The Twisted Knot Woodshop Presents...

Landfill Finds

A large part of the enjoyment I get out of woodworking or tinkering with some gizmo is garnered from a visit to my favorite shopping mall. In certain social circles, like the one immediately surrounding Her Nagness, it's often referred to as the landfill.

If you hang around my web site long enough you'll see a lot of contraptions and Rube Goldberg types of devices I've made out of items liberated from this special place. There are, however, some things I bring back that will continue serving as they were originally intended. Oh, I grant you, they'll probably need some type of work, but the benefits usually far outweigh the costs or the trouble.

So, I'm dedicating this web page to all those mountains of discarded goodies so revered by those willing to give them a chance and to those who took the chance.

If you have any landfill prizes or a shopping story of your own you'd like to share, then send it to me and I'll post it here.

December 15, 2001 was a rare day at the mall. Brad, my brother-in-law, and my good friend Rich accompanied me on this particular outting. What made it rare was the company and the quality items we found.

Take a look...

This is a child's school bench (thanks to Matt Prusik for this confirmation). The legs are cast iron and are fully adjustable. At the lowest setting the seat is 12" from the floor and at the highest it is 15 1/2". The seat measures 21 1/2" wide x 11" deep and folds up almost against the back, which is 14" high. "Ptd. August 9, 1881" is cast into the portion that supports the seat on the left leg. The wood is Maple. Back at the shop I tore it all apart, wire-brushed the legs and lightly sanded the wood. Then, three coats of gloss black paint was applied to the legs and eight coats of Danish oil was applied to the seat and back.

I spied the bench when the truck turned the corner and instantly said, "Look, a school bench! That's mine!" At the same instant Rich said, "Look, there's a blue box sitting on a bench!" Brad, ever the joker, said, "Look! Someone's been sleeping in my bed!" When the truck slowed to a coast we all piled out, and Brad, a very competitive shopper, literally pushed Rich out of the way to get to the blue box first. Rich scurried off to investigate a toolbox and I began poking about in a barrel of bric-a-brac. Brad picked up the blue box and said, "I dunno...It's pretty heaavyyyy!" which prompted me to stroll on over to take a look. All it needed was a switch. I was aghast, Brad was a new Daddy and poor Richie wept.

When we pulled into the landfill we had some stuff to unload and proceeded directly to the site reserved for household refuse. We clambered out and instantly noticed that someone had dropped off the carcass of a rather large goat. We also noticed that it was quite headless. Rich said, "You know what gets my goat?" Then I said, "I wonder what got my goat?" And, we all laughed and drove over to the metal pile. We had already found and claimed the bench and saw so we were looking around for more stuff. Presently, Brad reaches down and pulled this cleaver out of the pile. He held it aloft and yelled, "This is what got my goat!"

It was brilliant! We all laughed so hard we had to stop and catch our breaths.