In my last Blog, I said I would update everyone when the tools came in, well this is not it lol. This is going to be a quickie about a freebie I got given to me today. In one of my replies in my last Blog, Topamax asked me what types of jobs I had coming up, I told about a Church job that will be coming up at the end of the year.
While “My” part will be later in the year, I do have a small crew doing other jobs there now. I went by today to just check up on things and solve a few problems, when I saw a pile of junk sitting in a hall way. Wait wait… I am getting ahead of myself…
One of the things I love to do is draw…. I doodle furniture plans all the time and store them away for later. I either draw on my work bench or at my desk in my office. So one of the “Tools” I have been wanting to build for my shop for along time is a lighted drafting table with a tilting top. A place where I can draw out plans and do all the figuring to make a piece of furniture. Now back to the church.
I left my crew and was walking down a different hall way when I saw a big pile of just “Junk” being thrown out. I wouldn’t have even noticed it enough to look at it except I had to walk around it to get by, as I walked around it, I noticed a small metal desk with a white glass top. So it grabbed my attention and I looked it over and guess what.. it was a small drafting table. Not a big professional one but one you would see in a class room (the perfect size for my shop).
It is only 3ft by 4ft on top, tall enough to slide a bar stool under,plenty of storage and drawers, has a tilting top, has a light bar over head, AND the top itself is lighted from below. This thing is OLD…but is solid as a rock and everything works.
I asked the janitor who was cleaning out the storage room what they were doing with it…”going to the dumpster” he said, and said I could have it if I wanted it. I went down stairs to the office to make sure, and they said that it had been in that room for years and had no idea where it even came from. If I wanted it, I could have it.
SO it is now in my shop, ready to be cleaned up and put to work…Good day…LOVE free stuff I can make use of !!!
-- Don S.E. OK
12 comments so far
a1Jim
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87254 posts in 1748 days
#1 posted 1477 days ago
Good find bargin of the month
-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/
Scott Bryan
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#2 posted 1477 days ago
I enjoy hearing stories like this. This is a winning situation for everyone. You get what I am sure will be a nice piece of shop furniture and you rescue it from the dump.
Great save!!
-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine
ND2ELK
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13495 posts in 1944 days
#3 posted 1477 days ago
Hi Don
Good for you. Thats being in the right spot at the right time. Just like deer hunt!
God Bless
tom
-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa
Handymom
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36 posts in 1489 days
#4 posted 1477 days ago
That’s my kind of “shopping!”
-- Karen W., KS.
TopamaxSurvivor
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#5 posted 1477 days ago
You mean youi’re not going to credit them on the pulpit job :-))
-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
Don K.
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#6 posted 1477 days ago
”You mean youi’re not going to credit them on the pulpit job :-))”
Hey, that thing was HEAVY….and on the third floor !!!!!
-- Don S.E. OK
TopamaxSurvivor
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13194 posts in 1846 days
#7 posted 1477 days ago
In that case, the janitors are lucky you didn’t charge them for taking it off their hands ;-))
-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
jockmike2
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10636 posts in 2417 days
#8 posted 1477 days ago
Great booty Arrrrrghhhhh.
-- (You just have to please the man in the Mirror) Mike from Michigan -
Rustic
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2985 posts in 1767 days
#9 posted 1477 days ago
grea score.
-- www.carvingandturningsbyrick.com, Rick Kruse, Grand Rapids, MI
cabinetmaster
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#10 posted 1476 days ago
Wow. One lucky find. Show us a pic some time when you get it in use.
-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps
MyOldGarage
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93 posts in 1598 days
#11 posted 1476 days ago
Can’t wait to see photos. I’m a fellow dumpster diving person myself . . . to a small degree. I recently saw my neighbor had some barstools set out and I snagged them with her permission. My sister has some flooring scraps in Oak that I’m going to do some fun stuff with . . . she’s getting married so surely I have a little inspiration for a gift idea. :-) Good score!
-- Bradley Miller, Blue Springs, MO - http://myoldgarage.blogspot.com
Brad_Nailor
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2450 posts in 2128 days
#12 posted 1420 days ago
Great score….It’s probably an antique!
If the top is made of glass and it’s lit from below it’s probubly a light table not a drafting table. Light tables were (and still are) used in print shops and graphic design studios to trace artwork and to proof negatives for the press plates.
I still have the drafting table that my father bought for me in JR high school when I first became interested in architecture. Sometime when I get my shop in order i would like to set it up and use it in the same capacity..sketching, and reviewing plans. I am an electronic drafter, but I remember my roots…just couldn’t stand to part with it all these years! Your story reminded me that I still have it stashed away…30 something years later!
-- http://www.facebook.com/pages/DSO-Designs/297237806954248
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