The Weirdest Work Shop Project Yet!

  Lets face facts, if you have a workshop you will eventually end up making some oddball things.  There will be school projects for your kids, or a crazy lawn ornament, or some kind of arts/crafts what not for your mother-in-law. 

  Today's project, on my new bench, using my new vises, in my recently semi-organized shop wins the prize for the weirdest thing I've ever made.  Today's project did not use much material, in fact it was all plywood from my off cut bin, and I didn't even try to use 'fancy pants' joints. This project, will be a short term thing in our house, once the kitten grows up a bit more we  hope we'll not need this object any longer.

  Speaking of down and dirty joints. I put this project together with nails and screws and I used my electric brad nailer to drive the 1/2 inch brads. I brought my brad nailer years ago to help with small trim jobs in soft wood.  It drives brads up to 5/8 inch just fine and I've avoided jobs that needed longer brads, so it's been a good fit for me. I suggest you check out electric if you are doing small D.I.Y things and don't want to get into the cost of air tools and the on going maintenance associated with them. I would certainly get a 23 gauge pin nailer if I were doing lots of projects like this one on a regular basis.

  This particular project has been inspired by a need created by our lively new kitten.  Jr. Kat is almost a living cartoon cat. He climbs on top of everything and anyone.  He has all sorts of toys that he bats around the house at all hours of the day and night and he tears paper to small bits, including our wall paper in three conspicuous places. ( It looks like wainscotting is going to have to be put in the hallway because of him)

 

You Tube Video

  If you watch the Simon's Cat video you will see his cat do what our kitten does.  Jr. Kat pulls the bathroom tissue roll down, or chews the edges to bits.

  What did I have to make?  A cat resistant toilet paper roll holder!!!

 If you didn't know what this was you might think it was some sort of wooden toy for a kid to play with in a sand box, a plough or a digger maybe.

 Sadly real life is not so exotic.

  This toilet paper holder will attach with zip ties to a rattan shelf unit by the throne and keep its contents safe from attack and within easy reach.

  

 The roll holder looks slightly over engineered but to be certified cat resistant requires meeting certain internationally agreed standards. Not only that those new mega toilet rolls are pretty big around when they are new. 

  

  This is Jr. Kat, having just packed himself into my wife's suitcase. He is a cute as a bug's ear and as much aggravation as having a bug in your ear.

cheers, Ian W