All posts by kleucht

My magical disappearing workbench!

I designed, built, and installed this amazing disappearing workbench many many years ago when I first moved in to this house. I figure there might be someone out there who might be able to use this design for their own workbenches. First, lets look at the photos, then I’ll try to describe the design.

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You can see in the photos that there is a hinge on each leg of the workbench and also there are hinges along the back wall. So you just lift up the legs and the whole workbench swings down and against the wall and out of your way! Pretty cool, huh? I don’t have photos of the bench folded down because I rarely, if ever, actually fold mine down. I usually have too much stuff stored on top of it and also underneath it, so it’s not too convenient for me to fold mine down.

Basically, I created a box the size of the workbench top out of 2×4’s. Then I nailed some plywood to the box, then nailed a second piece of plywood just to make the top of the workbench extra tough. Then I mounted a 2×4 to the concrete block wall using some large heavy duty cement anchors and then connected the workbench top to the wall mounted 2×4 using heavy duty door hinges.

You can see in the second photo that I had to double up the box frame 2×4’s in the area where the legs are mounted to the box frame. The legs are mounted to this doubled up area using the same hinges. That’s about it. If I left out any important details, just email me using the link at the bottom of the page or reply to this blog entry and I will answer either way.

Kurt

Update: September 2012

Here are finally some more photos of the workbench design, including what it looks like when it is folded down.  I hope these photos show you how simple and awesome this workbench design is.

Kurt

Custom wall-mounted hurricane plywood storage rack

My stepdad is a professional welder. And one of the presents he gave me for Christmas 2004 was a heavy-duty custom wall-mounted plywood storage rack. It is deep enough to hold all of my hurricane plywood that I use to cover my windows. It’s a very nice design and I hope that some company out there will start selling these in your local home improvement store … at least in the Southeast US. 🙂

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This is a placeholder for me to come back later and add detailed dimensions!!!!!!!

Kurt

Leucht Garage Sale

(garage sale image)

Sam’s been working very hard for a couple weeks now to get ready for another garage sale. It’s going to be tomorrow. Should be good weather with highs in the lower 80’s and little chance of rain. I’ll be playing indoors with the boys to try to keep them from realizing that we’re trying to sell a bunch of their old toys and stuffed animals. 🙂

Kurt

Trip to San Francisco & Silicon Valley

Last week I was in the Silicon Valley for a work related conference. I wish I’d had my camera with me when I was walking between the San Jose convention center and my downtown hotel, because I saw something that you probably won’t see outside of Silicon Valley … a homeless man with a laptop computer. He was sitting against the theatre building on the corner of West San Carlos Street and South Market Street plugged into an exterior outlet on the side of the building. With his laptop sitting on a cardboard box, he was typing away at his keyboard. It looked like he had what could have been a USB WiFi device plugged in. There’s WiFi all around Silicon Valley … even on their Light Rail System.Another thing I saw that I don’t think you’ll see much of anywhere else but in Silicon Valley was a vending machine in my hotel lobby that sold snacks, but it also sold electronic cables, wireless headphones, and even a $200 iPod nano. I’m pretty sure you have to swipe your credit card for the iPod. Can you imagine paying 200 bucks for an iPod in a vending machine and it getting hung up like a bag of chips?! Then the next person gets two for the price of one! Only in Silicon Valley.Well, here are a couple of my photos from San Francisco. It was foggy and late in the day, so they’re not my best work.
Kurt
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The world-famous Sea Lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco

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The world-famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

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The world-famous Cable Car Trolleys in San Francisco

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The world-famous Lombard Street in San Francisco