Wood-Working

Salvaged Chopping Block

During a previous move, I was given a free-standing dishwasher with a chop-block top. I tried using the dishwasher, but it just wouldn't clean the dishes at all. So for the most part, we just used it as an extra counter-top. When I got the dishwasher, the wooden surface was faded, worn out, and just starting to crack. It also had several set-in mildew rings, from what I assume were cups sweating on it for too long...

Needless to say, I scrapped the thing when I moved again, but I was able to salvage the wooden top. It has taken me a long while to get to it, but I forgot to take before pics... Sorry 

Anyway, I let it bleach out in the sun to thoroughly dry it out, then I started in to it with a belt sander. It took the better part of an afternoon to get it all sanded, clean, and smooth again. I then washed it off and applied several coats of food-grade mineral oil to the surface. This gave it a rich deep coloring and a lovely  look.

This thing is HUGE by the way:

But I thought, "Why stop at just resurfacing?" So I divided the board up into a meat side and a produce side, and wood-burned labels and the dividing line: 

The cool thing about this thing is that it had a lip on it, where it sat on the dishwasher. This, I have set up so that when the meat side is facing you, it lifts the back side up, allowing the juices from the meat to drain off AWAY from the produce side :) 

Take a look:

That's all for this project, but I thought it was worth sharing. It also follows my personal rule of "Don't let good materials go to waste"

TinyTV Lockdown

Ok, so this isn't as awesome as it sounds, but it fits :)

For those of you who don't know, my oldest kid is autistic. This isn't usually a big deal, but he doesn't understand a lot of things very well. For example, "if I climb the dresser to get to the TV it will fall over and it will hurt me" Luckily, when he discovered that this is true, he managed to not get hurt at all. I thought he would have learned from that, not to climb the dresser... I mean after all, this is a 32" tube tv that weighs 100 pounds, it scared it out of him right? Nope... So when it happened a second time, he was still totally fine, but it killed my tv (I'm fixing it don't worry XD). I decided it was time to downgrade him to something that isn't going to cause him any harm if it falls. He now has a 13" tube tv I found in this place when we moved in. Within a day he managed to knock it in the floor as well, so I took drastic action, which brings us to this build :)

I made a full wooden enclosure for the tv from wood scraps I had laying around. This fits the tv perfectly, thanks to a little trigonometry and a lot of measuring. The hole in the front is directly in front of the IR sensor and the whole thing is screwed to the dresser.

I also drilled a 3/4" hole behind th top drawer for this:

I put all of the devices and remotes into the drawer and ran the single coaxial cable to the tv. The VCR is only there to be an RF modulator for the Roku. To keep him from demolishing these devices (he's killed 2 DVD players, a VCR, and countless dvds...) I got a child safety lock to keep him out.

It works rather well so far. It's pretty cool, with the Roku app I can use my phone for it's remote and not even have to open the drawer. Also, he won't be able to knock the TV off or the dresser over (I tried and failed) It's also nice to know he's safe, at least from this, and it makes him happy, which is the best feeling in the world.

That's it for now, Thanks for reading!