Were back, and as stated in the previous post, it’s Project March. Similar to Project Gypsy Hauler, this post focuses on a physics problem. Actually, I shorted that word a tad – make that a physic-al problem. Do you recall a rant a few posts back regarding some issues trying to acquire a file cabinet (link here). At that end of that (maybe in the comments) it was revealed that the problem had been solved thanks to a Mega store. That was really a premature closure of the ordeal. Sure, the new file cabinet had been ordered, but it had not arrived yet. I was really in a holding pattern waiting for it to be shipped. Normally this wait would be one filled with eager anticipation – truth is it was 6 weeks of concern, fretting, worry, hair pulling, aspirin popping and pencil sharpening. This was all due to roughly 200 yards. This represents the distance from the curb to my walk in basement (yes, that includes the same stretch the drywall had to travel in the hauler). Why is this an issue you ask .. you did ask that right — sure you did. What a great question! With the new source of the file cabinet, came a new shipping policy. They only provided curb service – no option to pay an extra $100 and at least get it to the driveway like that other customer hating company had. Now, I don’t consider myself a slouch under the weight bar, but even before I shed a lot of muscle when retooling my body for the distance running circuit, ~450lbs was a tad out of reach. Every scenario that was played out ended with spending the Spring mowing around a 450 pound crate sitting by the curb.
By the time the shipping notice hit my inbox the pencil was a tiny nub. It was past due to make this happen and paper wasn’t going to solve this problem. Build phase was at hand and that means a trip to the basement… but first a quick trip to Menards. The final plan called for utilizing my truck to cover the distance from the curb to the basement along with a huge assumption the shipping truck driver would be willing to help me out with the transfer phase of the plan. I figured the day it arrived it was going to be me, one (or maybe two) shippers and the crate. It was also likely going to be me who has to get the crate out of the truck but would seek help getting it wrestled into the basement. With those parameters in place it was pretty easy to see the heart of the issue was figuring out how to easily get the cabinet into the truck and out of the truck – simple eh? you just build one of these:
If you haven’t figured it out yet, there are a lot of 2×4’s laying around my basement at the moment because of another project that is underway. That other project requires a lot of table saw work ripping these boards by myself – just me and my trusty roller stands (cue light bulb). Surely there was some way to incorporate that capability into the design. All that is needed is a bunch of cased bearings which was the reason for the Menard’s run… and a wasted Home Depot stop. Finally losing an internal argument whether to ask for help or not, I located an employee who translated my obscure explanation of what I needed and took me directly to the end of the table saw aisle. He quickly pointed to a tiny bin containing the exact items I wanted. Every one of them hit the cart but had a feeling there wasn’t enough to do the job. To resolve this another stop was made at Home Depot. Yes, the internal battle won again, but this time I was met with – uh, what is that? No blaming me this time, the request came with a visual having brought one of them in with me. Denied! The Menard’s purchase would have to work.
Hit the jump to see how this all comes together and whether it was worth all the trouble!
Life Intrigued 