I love functional antiques! So when I was deciding on ways to dispense our ever-needed paper towels, I decided on some antique ice tongs. Having found and purchased a pair of inexpensive ice tongs, there just remained the question of how to finish the dispenser.
I gave it some thought for several days. There are a lot of great ways to do something like this. I could use a pvc pipe or a small metal pipe or a dowel or any number of materials. I could use some spring loaded tubes or elastic bands to keep the dispenser tube in place, etc., etc. After some consideration, I decided I wanted to keep the antique feel of old wood and metal.
I hunted around and found several old, weathered and broken pieces of wooden handles that once belonged to shovels or pitchforks or rakes or something like that.
I measured about an inch longer on each side of a regular tube of paper towels, selected my chunk of wood and with my chop saw, cut it to length.
When the antique ice tongs are suspended by their handle, they are designed to grip what is in the tongs. I decided to give the tongs a little help by drilling in the ends of my wooden dispensor about a 1/2 inch or so. I had a head start on this because one of the ends of my dispensor already had a drilled end.
So,
instead of using a spring or an elastic band I decided to use the natural effect of the ice tongs to hold the wooden handle/dispensor.
I tried it out and everything worked great! I wanted to seal the whole project up to protect it and to make it easy to wipe down and clean so i sprayed the entire thing with a clear enamel. After it dried, I added two small nails to hang it, and it was finished!
nice post
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