Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

I'm taking a break from the tractor work for a bit. I just need the mental escape, push it back to the bottom of the project list and ignore it for a bit.

Yes, it's still sitting out there with one rear tire removed and the OD/external cutting head mounted. Yes it still has a pile of tools laying in the dirt around it. I'll get to it as soon as I can.

Yes, it's bugging me. But I have to not think about it just now. For reasons.

MEANWHILE,

I'm nearing completion on a new furniture project, a design of my own for a computer desk. It looks on the outside like a campaign desk, something a civil war era general would have sitting in his tent.

But what looks like drawer fronts are just a facade, and the whole lid flips up, revealing the space where your computer and monitor sit. I'll have an LCD monitor attached to the underside of the lid facing straight down when it's closed, and facing the user once the lid is vertical. The lid will be kept vertical by a pair of gas lift struts.

I have the main body completed. The cris-crossed legs are almost done, they just need glued up and sanded and painted.

The very top "lid" is a pre-fab piece of butcher block given to me by a friend. The wife will hate it natural, so I'll probably just paint it satin black as well. I could strip/sand it and try to stain it darker like a fruit wood. But I still don't think she'll care for it, so it's not worth the work.

So from here, finish up and attach the legs, and then attach the flip up lid.

Finally build up and paint the drawer fronts facade and attach it to the lid.

And voila! I'll have a nice computer desk when I need it, and a decent looking piece of furniture when I don't.


And THEN I'll get back to the backhoe install.

Bob

That's great Bob, please post a few pics, I love wood work. That's been another dream of mine that hasn't happened, to do wood work. I like solid wood furniture.

Looks like a great wood working project Bob. My Dad and brother were both wood workers. Me I stick to metal working. I usually have some fix it projects to do and sometimes I seem to never catch up on them. Today I fixed a cylinder bracket for out towel holding bucket for the pool. It has a large lid and two cylinders to control how fast it comes down. I epoxied it two years ago and it didn’t hold up. Then last year I made a metal bracket and epoxied a pin in place which lasted a week. Today I welded a nut on the bracket and used a 1/4” bolt as the cylinder support. We’ll see how long this lasts. It beats $80 to $120 for a new complete container. Harry

Interesting project Bob! Sometimes it's nice to switch gears and give a project a break for a while. Can't wait to see some photos of your new desk as it comes together...

Ok, It's time to call it complete. I have a mouse pad and wrist rest on the way, but those are just added benefits.

Whad'ya think?

Bob
Bob

That looks great Bob!

Impressive, really!

So wierd... my post never posted
Anyways it looks great Bob. I was impressed before I realized the desk opened up with a computer inside.

Very nice Bob!

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Well done Bob . .
Got to ask , does the old school phone on the desk still a working land line ?

Thanks everyone! I'm really happy with how it turned out. Banging stuff together is easy for me, but getting things to look "perfect" is really challenging. Getting the stain color just right, perfect miters at the corners, etc. Producing furniture quality is right at the limit of what I can do.

So I'm super-stoked when it turns out this nice. I think it's my nicest piece yet.

Yes, @DavidBarkey that is a working landline. It's actually an SIP-based internet phone service, but it behaves like a traditional landline. It almost never gets used, and all my friends/relatives have dropped them in favor of cell phones. But I just like my house to have a phone. And the grandkids like that antique phone, the way it rings and how you turn that dial-thingy. I have an old payphone stashed away that I've converted over to not needing coins. I keep thinking I'll set that up one of these days, but I don't know where to put it.

With this out of the way, my mind can get back down to business! Back to tractors!

Bob

That does look sweet, my wife would approve, but, only one monitor!

I used to have more than one monitor in my cube at work. But the truth is I never really used the second one much. I don't do a lot with documents, it's primarily command shell activity. So for the most part I can only look at one screen at a time. The only time that's not true is if I'm googling how to do something tricky, and I have to flip back and forth between PuTTY and my web browser . Then it would be handy to have Google on the second screen.

But I've been working off a laptop screen these last however many months since COVID began, so a big monitor in front of my face feels like a lot of real estate.

Bob

I use a couple of extra virtual screens on the same monitor. Three finger swipe to the left takes me to the right virtual screen.