When we finally got fed up with the
artisticeffects our old inkjet printer was applying to every page, we bought a second hand laser printer for the princely sum of £50. We then spent almost as much on a toner cartridge (magenta) but haven't actually needed to use it yet, despite the fact that the machine's been complaining for months that it needs changing. We don't do very much printing.
The
newprinter is much bigger than the old one and has been getting in the way and annoying us for some time. We decided that we needed a little table for it, preferably on wheels so we can pull it out to clear paper jams that inevitably occur at the back. I thought the pieces of fitted wardrobe that we took out of the spare bedroom might do, so I measured the printer and took my tape measure down to the workshop to see what I could find.
The first piece I picked up - and I didn't even have to climb over anything to get to it - was just the right size. There were three others the same size with it, and they still had the brackets attached that fixed them together when they were a wardrobe. They also had hinges, which unscrewed easily. It didn't take much turning about to find a way of fixing three of these four pieces together. I then put my hand out and found a short piece that fitted perfectly to reinforce the front, then not much more searching found another piece the same to go across the back. The whole job took about twenty minutes.
Voila! One printer table:
New printer table in situ. There's even space underneath for the old printer (still serviceable as a scanner) and the spare toner cartridge.
No wheels, though. I don't think we own any casters, so finishing the job will require shopping. I'm not sure it's going to happen.
I don't think you realise how special you are, making do and mending like this. For all the progress we humans have made over recent decades, it is still the male of the species that is usually the practical one. (I know - this is not fair and not *always* true; nevertheless, it often is).
ReplyDeleteHuge kudos to you for demonstrating that measuring does not require an attached willy. I will now try to absorb this wisdom, because I am one of those who assumes that men were trained at their fathers' knees to do the stuff that my own dad would never have thought to teach me.
This may be why my home resembles a half-demolished badgers' sett.
Happy New Year.
cj
I know what you mean about it usually being men, and I get a bit annoyed when people assume that Ian should be sorting these things out. He's a writer - why on earth should people expect him to be more practical than me?
DeleteI really don't think I'm that special, because this sort of thing is no more difficult than sewing or cooking, it's just another set of skills to learn. That's the thing, though, if your dad didn't teach you, you'll need to learn - if not from a person then from a book or from Youtube. If you can handle a kitchen knife safely, you probably have enough common sense not to do yourself a serious injury with a hammer or a chisel, either (but do be careful with ladders...)
Congratulations! Isn't spare lumber wonderful? I must say, your creation looks much less "cobbled" than mine usually do!
ReplyDeleteI was about to go buy a new printer/scanner because mine had stopped functioning. But before I did, I decided that I might as well try to fix it because it couldn't really be any more broken than it already was! And joy of joys, I discovered that the only thing wrong was that a little plastic gear had jammed. Once I got it back in place properly it worked fine! Woo Hoo!!!!
Hooray for taking things to bits and poking them! Well done for finding what was wrong with your printer - how very satisfying!
DeleteImpressive! Love it when those bits lying around just happen to be the right size for once...
ReplyDeleteI'd left comments on a couple of your other posts, or at least I thought I had, but it coincided with BT digging up our road and our phone and internet connection was intermittant to put it politely, so it may have dropped out whilst I was sending. So can I just say I was particularly impressed with the chimney repointing! I'll try most things but ladders really don't do it for me!
Cheers :-)
DeleteI'm going to have to go up on the chimney again at some point as the recent heavy rain came through the wall again, so what I did last time obviously didn't solve the problem.