Spooled Cordage Dispenser

I have a spool of 550 cord that I found at a garage sale years ago. I've had it turn into a rats nest far more than once, so I naturally wanted a solution that puts the cord where I will find it and eliminate rats nests for good.

I hit on the idea of making a dispenser modeled after a paper towel dispenser.

I scrounged around and picked up the 2x4 wood, a piece of pipe, and screws from around the shop. I routed out the slots for the pipe, screwed it all together and painted it red.

I then hung it under the twine bobbin I'd already made and hung on the wall. Pretty simple project.

Wiring Outlets to the Workbench - Countertop Mount

I have yet another workbench that I have had trouble finding outlets near, so I decided to address the problem at this workbench as well.

This time I don't have an overhead shelf built inot the bench, so I decide I'll have to mount the outlets into the countertop.

I looked over the anticiapted parts list and then went about digging the parts I could use out of the repurposing bins and nut/bolt boxes. I found a cut heavy duty extension cord I could use, two outlets, electrical cable, some particle board screws, and electrical box wire clamps.

This reduced the buy list to two metal electrical boxes and I decided to buy the gray wet location outlet covers to keep dust out of the outlets.  Total cost came to about Ten Bucks.

 After I came back from the store, I proceeded to mark the inside of the countertop so I knew where the workbench mounts to the countertop. I removed the countertop, marked where I wanted the outlet boxes mounted, cut the holes in the countertop so that the outlet boxes fit and were square on the benchtop, mounted the outlet boxes and ran the wire between the boxes. I fastened the wires down with the plastic wire protectors at 6 inch intervals like I did on the previous outlet project, and this completed the basic mounting.

 I then flipped the countertop back over and proceeded to wire the outlets.

 During fitting I discovered the wet location outlet covers didn't fit snugly to the countertop. Some snooping around revealed that there's a dimple on the backside of the cover preventing this. I deduced this is to account for the foam backing that I discarded as not needed for this project. I fixed the dimple problem by drilling out the hole in the plastic outlet so the dimple could sit down into the new hole. So long as I didn't drill out the metal behind the plastic I figured I would be fine. The second fitting proved my theory so it worked out as well as I hoped.

Here's the finished job with the countertop reattached to the workbench.

Not shown: I had to also grind off a fair amount of metal tabs in the dust covers so I could get them to open up completely as pictured.  I did this with the trusty bench grinder and a file to cleanup the areas I couldn't get to with the grinder. Otherwise I now have another workbench with power outlets.

This project cost me Ten Bucks this time. I might have been able to reduce the cost a bit by checking out the ReStore used construction supplies store, but I'll make a mental note to look there first the next time I come up short on the parts list.

Garage Made String Dispenser

I found this bobbin of heavy string at a garage sale years ago and I probably would have used more of it if I could ever remember where it is.
I decided to fix this problem by making a string dispenser.

 I started by making a bobbin holder.

 Then I mounted it to the wall in a location near my project workbench.

 I used some eye screws to route the string overhead and drop it down by the workbench.

It might be a little hard to see, but this way I have ready access to the string and the bobbin is out of the way.

I'll never have to look for it again.