Materials: stated Vika Alex, a vintage rock tumbler, a roll out trashcan hider thingy, some scrap wood
Description: First, you have to have a tumbler that you need to get off your mother's kitchen counters. Second, you need to take a trip to your local IKEA, and get a Vika Alex cabinet, like this. Third, you need to go to Lowe's or Home Depot, and find one of those 'hide a trash can in the cabinet under the sink' kits. mine is this one, but slightly smaller.
Now, here's what you do:
Throw out the directions for installing it in a regular cabinet.
Mine came with tiny finishing nails, and that's no good. my tumbler weighs in at over 10 lbs, including the barrel, full of steel shot. (i'm a jeweler.)
Hunt about for some good, stout screws.
Separate the two parts of the rolling rack.
Take the bottom part, and mark out, on whatever shelf you'd like (i chose the bottom, since my tumbler's heavy), and poke a starter hole with a sharp nail, or an ice pick. screw the bottom part to the shelf.
On the top one, you want to do some special things.
To give the tumbler something steady to sit on, cut some scrap wood to fit inside the runners, so that they site flush. if your tumbler has screw holes in the base (mine did), mark and drill them.
Go ahead and screw the tumbler base to the wood. if you'd like some sound deadening, now's the time. put a few layers of felt between the tumbler and the wood.
Once you've got all that done, you want to re assemble the two parts of the rolling rack, to make sure you've done it right. (hopefully, you did.)
Now, you might asking "power?" since tumblers are electric. There's a hole at the base of the Alex, since it was made for holding things like computer towers. Go ahead and feed the tumbler's power cord through that. if your cord is long enough, you should be able to get it to a plug easily. If not, i'm sure you know what an extension cord is.
Congratulations, you now have a tumbler that is hidden from view, but also that is easily accessible! (and your mother has her countertop back!)
See more here.
(P.S. A tumbler like mine was originally designed for taking rough cut rocks and gems and turning them into smooth and polished rocks and gems. I use mine with steel shot, to clean and polish metal jewelry. There are rotary tumblers, like mine, and there are also vibratory ones, which shake things up and down to polish them.
They all make a fair amount of noise, and if a rotary (spinning) tumbler needs a new belt, it'll smell kinda like burnt rubber too. :P I stuck mine in the cabinet to make it both quieter and less smelly.)
~ yobo
