What's In The Box?

Not too long ago, my good friend Tyler gifted me a tool box that he no longer had any use for.

It was originally in the possession of one Jim Gunn, former Manitoba Hydro employee and noted axe enthusiast.

And it was in, uh...

Let's call it "mechanically sound condition". It needed a little bit of freshening up.

First, that filthy, smelly black felt needed to go.

Unfortunately that left me with a bunch of glue to deal with. I initially tried to attack it with some mineral spirits, but it didn't seem to be spirited enough to make a meaningful dent in this fuzzy brown mess. However, I did have another trick up my sleeve.

Acetone melted off the glue residue right quick. It also melted my nitrile gloves, which acetone is prone to do. There's more to this acetone story in a bit, but for now we need something to replace that ratty old felt.

I decided to go with cork for this, since I happened to have a roll on hand. It's obviously very cushioning, sound dampening, and grippy enough to keep things from sliding around.

And it's also pleasantly easy to apply.

Assuming you remember to pre-flatten it, of course.

That said, it's not an infinite resource, and I only managed to get 2.5 drawers lined before I ran out of the first roll and had to order more.

So while that was making its way from House Bezos to my doorstep, I decided to knock another task off my list: freshening up the outside. The paint was showing a fair bit of wear when it arrived, and my attempts to clean it up with the acetone left things a little less than shiny.

Thankfully, I have just the thing for that.

With a little synthetic elbow grease, things were looking pretty shiny.

But there was still a little bit of room for improvement.

Along the way, I also discovered that Meguiars invented a fascinating device.

It's a squeeze bottle that shatters and explodes when you squeeze it! I never before even considered whether I'd need something like that in my life, but now I know: I definitely do not. (The photo is from after I scraped the remains of the polishing compound into a new container)

Anyway, with the polishing out of the way, it was time to get the rest of the drawers lined.

This process went really smoothly again, and I was left with only a few small scraps.

Well, plus an entire third untouched roll I guess.

Well no matter, I'll probably find a use for it.

Regardless, the tool box was now ready for its new life.

Being filled with sewing notions.

And I think it's safe to say it should have no problem doing that job.