An Unlikely Re-purposed Project

From this:

To:

When the predecessor of the new pool cleaner, shown below, went kaput a while back, I threw away the cleaner itself but kept the two-wheel caddy.  I knew it will be useful someday but for months I did not know what its new purpose was going to be.

However, I knew there was going to be woodworking involved.  And indeed, for woodworkers anyhow, there are ideas to be had here.  Hopefully, for some, a construction tip here and there will be useful.

Parts no longer needed were removed. 

A round tube is always a challenge for attaching anything to it.  It calls for a semi-circular profile on the piece to be attached.  This is why a router table is one most useful tool in the workshop, next to the table saw and workbench, in my opinion.

Four anchor pieces are what they are: 

Pocket screws attached the cross piece support

I ripped 5-inch wide boards from 3/4 in. shelving material from several 12 in. planks that my next-door neighbor gave me from a renovation project. In effect, the shelves were re-purposed material too.

A pocket hole making jig, inexpensive but quite a useful tool

Pocket screws fastened all the joinery.  No glue this time.

My shop-made bow saw (discussed in an earlier posting) made easy work of cutting the rounded corners.  Rasp and sand paper did the rest.

One old (flea-market acquired) hand plane and a shop-made one (also in an earlier blog) did the flattening chore with ease.  As always when a hand tool can be employed, there is so much more pleasure derived from it. It is quieter and hardly is dust a problem.

I installed two swivel front wheels to make what was a two-wheel caddy into a more stable 4-wheel one.  And this in-house utility cart must be as light as possible; hence, the spartan use of material.

I had meant for this to wheel the laundry basket from our bedroom to the utility area and a caddy to wheel in large packages from the front door to mostly the kitchen area, especially for when frozen groceries are delivered.

My wife was a bit lukewarm to this project but I hope she will appreciate it someday when moving the clothes-laden laundry basket to and fro becomes more challenging as time moves along the golden years of senior living.