Wednesday - October 13, 2021
Last night I came across a free Item(s) on Facebook Marketplace. A clothing store in Fayettevlile GA (about 7 miles away) was relocating and they had close to a dozen large shelving cabinets. They were 32-inches deep, about 4 feet wide and about 7-1/2 feet tall.
So I ran the following checklist:
1. Are they free?
2. Are they close?
3. Do I need them?
The rule of this checklist - previously stated in this thread - is if if the answer to the first two questions is "YES" I can skip the 3rd item on the checklist.
This morning I went to the store and checked out the shelves. Assembled they were heavy as the dickens. However they broke down into 4 pieces and some of the shelves were already broke down. The broken down items were managable for me to load into my pickup. I brought one of them home thinking I might cut them down in a fashion that would reduce their depth to maybe 18-inches or less.
However, when I was looking in the LBG's woodshop, I realized I could upgrade the old cubical storage I was using.
I wanted to minimize the fuss of unloading the material stored in the current setup in case the shelves didn't work out. So I slid the top section - still loaded - onto the hydraulic lift cart and moved that out of the way.
Then I slid the lower section out of the way and replaced the upper section on top of it.
This gave me a place to locate the shelving.
I used the cart again to unload the first section.
That was easy. It got harder from here.
I might be able to lift this section if it was more compact ...OK maybe not: It's heavy ...but I certainly can't lift it as is due to it's bulkiness.
The cart helped but it was what dad calls "a cob pile". If you've ever dealt with a heaping pile of corn cobs you'd know that the term refers to "an unstable mass prone to collapse".
Eventually I did get the alignment pins to mate and I got the second section placed securely on the lower section. How I did this without hurting myself and/or tearing up the shelves is a mystery.
At this point I discovered I was missing several of the alignment pins. I placed the smaller "topper" section on top (unsecured by any pins) and quit for the day.
I've still got another "large section (27-inches tall)" to install and I think that's going to take another man (maybe 2) to make that happen safely.
I also need to purchase at least 8 of these 1/4-inch x 1-1/2-inch Spring Pins to "pin" the last section to the rest of the carcass.
I think, when I get it all together, that this "freebie" will make a nice addtion to the woodshop.
Scott