Edging Back into the Game
Apr. 10th, 2021 04:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayAlthough still feeling a bit fatigued, I've found the energy to get out of the house today to pick up items needed for a minor project I'd started before my second Covid shot.
I'd bought a light-duty Milwaukee hand truck, rated at only 300 lbs, to move my son's tool boxes from out of my basement and back into his house.
After doing that, though, I decided to adapt it for carrying the yard waste bags, once filled, from wherever they were in the yard to the roadside for pickup.
The problem with this hand truck, as originally configured, was that the platform which the load sits on was so short and narrow that it would be very difficult to keep the loaded bags in place and/or to avoid ripping them.
So I'd sorted through some of the plywood scrap saved from other projects, found a piece thick enough to carry the load but still thin enough to slide under it, then cut it to a size an inch or so larger on each side than the bottom of the bags that would be sitting on it.
After that, I step-drilled 4 holes in the steel platform of the hand truck for the bolts which would secure the plywood piece to it. I also found some aluminum angle with which to protect the front edge of the plywood from damage as it's slid under the load.
Although I have a fair stock of hardware, which is stored in bins shelved at the back of one of the work benches which my grandson and I had built, I needed some very short, flat-head wood screws to fasten the aluminum angle and also had to pick up primer, which I'd forgotten to buy when I'd gotten the paint.
Which is what occasioned my trip out to the Home Depot on a day when I'd really have preferred to just stay in my PJs and work with whatever I had on hand.
(To be honest, I think the clincher was that I also needed eggs for the omelet that I'm gonna make to satisfy my improving appetite tonight, lol.)
Anyway, I now have what I need to finish the project and have applied the Kilz primer/stain sealer to the workpiece. I also anticipate applying the first coat of "Apple Red" Rust-Oleum, after dinner, because the Kilz is super fast drying--one of the reasons why, despite its premium price, it's often used in commercial applications.
So, overall, not a bad day of edging back into the game...
LPK
Dreamwidth
4.10.2021
I'd bought a light-duty Milwaukee hand truck, rated at only 300 lbs, to move my son's tool boxes from out of my basement and back into his house.
After doing that, though, I decided to adapt it for carrying the yard waste bags, once filled, from wherever they were in the yard to the roadside for pickup.
The problem with this hand truck, as originally configured, was that the platform which the load sits on was so short and narrow that it would be very difficult to keep the loaded bags in place and/or to avoid ripping them.
So I'd sorted through some of the plywood scrap saved from other projects, found a piece thick enough to carry the load but still thin enough to slide under it, then cut it to a size an inch or so larger on each side than the bottom of the bags that would be sitting on it.
After that, I step-drilled 4 holes in the steel platform of the hand truck for the bolts which would secure the plywood piece to it. I also found some aluminum angle with which to protect the front edge of the plywood from damage as it's slid under the load.
Although I have a fair stock of hardware, which is stored in bins shelved at the back of one of the work benches which my grandson and I had built, I needed some very short, flat-head wood screws to fasten the aluminum angle and also had to pick up primer, which I'd forgotten to buy when I'd gotten the paint.
Which is what occasioned my trip out to the Home Depot on a day when I'd really have preferred to just stay in my PJs and work with whatever I had on hand.
(To be honest, I think the clincher was that I also needed eggs for the omelet that I'm gonna make to satisfy my improving appetite tonight, lol.)
Anyway, I now have what I need to finish the project and have applied the Kilz primer/stain sealer to the workpiece. I also anticipate applying the first coat of "Apple Red" Rust-Oleum, after dinner, because the Kilz is super fast drying--one of the reasons why, despite its premium price, it's often used in commercial applications.
So, overall, not a bad day of edging back into the game...
LPK
Dreamwidth
4.10.2021
