Today I have "officially" started working on the croco-creature. The unfinished wood table top arrived -- this is what I will attach him to for stability and ease of movement. This has to be attached (somehow) to the tomato cage (his body) before I can do any more plaster cloth construction...I need to "anchor" this guy now...at this stage. He will also need to have some sort of weight added where the container of cat litter is (for now)...so it is back one more time to Home Depot for supplies tomorrow.
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| the unfinished wood table top arrived today! |
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| it fits perfectly! |
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| I saw a couple customer product reviews complaining about the a/b surfaces of the wood and the center drilled hole -- for my purposes I have no problem with one rough side that has a hole drilled for me to mark the center -- now I don't have to try and do too much math! |
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| I knew I wanted to add casters to the base so (using the handy center hole) I made an X and got four equal pie sections. I set the casters one inch from the edge of the base and centered them in their sections. I traced the four holes of the caster and then used the Dremel drill press to make starter holes for the screws. |
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| yay ! |
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| when I attached the first caster I noticed something a little disappointing...(after all four screws were in, of course)... |
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| this caster had a flaw/irregularity in the surface of the wheel...bummer...back to Home Depot to exchange it |
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| back home (in under a half-hour) and back in my pajamas and TRIUMPHANT -- the casters roll very easily and the base is nice and even! |
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| next obstacle...the vertical rods of the tomato cage need to have notches made in the wood so that the horizontal hoop will sit flat (or at least flat-ish) on the base |
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| I figured it out -- not perfect but it is functional -- it will be totally covered in the end anyway |
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| these cable wood staples are what two people at Home Depot suggested to use to attach the tomato cage to the wood base -- I was pretty much thinking the same thing when I went there, but I was looking for smaller and more rounded-off ones...they look more like a little U with pointy ends...vs a tiny croquet wicket with pointed ends |
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| oh man -- hammering these bad boys in is a MAJOR piece of work...plus it is a LOT of pounding of the wood and bouncing on the casters -- all done from my chair bending over to do it -- I managed to get about five or six staples in -- enough to hold the base -- but I need to go back and find something better...maybe some sort of strappy thing that screws into place...or maybe the smaller tack things I first had in mind |
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| the plywood base wasn't difficult to drill, but wow -- it is really hard to get those staples to hammer in -- AND I am worried about splitting the wood -- it will come to me eventually how to do this -- I hope NOT to have to purchase a second specialty staple gun for these things |
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| THIS time I will be taking these photos to Home Depot along with my sketchbook to show the helper guy -- hopefully it will be easier than trying to describe it -- LOL |
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| the tomato cage was knocked off of the perfect fit a little bit, but it will go back I am sure -- I just can't do any more tonight |
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| I also need to replace the container of cat litter with some sort of permanent weight to counterbalance the croco-creature's long jaws/teeth -- this will also come to me eventually |
