Knee surgery and the perils of a simple newspaper box

Knees needed now!

I decided the tin man needed knees. Not real knees that bend, but something that makes us think “knees” when we see them.

I found some child-sized knee pads at a morning yard sale and convinced the seller to donate them for my tin man. Here are the pads before cutting the elastic bands. I’ve shown my 99-cent Harbor Freight scissors, which I purchase by the dozen.

Here’s a knee pad temporarily installed on the tin man’s right leg. I’ll probably cut it down to just the rigid plastic parts and get rid of the trademark. I already think it adds a touch of class.

---

The Little Free Library box is born

My plan is to use an old newspaper box for the Little Free Library. I wanted something that would be comfortable sharing my yard with a rusty tin man.

The slanted door opens by pivoting upward. In other words, the hinge is at the top. Pay no attention to the placement of the handle. It’s apparently a cruel joke, just like the Atlanta newspapers.

Why do I mention the door? Because it’s become a real problem. Here’s how it looks when you pull the handle.

And below is the door open to its full height, supported by a rusty lawnmower blade. So what’s the problem, you’re wondering.

The door has a steel frame and is quite heavy. Most people don’t carry  a lawnmower blade everywhere they go (but they should). When this door is released, it drops like a rock and is very painful when when it snaps closed on your hand. Clearly, not a friendly approach to a Little Free Library.

I decided to completely disassemble the box and rebuild it. And like most things I take apart, this newspaper box was tougher than it looked. All the rusted nuts and bolts had to be sawed off or ground down to dust. And when I call the fasteners rusted, I mean really rusted. Some look like pieces of the Great Barrier Reef.

The welded parts were ground with an abrasive wheel and broken apart with a hammer and chisel. Here’s the stripped-down box on a metal table. It now knows who is the boss.

Next: How to install two levels of shelves in an old newspaper box.