Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:37:08 -0400
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>,
   WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Capclave in search of...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

At 10/18/2006 12:04 PM, dicconf wrote:

>On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Candy Madigan wrote:
>
> >> --- Michael Walsh <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>> ... a sheet of metal for a set of magnetic poetry to be used in the
> >>> Town Square.
> >>
> >> You might wish to check a dollar store for metal
> >> serving trays.
> >>
> > Naah, he's looking for something refrigerator door sized.
>
>*Sigh* two or three metal serving trays, one above the other?  Or under
>the other, depending on how you look at it.

How about a refrigerator door then?  I'm sure everyone here has one... <gdr>!

Junk yard?  They have to remove the things anyway to keep kids from dying
in them...offer to remove the thing from a new arrival and they may just
give it away free.  Sears and other appliance vendors often take away the
old units and may have one they could spare.  Then there's freecycle....

If some money is an option, Lowe's, and probably Home Despot, sell ductwork
parts...one of them being a flat sheet of galvanized steel about 20" x 30"
with one edge folded over for stiffness.  I think it ran about $8.  They
are clean, flat, and could be attached to a bit of MDF (about $15 for a
4'x8' sheet) with sheet metal screws very easily (no drilling needed...just
a drill with a proper bit to drive them).  They are too flimsy to be
self-supporting, and you'll want to put something (gaffers tape maybe?) on
the edges if you don't fasten it down to something like MDF...the edges can
be sharp.  Cutting the stuff can be done with tin snips (the aviation kind
work well) if you don't happen to have a handy sheet metal shear.

I suspect any A/C-heating place that does ductwork could make you a sheet
of whatever size you need, and "safe" the edges for a few dollars if you
don't want to do-it-yourself.  They could probably also put some small
bends in it to stiffen it, the way they do for ductwork.  Use actual
ductwork and the edge problem goes away and it becomes free-standing...just
attach it to a cement block or a wall so it doesn't fall over.  Maybe they
have some bits left over from a job that they'd sell fer cheep?

Just thinking out loud...very short on sleep so not sure if it's making
sense...

-- Mike B.
--
"To ask is no sin, to be refused is no calamity." -- Old Russian Proverb