Boom, banga, bang boom!
What can you do with all this stuff when you grow tired of it?
"I can’t blog about the pug 607 all the time, especially as it’s been behaving since August. So, I thought that I’d make this blog about practical upcycling or the art of turning disparate unwanted stuff into something that meets a need."
14/12/2022: I looked at turning an unwanted Formica topped coffee table, a four-speed kitchen extraction fan, eight adjustable table legs, and some flexible ducting into just what I need - a modular custom workbench, laser cutting, and spray-painting station!
image credit: Sidekix Media on unsplash.com
Background
Since moving to my new studio, two practical issues became apparent.
- I can work at a desk but as soon as I need to work with multiple computers, wood, glass, ceramic, and acrylic it's not ideal. I need somewhere to clamp my work pieces in place while I’m working on them. The simple answer is I need a workbench!
- Laser cutters can produce quite a lot of fumes, so I need an efficient method of venting them. Also, adding a spray-painted finish to work pieces is not something you want to do without a good extraction system.
As I needed a modular, expandable and customizable set up, “off-the-shelf” solutions are out of the question, and don’t fit with the ethos of Octagon Upcycle – “Turning broken, tired, infirm, unwanted gadgets, furniture, and accessories into timeless and practical designs!”
So, I looked at turning an unwanted Formica topped coffee table, a four-speed kitchen extraction fan, eight adjustable table legs, and some flexible ducting into just what I need – a modular, custom-made workbench, laser cutting, and spray-painting station!
Getting the raw materials
After searching marktplaats.nl, I sourced a very sturdy (and heavy) 135 x 80 cm coffee table in Amersfoort, an ATAG stainless steel kitchen extractor from Hilversum, eight chromed 70 x 6 cm steel legs from Hooglanderveen, and some other important bits and pieces from Zwartebroek.
All local to me, and destined for landfill, so a pretty low carbon footprint there!
Putting it all together!
You need to have an idea of what the finished product will look like. I’ve always been big on modularization, standardization and reproducibility because they are the keys to quality. Don’t make a jig that can make a single item, make one that makes 20 identical items every time. This entailed making standard modules, components and accurate jigs.
So, I sat down and made engineering drawings that make the prototype I’m making for myself, into a reproducible product that can be made available to customers as a plan or in kit form.
The work started with marking up the coffee table for drilling and stripping off the unnecessary components – legs, leg-spanners and mounting brackets. Even without these items the table top is 5 cm thick and weighs about 35 kg!
Then, I added four adjustable 70 x 6 cm chromed steel legs to raise the workbench to a practical height. This done, I used the drilling jig and started drilling 80 x 20 mm diameter holes for dog blocks. After a few battery recharges, I finally drilled the last one. I used a cone cutter to remove any rough edges on the top surface.
After this I caught Corona for the first time! Just part of life's rich tapestry . . .
More modules with the emphasis on turning the hand tools people have laying around in to table-based tools.
Now it was time to build the extraction module. The primary use for this module is fume extraction while laser engraving and cutting, so the base laser cutter needs to fit comfortably under the extraction intakes. After one false start, I cut the recess in the extraction fan mounting board (18 mm pine, which was a mistake) and screwed the 15-20 kg extractor to it with long self-tapping screws.
Everything looked good until I mounted the legs to the support board and the weight of the extractor started to warp its mounting board. Not a deal-breaker, but an irritation all the same. To correct the situation, I affixed one of the 5 x 2 x 100 cm stretchers as a cross member to spread the weight of the extractor. Problem solved!
To prevent over-spray when airbrushing or spray-painting work pieces, I needed to add a clear non-permeable curtain. The only practical option for now is building plastic, so I made the overspray curtain from it and hung it using Velcro strips.
The last construction steps were connecting the ducting to the extractor, and make a spoil board which drops into the dog block holes and prevents overspray reaching the working surface. Job done!
There is always a but with prototypes and in this case, I was prepared to let the visual esthetic take a backseat to prove the concept. So, the Extraction module while fully functional, needs a little refinement to solve the bending issue without a cross member.
User safety
I’ve spent enough time working in industry to know that safety comes first. All the power sockets are powered through a large 2-position switch mounted on the top of the workbench. This makes it easy to kill the power when needed.
What's next?
More modules but with the emphasis on turning the hand tools people have laying around in to table-based tools.
- Wheels! Though I have exactly what I need for now, I also need to e able to move it out of the way when I’m not using it, so the obvious solution is industrial wheels.
- Table-top router module. Hand routers are generally heavy and unwieldy items but for finishing they are unmissable.
- Table-top circular saw module. A stable and true saw is a necessity when cutting down stock to the required tolerances.
- Drill-press and column drill module.
- Disk and band sander module
That's the first practical upcycling blog. Keep an eye on Octagon Upcycle to see what we're working on. Better still, drop me a mail and I'll add you to the mailing list.
And Finally . . .
Octavius is my alter-ego, you can contact us at OPC using the form. Cicero coined the phrase alter-ego, as part of his philosophical construct in 1st-century Rome, in which he described it as "a second self, a trusted friend". I would classify it as the normally private me with a little touch of one of Scotland's finest 20-year old Single Malts (Laphroaig).
Here are a few jokes to finish up with:
A shepherd was tending his flock in a remote pasture
Suddenly a dust cloud approached at high speed, out of which emerged a shiny silver BMW.
The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Ferragamo shoes, Cartier sunglasses and a tightly knotted power tie, poked his head out the window and asked the shepherd, “Hey! If I can tell you how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The shepherd looked at the man, then glanced at his peacefully grazing flock and answered, “Sure.”
The driver parked his car, plugged his phone into a laptop and briskly surfed to a GPS satellite navigation system on the Internet and initiated a remote body-heat scan of the area. While the computer was occupied, he sent some e-mail via his phone and, after a few minutes, nodded solemnly at the responses. Finally, he printed a 150 page report on the little laser printer in his glove compartment, turned to the shepherd, waving the sheaves of paper, and pronounced “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.”
“Impressive. One of my sheep is yours,” said the shepherd.
He watched the young man make his pick and bundle it into his car.
Then the shepherd said, “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?”
Pleased to meet a fellow sportsman, the young man replied “You’re on.”
“You are a management consultant,” said the shepherd without hesitation.
“That’s correct,” said the young man, impressed. “How ever did you guess?”
“It wasn’t a guess,” replied the shepherd.
“You show up completely uninvited. You ask me to pay you for information I already know, answer questions I haven’t asked, and you know nothing about my business."
Now give me back my dog!
An art teacher, a math teacher, and a science teacher are all arguing over which one of them is the smartest.
The art teacher shows the others a giant clay sculpture of a dog he made. “This thing took me nearly a month to make.” He said. “Clearly this proves that I’m the smartest.”
The math teacher just laughs. “That’s nothing” she says. She then pulls out a huge 1000 question math test which she took, and the score shows that she got them all right. “It took me two months to do this, and I got them all right on the first try!”
“Oh, you make me laugh” the science teacher says. He then pulls out a robot that he built which can do laundry, walk the dog, and shoot lasers out of its eyes. “Took me three months to build this beauty, watch and weep!”
Then the gym teacher comes laughing at all three of them. “You’re all idiots” she says. “Clearly I’m the smartest !"
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” They ask.
“Because I didn’t do any of that, and I still get paid the same as you!”
A patient is recovering from laser eye surgery,
Their surgeon comes in asks if they want the good news or the bad news first?
The patient excitedly replies, “I’ll take the good news first.”
The surgeon tells them, “You’re about to get a new dog!”
That's all folks and have a good one!