MOTHER'S SUPER-HEAVY BENCH (OR VISE, OR BIRDBATH, OR TABLE) STAND: BUILD IT IN ONE HOUR FROM "JUNK"

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Most of the time most of us tend to lump things like an old semi-truck tire rim, a discarded car brake drum, and a length of castoff pipe together and call 'em "scrap" or "junk". To the true recycler, however, those three items can be far more than that. Put 'em together the right way . . . and you've got yourself a pedestal for a bench grinder, a vise, a tabletop, a birdbath, or almost anything else that needs a leg to stand on.

And when we say "a leg to stand on", we're talking about a real no-nonsense leg. One that weighs enough (close to 100 pounds) so it'll stay right where you want it when you park it someplace . . . yet which can be tipped up on its rim and rolled quite easily to a new spot any time you desire.

Example: The bench grinder that's in MOTHER's shop—just like the grinder in so many home workshops—used to be mounted on a lightweight metal table. And you know what that meant: Just as soon as anyone started to "lean into" a serious grinding job, the table would begin to "walk" all over the place. There were days when we felt as if we were spending more time following the rig around than we were using it!

But no more. The pedestal you see here put a stop to all that. And it didn't cost an arm and a leg either. We paid $5.00 for the 22" truck rim, $1.00 for the brake drum, and the i6"-long piece of 6" pipe plus the 3/8"-thick flat plate which tops it were left over from other projects. Best of all, Clarence Goosen (one of MOTHER's helpers) welded the whole shebang together in considerably less than one hour.

To duplicate Clarence's success, just amble on down to your nearest simpatico salvage yard or junkyard and bargain a little for whatever raw materials this project calls for that you lack. (And if you can't find any 6" pipe, a 16" length of a three- or four-incher will work just as well.) Then center up your truck rim, brake drum, and piece of pipe . . . and weld.

As one of the accompanying photos illustrates, there's nothing sacred about the 318"-thick square of flat plate which tops the pedestal for our grinder stand. We decided that we wanted something thicker and not so large when we constructed a matching vise stand . . . and that's exactly what we used on the second pedestal.

And yet another point that is shown to good advantage by the accompanying photographs: A good coat or two of implement or shop paint can make even a homebuilt grinder or vise stand look "custom made".