My latest "find" for refurbishing

[groomporter]

It's an old baptismal font that was only $5.99 at Savers. Needs some work gluing back down some of the veneer, as well as refinishing, must have been in a damp basement for a while. It's 8-sided so I thinking I may decorate it with alternating symbols of the gospels from the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. The question is can I sell it once it's done, or will I have to donate it someplace?

[groomporter]

But maybe there's other ideas instead?? It's empty down to the base, and the basin for the water is missing. With the water motif it could be a base for an aquarium I suppose. Maybe something steampunk?

[groomporter]

Maybe I should add a door and make it a liquor cabinet with an insulated ice bucket in the top? Perfect place for the "holy water" aka "water of life" 

[Angelhood]

Hmmm...waters of life! Yum!

[DeadBishop]

Maybe I should add a door and make it a liquor cabinet with an insulated ice bucket in the top? Perfect place for the "holy water" aka "water of life" 

I'll be sure to stop by the shop for my daily "blessing"...

[Becky10]

I love Savers! Unfortunately the one down here has forgotten that they're a second hand store. ($15 for a plain blue cotton t-shirt?!)

Have you decided whats to be done with it?

[groomporter]

We realized it fits perfectly next to the built-in oak buffet in our dining room and will be a fairly close match to our wood work once it is refinished, so we're going with the liquor cabinet idea. We have some friends who make stoneware and have asked them about making a custom bowl* to replace the missing basin and use it as an ice bucket.

*Probably with some humorous/blasphemous illustration in the bottom of the bowl. A few years ago they did some George W chamber pots http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b160/Groomporter/Misc/chamberpot1.jpg based on an 18th century examples with George III inside

[groomporter]

Now that MNRF is over I've started working on this, got it mostly sanded and a door cut in the side.. Probably put a shelf above the bottle height to hold shorter things like lowball cordial glasses. Shown sitting next to the buffet in our house where it will sit when complete

[Rani Zemirah]

What did you use to cut the opening for the door?  I really need to get some sort of small saw, because using the cut-off disks with my drill just doesn't give the control to make some cuts... 

Oh, and will you be able to sand out the water damage marks, or will it just have to be sealed and painted over?

[groomporter]

What did you use to cut the opening for the door?  I really need to get some sort of small saw, because using the cut-off disks with my drill just doesn't give the control to make some cuts... 

Oh, and will you be able to sand out the water damage marks, or will it just have to be sealed and painted over?

I picked what looked to be the two joints that were the most open and used a Dremel tool with a really small bit to carefully widen them to a consistent width/depth as a clear guide groove, and then used hand saw to cut from an angle at the bottom to break through the bottom corner and then used a jig saw with a fine toothed blade to cut it through.

I bleached the interior mildew stains today to try to kill some of it, and I'm going to prime it with some Kilz paint primer and then paint it an off-white on the inside so it's brighter inside and easier to clean. I suddenly had an idea today to replace the plywood lid (I think it was a replacement to begin with) I thought I would take one of my Celtic pentagram plaques and mount it on a short octagonal frame as a new lid over the ice bucket

[Rani Zemirah]

Ooooh... pretty!  Awesome idea, also!  That sounds like lots of different saws!  LOL  I use my Dremel for lots of things, and I have several different small hand saws, but I'd really like to have a jigsaw...

[groomporter]

Yeah I toyed with the idea of making an angled jig to clamp to it to cut it, but figgered if I took my time it wouldn't take any longer.

I picked up a used jig saw in a local pawn shop since I don't need one that often the price was worth the risk vs a new one.

[Rani Zemirah]

I stumbled across an old Montgomery Wards drill at a yard sale last weekend, and they just GAVE it to me to get rid of it!  It works like a dream, has obviously been very well maintained, and it even came with a wire wheel and a spring loaded sheathed standard head screwdriver bit, so I'm happy!  Now I can put up all my curtains, finally, and hang my tapestries, as well.