Anchors Away!

 My lovely wife and I bought a small canoe for our fishing escapades. It's a lot of fun but if there is any wind it difficult to stay in one place. We needed an anchor...

I took an old leaf spring and cut it using a cutting torch. I used a thicker center piece of the spring for the bottom portion of the anchor and then welded an end piece of the spring to the thicker piece and tied a rope through the bolt hole of the end piece.

It works great. In fact, I'm pretty sure this anchor would hold a boat that is a lot bigger than the canoe we have.

Why buy a Grill when you can make your own?

Those who know me well, and even those who don't, know that I like my meat. I especially like to grill. However, working my way through college means I don't have the $$$ to spend on a nice grill, and the little table top grills just don't quite cut it for me. So I set off to build my own.

I started off with a 16 gallon barrel like the one I used for my fire barrel. I cut it in half and welded legs underneath which I fabricated out of some metal electrical conduit.

If you look close you'll notice I welded a piece of re-bar around the outside of the lid. This was to reinforce the structure of the lid as well as create a bit of a lip around the edge to seal over the bottom portion.

I welded expanded sheet metal to a re-bar frame to create my grill top 

I add a loose piece of the extra expanded sheet metal in the bottom to prevent the coals from burning through the bottom. You'll also notice a piece of re-bar welded to the inside of the bottom portion, this was to create a ledge for the top grill to sit on.

The barrel conveniently came with vent holes

Lastly I welded on a couple of cupboard hinges.

I love this grill and it works great. The Meat is always tender and juicy and often comes out with a nice smokey flavor.

Costa Rican Grill

A good friend of mine recently returned from serving a mission in Costa Rica and told me about how a lot of Costa Ricans will take an old car rim and use it as a fire-pit/grill. I figured hey what the heck and gave it a try. I simply found a car rim and bought a round grill top and BAMM! New Grill!!!

 I gave mine a bit of an upgrade by welding feet on the bottom as well as welding a couple small pieces of re-bar over the larger hole in the middle so that the charcoal wouldn't fall through.

I'm pretty sure Hobos know what they're talking about.

So you know how in the movies or on TV you often see Hobos huddled around a 55 gallon barrel try to keep warm with the garbage they've lit on fire? Well it isn't all that bad of an idea actually. At work I grabbed an old 16 gallon barrel and cut the top off. We thought it would be in interesting idea to act like hobos. Well it turns out that it is actually a lot of fun and when the barrel warms up it radiates quite a bit of heat, A lot more than a simple open fire does anyway.

We found that a smaller barrel like the one we use has a hard time getting the air it needs to stay lit but by drilling a bunch of wholes in the bottom it helped eliminate the problem.

 Having a barrel fire in the back yard is one of our favorite things to do with friends. Whether were just sitting around the fire, roasting marshmallows, or popping fresh popcorn the barrel has been a wonderful tool.

Anyone need a Tow strap?

I was at work the other day and noticed a seat belt in the trash can. I guess it didn't retract anymore and had to be replaced. So I took the seat belt and added a couple of hooks to each end and all of the sudden I had a new Tow Strap.

I found that it worked pretty well for just pulling cars, but when I tried to use it to pull out a tree stump it snapped in the process.

One man's garbage is another man's Firestick

While perusing through my stepfathers' .22s I found this lovely beauty. He told me it was the black sheep of his father's guns and never shot very well.

 I took the stock, beaten and scarred as it was, added my own carved flair, and refinished it. I then gave it a thorough cleaning and put it all back together.

Now this once black sheep of the family, has lost a little weight, has a great new look, and can peg a pop can from a hundred yards every time.

Entertainment Center

My wife and I inherited a big TV which we love but it's one of the older ones that have to stick out from

the wall a lot which didn't fit our entertainment center very well. So I set forth on the task of building one.

I didn't think it was too bad considering I only had a hand saw and didn't have any clamps to hold things together. Since the time I took these photos I've also stained it and added doors to the

compartments on the lower right and left sides.