Fixed up in flames

i love dumpster diving! whenever i get rid of my garden refuse or drop off some recycling i have to stop at the steel recycling dumpster. it is incredible what people throw away! (its also incredible what people will take out the trash! *drops head in shame*). i dropped off some chopped branches after an excessive garden cleaning spree and stopped at the metal bin again and found this three tier metal shelf. it was rusty but the shelves seemed not to be rusted through and the whole thing was still in a sturdy fair condition.

now the recycling part of the dump is a low income site and there are people that work there that sort all the rubbish and then generate an income from selling the scrap steel and glass. so you always need to enter into some negotiations to buy what ever scrap you would like to take. i approached the guy in charge and motioned to the dumpster that had the shelf sticking out the top. "how much you going to charge me for that shelf?" he gave a deep sigh and a slight whistle, "that is a lot of steel, uh, R30." thats about $3 and i had that in my pocket. suddenly i owned a rusted shelf.

At home i took it apart and put a wire brush to it removing the rust and loose paint. it was somewhat pitted but the shelves would still be able to hold what ever i had to put on it. i got hold of some gloss black Rustoleum appliance epoxy and gave it a couple coats before re-assembly. just leaving it plain black would have been terrible so i  scratched around and got hold of some colors i had left over from previous projects and set the back plate alight.

always nice to have some fun in the workshop. i've made some brackets for the shelf to sit on since i'm planning to mount it on the wall. you can barely see them sticking out from behind the little blue desk next to the shelf. they still need a little finishing, some holes and some paint. hope to have the shelf on the wall  by the end of friday. yay for more packing space!