I spent the morning building a big work table for ALTSpace. The top is from the 4×8 workbench Adam and I built at the old Rocket Factory; we broke down the legs and wall mounting when we moved out, and the tabletop has been leaning up against a wall in ALTSpace for the last four months. I woke up early this morning, and felt inspired to build… so I went to Lowe’s and bought lumber.

Construction took about three hours. I laminated pairs of 2x4s together with screws and glue for the legs, then bolted on locking swivel casters. I mounted the legs into the corners of the old tabletop, which was already framed with 2x4s, using strong-tie gussets. Some more framing underneath added cross bracing and a platform for a future storage shelf, and now it’s done.

We have plenty of tables at seated height, so this one is a standing-height work surface: 39″. Once we get it cleaned up and polish the edges some it should make an excellent fabric layout table, and we can push it up against a wall to serve as a bar during artwalk or other parties.

Ava and I are leaving for our backpacking trip soon, so my to-do list is getting full quickly. I have some last oddments to pick up at REI, a rental car to book (since our car is not back from its transmission repairs yet, alas), and a little bit of packing to do.

I picked up a cowhide yesterday; my new motorcycle came with a spare Corbin seat, but its stitching is coming apart. I opened it up thinking I’d restitch the seams, only to discover that someone had tried that already. The vinyl fabric doesn’t look like it would hold up to a second restitching, so I decided to rip the whole thing apart and use it as a pattern for a new cover made of leather.

This afternoon I’m going to do a quick little starter project to familiarize myself with the material: I have a really nice utility knife which would be good to bring on the backpacking trip, but it’s a fixed blade and has no sheath. Seems like a simple enough project… I hope?