I scored a super deal on a very sturdy kitchen counter, it's in great shape with a tile countertop, which is great as it will be impervious to bits of hot glass, and it was FREE! Gotta love Freecycle.
to create a cutting line, I put a nail in the center of the shelf, tied a Sharpie marker to it at the desired radius, then drew a perfect half circle. Unfortunately, I couldn't actually cut it along the lines as neither the reciprocating saw or the jigsaw could quite get as close to the edge of the support as I wanted. So, the actual cut is now an"imperfectly perfect" semi-circle.
The next, and most important, part of the workbench area is ventilation. Melting glass, especially colored glass, releases potentially toxic fumes. My good friend Mary has some leftover 8" duct left over from her recent home renovation, which she has graciously offered. I ordered a Fantech FG8XL Inline Centrifugal Fan and controller so now I only need the actual hood part that hangs over the bench.
I searched all over Vacaville for a reasonably priced hood, but all the cheap ones were too small. I thought I found a good deal on a nice, but gutted (no internal fan or lights) floor model at Home Depot. Unfortunately, the people actually working on the floor are apparently not empowered to cut a deal on the unmarked merchandise and the manager wouldn't come out to look at it and give a reasonable price, so there I was all ready to give my hard earned dollars to buy something at a place whose sole existence is for the purpose of selling stuff, but no one would actually enable me to purchase the item. Go figure. So, I went home empty handed after fruitlessly searching literally 4 different stores.
When I got home the proverbial light bulb went off over my head and I remembered this great construction salvage place in Berkeley, Urban Ore. They were open on Monday, so we took a little field trip. This place is huge and stuffed to the rafters with used doors, windows, appliances, fixtures, cabinets, etc as far as the eye can see.
