Call it upcycling, recycling, repurposing, whatever you like. I enjoy taking something that might eventually wind up in landfill and giving it new life. The downside is the wood tends to be beaten up pretty bad, so nothing aligns quite right, and you get some warped or twisted boards once in while.
Took me a few months--no plans, just a few sketches and notes on measurements. Easily 90% of the build is old wood and dowels or shipping pallet planks; a few screws here and there where I thought solid mechanical adhesion was called for. Plenty of Gorilla wood glue as well.
Started with building the three drawers for my used blade bank, new blades, and (by comparison to most) my anemic 3 razors--not pictured in the drawer is my American Flag Merkur 38C . . . but since I know we all like pictures, here she is . . .
And the drawers, looking kinda naked here . . .
Seemed to take forever (building drawers with 1/8" thick plywood ain't all the fun it's reported to be), but eventually got to making the drawer fronts and matching them to their new buddies . . .
The razor drawer had to store the hardware and I wanted it to look gentlemanly, so the two supports you see are parts of an old lemon tree that died a couple years ago and I've been utilizing bits of it where I can; you'll see them again as the brush holders and tree 'cookies' for shelving. But first, the razor drawer.
Then added some foam and felt to go around the support risers . . .
And finally all together as one happy family . . .
Haven't been DE shaving too long (only since the very beginning of this year) so I don't have adjustables and old school/vintage Gillettes, etc. I think for now I have found my razor of choice that gives me consistently quality shaves so I'm not too awfully apt to monkey with a good thing . . . until probably a couple years down the road . LOL.
And the finished base (sans top plate, which had to wait for the tower build) . . .
The lettering and graphics--such as they are--were stenciled onto the wood then burned with a magnifying glass.
Next came the shelves for the soap tubs. These were made with the aforementioned tree cookies and old gate slats. The supports underneath were an old closet hanging rod (I'm not even sure they use those anymore) and smaller pieces of branch from the tree.
Trying to get the angle just-so when attaching the shelves to the tower sides was quite the process. Worked out pretty well though.
I have other pictures of the various phases of tower construction but I won't bore you with those.
I finally finished it up today and got it installed. TA DAH! My very rustic, very practical shave gear storage unit. There are still a couple of full size tubs I couldn't make room for, and a fair number of samples which I decided to keep in the mirrored cabinet next to the sink.
Oops, too many pics uploaded. Suppose I'll have to reply to my own thread to get the next few uploaded.
Took me a few months--no plans, just a few sketches and notes on measurements. Easily 90% of the build is old wood and dowels or shipping pallet planks; a few screws here and there where I thought solid mechanical adhesion was called for. Plenty of Gorilla wood glue as well.
Started with building the three drawers for my used blade bank, new blades, and (by comparison to most) my anemic 3 razors--not pictured in the drawer is my American Flag Merkur 38C . . . but since I know we all like pictures, here she is . . .
And the drawers, looking kinda naked here . . .
Seemed to take forever (building drawers with 1/8" thick plywood ain't all the fun it's reported to be), but eventually got to making the drawer fronts and matching them to their new buddies . . .
The razor drawer had to store the hardware and I wanted it to look gentlemanly, so the two supports you see are parts of an old lemon tree that died a couple years ago and I've been utilizing bits of it where I can; you'll see them again as the brush holders and tree 'cookies' for shelving. But first, the razor drawer.
Then added some foam and felt to go around the support risers . . .
And finally all together as one happy family . . .
Haven't been DE shaving too long (only since the very beginning of this year) so I don't have adjustables and old school/vintage Gillettes, etc. I think for now I have found my razor of choice that gives me consistently quality shaves so I'm not too awfully apt to monkey with a good thing . . . until probably a couple years down the road . LOL.
And the finished base (sans top plate, which had to wait for the tower build) . . .
The lettering and graphics--such as they are--were stenciled onto the wood then burned with a magnifying glass.
Next came the shelves for the soap tubs. These were made with the aforementioned tree cookies and old gate slats. The supports underneath were an old closet hanging rod (I'm not even sure they use those anymore) and smaller pieces of branch from the tree.
Trying to get the angle just-so when attaching the shelves to the tower sides was quite the process. Worked out pretty well though.
I have other pictures of the various phases of tower construction but I won't bore you with those.
I finally finished it up today and got it installed. TA DAH! My very rustic, very practical shave gear storage unit. There are still a couple of full size tubs I couldn't make room for, and a fair number of samples which I decided to keep in the mirrored cabinet next to the sink.
Oops, too many pics uploaded. Suppose I'll have to reply to my own thread to get the next few uploaded.
