Wheelbarrow Plant Stand

I made this yard wheelbarrow plant stand for my wife.  The wheel really rolls so she can move it to any part of the yard.  This past summer she used it to keep some of the extra marigolds on.  She grew many marigolds and harvested the seeds to grow more next year.

Bottle Tree

I made this Bottle Tree for my wife after she saw one and asked me to make her one.  She collected the bottles from teachers she works with and from my cousin.  She plans to change them once in a while for a new look or have me make more for her.  She already has another design style planned.  Here are some links to bottle tree sites:  The Bottle Tree Man, BottleTree.com , Bottle Tree Images.

Playing on Our Homemade Riding Toys

Today after I picked my son up from school we decided to go for a ride on our riding toys I built (see previous blog posts for details on them).  We drove around the farm pastures for a while then decided to run through the drainage ditch in front of the house which was full of water from all the recent warm weather melting the snow.  We had a great time and my son loved it.  The top three pictures are me and the bottom three pictures are my son (his pants are too short because he was wearing a pair of mine so he could get them dirty and he's at least 3 inches taller than me). I thought you'd enjoy seeing the toys in use!

Rex and Cavey

I made the dinosaur in 2008.  We call him Rex. He is about 10 feet tall.  He has made a home in our back yard area.  He lived alone for a year and then I made a small caveman to keep him company.  We call him Cavey.  They are both made mostly from chain. I did not paint them.  They are getting a natural rust finish.  Last Halloween, my son put a plastic bone in Rex's mouth and we left it there.  Cavey is holding a rock in one hand and a large stick in the other to fight off Rex if he should get tired of his bone!

Bob

I made Bob in 2006.  He stands guard outside my main shop.  He is about 7 feet tall had is holding a pistol in each hand.  I cut the pistols with my CNC table.  Bob is made mostly from chain that I found.  Other scrap metal was also used.  No matter what the weather, Bob is always smiling!

Windmill

I made this windmill in 2008.  The first picture shows my first phase with the windmill at about 6 feet tall.  After a while I decided it needed to be taller so I added 4 feet to the height.  We use it for yard decoration and to decide if it's too windy for our outdoor fires at our campfire area. 

Homemade Hydraulic Press Brakes

I needed brakes to use with the products I make for our metal shop.  It was much more inexpensive to make them myself so they were exactly what I needed.  I already had the steel and the springs.  The only investment was the smallest jack. The top picture is a press brake I made to bend some of the things I make for our metal shop.  I use it to bend bookends mostly.  The middle picture is the unfinished second brake that is painted in the last picture.  I use this one to bend our napkin holders for the shop.  I have bent 10 and 14 gauge metal so far with them. 

AJ's Modified Lawn Mower

This started out as a lawnmower we bought in 1997 when we lived in Florida.  We brought it to NY with us and used it for a couple of years here.  After I had a problem finding replacement parts for the rear pulley, I took the original motor from it and put it in another mower that I now use.  I took the body of this old mower and made a "buggy"  for my 15 year old son.  Now we can ride on our modified mowers together out in the pastures and down by the pond.

Modified Rims for Homemade Utility Vehicle

I had to modify the front and the back rims for my homemade utility vehicle. For the front tires I needed to have a wider rim.  I cut the center out of the narrow stock front rims and put them into another set of wider rims that I had.  (Photo 1 and 2).  For the back, I had to put more of an offset onto the existing rims. I used pieces from the original front rims to add this offset on the back rims.  I added 4 inches to each side. (Photo 3 and 4).  The original distance between the back the back tires is shown in the 5th photo.  The new width its shown in the 6th photo.

Homemade Utility Vehicle

I started this homemade utility vehicle with the lawnmower. It was a good winter project. I cut the frame and lengthened it by 2 feet.  I moved the motor back one foot.  I build\t a seat so two of us could ride it at one time.  The steering column is in the middle so I can sit in the middle if alone.  I made the back of the bed hinge down for easy loading of things.  I put a ball on it so I could tow small trailers. I also made a snow plow for it.  My wife and I bought some remnant fabric and covered the seat that I made. We used recycled foam from seat cushions from my parents' motor home. I bought new tires for the front and back.  I had to modify the rims that came on the lawnmower so the new larger tires would fit.. I will show that process in the next post.

Homemade Wood Stove

I built this woodstove in 2005 when I was building my new shop.  I didn't have a furnace in it yet to keep it warm while I did the drywall and painting.  I made a place for it to exhaust out of one of the windows by using a cut out piece of tin.  I made the stove out of flat steel.  I had to buy a kit that had the door and the collar that goes around the base of the smokestack.  It worked well.  Now I have an oil furnace in my shop and I wish I had a place to use the stove now. 

Recycled Metal Fire Ring

This post is showing two different things.  I decided today that it was time to try out my recycled paper bricks that I made with my brick maker.  I had made a portable fire ring out of an old water heater and some scraps of steel.  I have a grate in the bottom of it, raised about two inches for air circulation space. This is our winter fire pit since our summer area is closed up for the winter.  The brick seemed to work well.  It did not burn too quickly like paper.  It burned slowly and acted like a piece of wood in the fire.  I think that it works best when used along with wood, but it did well for the first try!

Saratoga Racing Wall Hangings

We live about 20 miles from the world famous Saratoga Race Track.  I made these one of a kind wall hangings to bring to a craft fair we were doing in Saratoga.  We sold the top one to a local resident.  We still have the bottom one.