Today I finally got to a project that I had been ignoring for too long, a gas box for the House. You see up here we tend to keep a jerry can or eight kicking around for the snowmobiles and ATV's, with sufficient jerry cans that if we do want to go for a trip out on the land they are there. I've probably bought twenty-five jerry cans since I've been up here. They have a habit of being borrowed and never returning. Locking them up won't prevent that from happening, but it is a good idea anyway. It is safer, discourages theft, and although it isn't a big problem up here solvent abuse does occur and this just makes it a little harder.
Considerations were that it would have to be lockable, able to hold at least six jerry cans, solid, weatherproof, and fit in with the house. Oh, and cheap. Thinking ahead, I kept one of the crates that held construction materials for this very purpose.
But apparently I didn't think too far ahead. One thing I learned very early on in my construction instruction was that square, straight, plumb and true are good things. This crate is none of the above. Starting the project I quickly found that the bottom of the crate is a full inch wider than the top, and this crate is only about a metre tall. I sat there an pondered how I was going to fix this dreadful unsquaredness and eventually I came to the conclusion "this is a box for holding jerry cans for crumbs sakes, live with it!" Living with it meant that making things like doors would be a little more difficult, but nothing was impossible.
Living with my construction sensei's dictum "Always think plan ahead" the first thing I did was add extra 2X4's in the corners to have something to nail the siding to at the end of the project. Yes, siding. Remember it must look like it belongs with the house, besides I've got a good pile of siding left over. Hmm, another discovery, none of the four corners are the same height. Not major differences, but my god what did they thing they were making… a crate? Oh, yeah.
At this point I began making the doors from a scrap piece of 1/2" plywood and some scrap 2X4's. Because of the odd shape of the crate I took one piece of plywood, cut it to the height I wanted, put it in place, scribed the sides direct from the crate and then cut it in half. Leaving me with something like this….
When I got down to attaching the doors I realized I’d screwed up, (there’s that thinking ahead again) for I couldn’t attach the hinges on the outside like I wanted with doors covering the entire front. The solution was to have a hidden hinge, mortising out a space for the hinge on the back.
Here is the hinge attached…
A simple matter of attaching the doors afterward…
Adding a hasp and covering it with good old Tyvec (to both weatherproof it and protect the wood – especially in light of the metal top I added…
And I happened to have a piece of sheet metal that was exactly the right width lying around (it came as packaging to protect some of our roofing materials. It was bolted on with gasketed roof bolts (also left over from the roofing package…
Then I added trim. In order to compensate for the odd heights I made the trim all the same length, roughly a half inch past the plywood (the crate is on wooden skids).
Now all I have to do is add some siding and make it look pretty.
Comments
5 responses
I just keep thinking as I read this, “He can’t just run up to the Home Depot…”
Kia ora Clare,
I think it will serve the purpose fine. You are an inspiration to us non handy men out here, who with a little patience and ingenuity maybe can be a bit handy after all. Kia ora!
Robb
Hi Nuthatch, no, no running down to Home Depot, but that was actually much more of a challenge when we built a house. Having done that… I’m lucky to own many tools (never enough) and still have leftovers from the house. The stores here have a little bit of stuff (I rushed there to buy 3/4 inch bolts for the hinges, which I also bought there – but a while ago). They aren’t a good source of stuff though. For years they’ve carried a fairly good selection of bolts, but not the nuts or washers to go with them….
Thanks Robb. Four years ago I couldn’t spell carpenter, now I are one.
Calre, the gas box is looking great! (I’m just getting caught up in the blogging world … it’s been a wild couple of weeks) – I might have to borrow your expertise in the fall as I’m looking at building a small storage box to keep my kamiik’s and other oddities in.
Thanks Kennie,
Shouldn’t be a problem.