Part 2: Insignificant Items

As a sequel to my article "Insignificant Items", this post will show photos of some things that I have saved and kept. They prove to be very useful now. I'll try my best to describe each photo on why I made them and how, if not obvious. It would also be good for me to mention that I have a variety of tools that I have quite a good collection of them. Most of those were purchased individually at different times. I like so much tools that whenever I see one that interests me, I make a point to buy it. Maybe you could also do something similar things. Doing these things help keep my mind free from worries temporarily and relaxes me to some extent.

This lamp was made from a wall lamp that could not be fixed onto a wall because the screw holes of the plastic base had broken off. The base came from an older broken lamp and the tubepipe is a nickel plated one threaded on both ends. To affix the wall lamp to the tubepipe, I cut an aluminum bar equal to the diameter of its base then bore a hole in the middle to fit the tube. Two smaller holes perpendicular to the lamp's screw holes and held them with bolt and nut. The electrical wire, switch and plug were also saved from extras some time ago.

This hammer was made from a shaft of a McPherson Strut shock absorber. It is a heavy piece of steel also nickel or chrome plated. One end has two flat sides with thread on the rounded sides. I cut the rod into several pieces. The flat end sides I used for the handle and a solid round section for the hammer head. I bore a hole in the middle of the hammer head, filed it to shape to make the flat end side fit then first used metal epoxy to fix it in place. I used epoxy because I was not supposed to use the hammer for heavy duty jobs. When I needed to use it for heavy jobs, I had to go to a welding shop to have pieces welded in place. In dollars, it cost me only about 50 cents for the welding job. It's giving me more service than any commercial hammer that I have now.

We had a problem where to put our telephone set. First a small side table then a bar stool were the first ones we tried. It was inconvenient and took too much space. From small pieces of scrap wood, 1-1/4 by 1/2 inch, I sanded them down and cut it according to the size as shown. It was easy then to cut into shape a small piece of plywood for the base. I have saved, I guess 3 pairs of brackets from an old car stereo installation kit and used a pair to to fix it on to the wall. For a stronger and better support, I again cut a used an aluminum bar (those used as handle bars for full glass doors), formed an angle on both ends, drilled holes to screw them on. Varnished the wood for some looks. I could have rounded the corners but laziness crept into me again. LOL.

I never Imagined it would take this long to post this kind of of an article. Anway there are a few more items, around a hundred more (just kidding) that I have taken photos of and not posted here yet. Please bear with me. Thanks!