We save stuff. Anything that may prove useful sometime gets stored somewhere. Far too often we promptly forget it's there and go buy something new next time we need it. But every now and then it pays off.
About a year ago we bought some cupboard kits to increase our storage space in one room. The boxes are at least five feet long, two feet wide, and maybe six inches thick. That's a lot of cardboard! We just HAD to save it. In my shed. In the way of everything I need to get from there.
But today they came in handy. I needed to make a set of yard signs. The outside of the boxes are clean white, which is just perfect for high-contrast lettering. So I cut up three of the four main sides and made four signs.
Two of them are two-sided. For those I cut a length twice as long as I needed, then cut part-way through the corrugation on one side to help it fold down the middle. I then cut a slot in the fold, took a couple 2"x1"x4' stakes I've been hoarding from my arch project, put the top of the stake through the slot, and stapled the sign to the stake on both sides.
I now only have half a box remaining in my shed, and four yard signs that cost me nothing to make. THIS is progress! And slight vindication for hoarding.
Showing posts with label stake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stake. Show all posts
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
Tee-ball tees
Yesterday my son informed me I needed to make him a tee so he could practice tee-ball. They've been playing in PE at school, I think. At first I had no clue how I would do it, but then it hit me. We already had the perfect tee.
We bought a whiffle-bat and ball set a few years ago, and the bat, being plastic, is getting old. The end of the handle came off recently, which provides a nice cupped end that, if the bat were set on end, might be big enough to hold a whiffle-ball steady.
The next problem was how to get it to stand on end. My first idea was to place the bat in a bucket and fill in around it with gravel. One small problem. I forgot that my son would be hitting the tee more often than the ball. The gravel wouldn't hold it in and, once out, was hard to put back. Back to the drawing board.
My next attempt was to drive three stakes into the ground close enough to hold the bat erect. That worked, but it was essentially the same problem. Every time my son hit the tee it would push the front post loose. Scratch Idea #2.
I then realized I didn't really need that front post if I could just keep the tee upright. I grabbed a couple of rubber bands left over from the newspaper and rubber-banded the tee to the back two stakes. Yes, the tee would move when he hit it, but the rubber bands would pull it right back into place. Voila! I present you Thom's Cheapo Tee-ball Stand!
We bought a whiffle-bat and ball set a few years ago, and the bat, being plastic, is getting old. The end of the handle came off recently, which provides a nice cupped end that, if the bat were set on end, might be big enough to hold a whiffle-ball steady.
The next problem was how to get it to stand on end. My first idea was to place the bat in a bucket and fill in around it with gravel. One small problem. I forgot that my son would be hitting the tee more often than the ball. The gravel wouldn't hold it in and, once out, was hard to put back. Back to the drawing board.
My next attempt was to drive three stakes into the ground close enough to hold the bat erect. That worked, but it was essentially the same problem. Every time my son hit the tee it would push the front post loose. Scratch Idea #2.
I then realized I didn't really need that front post if I could just keep the tee upright. I grabbed a couple of rubber bands left over from the newspaper and rubber-banded the tee to the back two stakes. Yes, the tee would move when he hit it, but the rubber bands would pull it right back into place. Voila! I present you Thom's Cheapo Tee-ball Stand!
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