Friday, February 17, 2017

Post in progress and old equipment reused

Over the last couple of days my 'creative' energy has, in the main, gone into a few repair jobs and maintenance on the block - a bit more about one of the jobs later in the post.

But I did get time to start making a post that will celebrate community gardening. This post is a freebee that will go into our local neighbourhood centre community garden. I am up cycling a few components that have been sitting in various stashes. First a 1.2m long X 150cm square salvaged piece of blackout timber; and a couple of galvanised iron stakes.

©2017 Barry Smith - Cross grain sanding and oil to bring out the colour and grain and a little face?
©2017 Barry Smith - Of course some of us like it grey and with the nails still in place
©2017 Barry Smith - Post - sanded, oiled and feet bolted on - ready for etched aluminium plates
To this will be added some etched aluminium pieces left over from a commission. And of course a plaque will be added recognising the love of gardening by volunteers and others.

©2017 Barry Smith - Square plate for the top of the post
©2017 Barry Smith - Pieces for the side faces
©2017 Barry Smith - Another couple of pieces for the side faces of the post
One of the jobs I have had on the list was to replace the cross support beam under what we call the drawbridge to the top part of the shed-studio and a couple of hand rails - all had suffered from dry rot. I needed to take the  cross beam out without taking the whole structure down. I knew I had an old house jack that was masquerading as a small rusty sculpture on the car turning deck.

©2017 Barry Smith - Couple of small rusty house jacks and a rusty friend on the corner of the deck
After a bit of oiling and persuasion it was made operational again; and you can see it did an admirable job supporting the deck off the drawbridge; whilst I removed the rotted cross beam and replaced it with a super hardwood beam.

©2017 Barry Smith - The old jack did a great job and new hardwood crossbeam is bolted in place
I hope to finish the post on Sunday.

2 comments:

  1. i just love that an old tool retired into art became functional again. and is it back, being a sculpture again?

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  2. Beautiful old jacks, Barry, and as Velma says, lovely to see them performing old roles again. I have a very nice old jack that is retired to be an art piece, so I was pleased to see yours.

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Comments are welcomed - it is good to connect with fellow travellers.