My wife’s $5 mistake

More than a decade ago, my wife made a grievous error – at least, that’s how I think she’ll view it once I explain the woodworking ramifications.

Years ago, Sally bought a cheap, wobbly knock-down cart from some job-lot store for $5 to hold supplies while she worked on various crafty things. It was really too wobbly to work well, and so like all other discarded items it ended up being dumped into my shop until I stored it in the attic.

While up in the attic this winter, I brought that cart down for purposes of permanent disposal. But before it was tossed I used it to catch a mess of clamps I was removing from a glueup. One of the clamps slipped through the wires, and I noticed that it held the clamp perfectly vertical. With a bit of arranging, it quickly became an orderly roll-about clamp rack that holds 15 6" and 12" clamps in handy alignment.

It’s still wobbly, but a toolbox on the bottom makes a perfect ballast. The middle shelf holds some scraps for clamp cauls. I love this little rack now and won’t part with it, and have my wife’s error of years ago to thank for it.

So, what was the “error” on my wife’s part, you ask? Well, that would be her enabling my next course of action, the need of which is evidenced by the 15 now-empty clamp slots visible in this photo:

A.J.