Making pincushions...

I've been trying to use up some of the scraps of wood I have, I tend to hoard small bits of wood as they might come in useful at some point, I've made pincushions before on my lathe and it is a quick and simple use of any small off cuts of wood and indeed material as well.

The one's I've made in the video are all from recycled materials, even the polyester padding, it's from an old cushion, I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out.

Here's a video on how to make them - 

And here's a picture of the ones I made recently - 

Thanks for visiting.

Homemade garden fork handle...

It's the time of year where my thoughts turn to all things gardening and so I start making plans and lists of jobs to be done.

Trouble is I broke the handle of the only fork I have for use at home, I have a couple down the allotment, probably should get another for home use (how many forks is too many?) I broke the handle whilst trying to dig up some very old rose bushes that someone in our local area had put on a freecycle type website, in the end I got eight very large (rooted) rose bushes, which are now in the garden in various places, which is good, but it did leave me with a broken garden fork.

So off to the workshop to make a new handle, below is the video.

Thanks for visiting.

Repairing our 15 year old tumble dryer...

 This is a job I've been meaning to get round to, we've had the same tumble dryer for 15 odd years and it started to make a horrible grinding noise, it was an easy enough fix once I'd found the parts for it.

Cosmetically the dryer is looking tired, but it still works fine and honestly we don't use it that much as we prefer to dry clothes outside where possible, but for rainy days it's a handy thing to have.

We could have bought a new dryer, but didn't want to spend that much money and repairing was the cheaper option and fingers crossed it'll last a few more years now.

Here's a video of me fixing it - 

Thanks for watching.

Paint scraper /decorators knife repair...

 It's been a while since I've posted, so to start off here's a quick repair job.

I've been decorating the house and managed to break the scrapers / decorators knives I've been using for various tasks and seeing as I didn't want to spend any money buying new ones, or if I'm honest given the current lock down I didn't want to have to queue for ages at a diy store to buy new ones, so of to the shed to repair the ones I had, there's a short video at the end of the post if you're not in the mood for reading.

One fixed already - 

Repaired and to be repaired.

You can see the problem, there should be a plastic handle attached to the metal part, so I need to make one of those and as it turns out it was easy given the piles of random bits of wood I have.

First I marked 2 points where I intended to drill -

Ready for drilling.

Then after drilling the holes I found a couple of long(ish) bolts, these need to be long enough to go through the wooden handle.

Like so - 

These bolts should do.

Next a handle is needed, for this I used an old spindle from a wooden bed, sometimes having random things pays off, I just cut one of the spindles in half which gave me 2 handles.

Handle picked and cut - 

Now to make the blade fit in the handle.

To make the blade fit you'll need to make a cut in the centre of the wood you use, a square piece will do, but I'd round it off a bit to make to more comfortable to hold.

Cut made - 

Now to fit the blade.

Mark drill points on the piece of wood, I used the blade I'd already drilled as a template, you'll need to make 2 holes in the wood for the bolts to go through, and it's a good idea to counter sink the holes as well.

Almost done - 

To be drilled.

Bolts fit - 

Not much left to do now.

Assemble the scraper and finish it off, I cut of any extra bits of thread from the bolts and gave the handles a quick sand, they don't need to be pretty as they'll be used and abused, but will last longer than they did with the plastic handles, they do feel a lot sturdier and like they can take more punishment, so although it's a repair it's also an improvement on the original.

Assembled - 

Bit of finishing needed.

All done -

There's a certain rustic vibe to these.

Quick video/slideshow detailing the steps -

Thanks for reading.

Mouse surgery ... ...

I've been using the same mouse for the best part of 6 years now, and as you would expect it has started to show signs of wear and tear, especially in the button clicking department, and one button in particular (it has four) has become really annoying.


Here's the patient -

Reminds me of Moya from Farscape.

The button in question is the one I use when scrolling through documents, web pages and any other type of scrolling, you can see it in the picture above, it's the small button above the large silver one, the way it works is I hold the button down and move the ball and what ever I'm looking at will scroll, and I can scroll vertically (up and down) and horizontally (left and right) which is handy, at least when the button works.

Now I could just go out and buy a new one, but that's the best part of £20 (or more) depending on where you buy it from, and to be honest to fix it costs no more than about £2 or if you have an old mouse lying about then it costs nothing to fix, you just need a soldering iron and some solder.


Here's the offending button, it's a simple micro switch -

Easy to remove, and replace.

So with my trusty soldering iron I set about removing the dying switch, which is just a case of desoldering it, and in this case it's just three little pins that hold the switch to the circuit board.


The three contacts -

Takes just a minute or two to desolder it.

Switch removed - 

That wasn't so hard.

Choices, choices, which switch do I pick ? - 

I removed these from an old mouse.

If you ever need a micro switch or two, then if you have an old mouse you'll be in luck as most mice use micro switches for the left and right click buttons, and any other buttons it might have, but if you do have to buy a micro switch you can get them for under £2 from places like Maplins, and I dare say you could find them cheaper with a quick search online.

All you need to do is remove the screws from the bottom of the mouse and then desolder the micro switches from the circuit board, and you can see in the example below just how long these little switches have been used in mice, the one in the picture is an old ball type mouse, none of this new-fangled laser nonsense.

The willing donor - 

A dinosaur in mouse terms.

Flip it over and go at it with a screw driver - 

There are usually screws hiding under the little plastic pads.

Remove the little pads to show the screws hiding underneath - 

Found you !

And your in, and you should see something very similar to this - 

Three switches, this will be the same with most mice.

And that's as hard as it gets, new switch installed in my mouse - 

I picked the best of the switches I salvaged.

And so far I'm pleased to report the patient is doing well, good as new in fact and I've saved money as well.

Soldering isn't difficult, you do have to be careful as soldering irons get hot, trust me I've burned myself a few times, you can buy soldering irons very cheaply and usually you can buy kits that have everything you need to get you started, iron,solder etc and if you've never tried soldering before I'm sure you can find a 'how to' style video or two on youtube or some other corner of the interweb.

So why not have a go at fixing things that break ? what have you got to lose ? if you can't fix it you've still got to buy a new one, and if you can fix it you'll have saved some cash, can't be bad ... can it ?

Thanks for reading.