Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

[toedtoes]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

I have a local hardware store just down the street from me. I have two HDs a few miles away on either side. I pretty much randomly choose where I go at any given time. And, of course, if I can wait 2 days, I check Amazon first.

[JoeN]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

My local Lowes has some pretty knowledgeable people working for them and have been a great help for me. The problem is the knowledgeable people are usually very busy and it is sometimes hard to talk to one of them. Overall the help knows where stuff is and can get you pointed in the right direction but they may have a low skill set for technical questions. I do prefer a smaller local hardware store, like Ace, but they are getting hard to find. At Lowes I usually ask for directions to the aisle and then shop for what I need without the employee's assistance, however, when it comes to plumbing they have a couple of very experienced employees that have helped me a lot on various projects.

I love this forum for all the valuable information that is offered. I have gotten two new websites today that I wouldn't have know about without this forum. Thank you all for the great information.

[MacGyver]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

My local Lowes has some pretty knowledgeable people working for them...

Consider yourself lucky. I remember years ago when I was visiting family near Atlanta, I went to my first Home Depot. It was a tinkerer's wonderland. There was someone with some expertise in every department. But that was years before HD came this far north. By the time they did get up here, I guess corporate figured they were paying too much money to keep the knowledgeable people and started phasing out the high dollar employees in favor of minimum wage know nothings. I actually worked at a Home Depot for one day. That's right - one day! When I found myself educating a kid who had been there over a year, I figured that was just the beginning of a nightmare and I turned in my apron. I'll admit that some stores are better than others, but for the most part, I only go to a Depot or Lowes as a matter of convenience. If I can get to a Mom and Pop shop, that's always my first choice.

[Fred]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

Re Home Depot, remember this great severance package:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/03/news...es/home_depot/

[MacGyver]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

Re Home Depot, remember this great severance package:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/03/news...es/home_depot/

Exactly why I avoid them whenever possible.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

Believe it or not I still haven't contacted any of the great links on this thread.
Trying to sell some property and r/e brokers are trying to use up all my daylight time in non meaningful manners.

[Happy Joe]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

A picture would help a lot.


I typically use Lexan (polycarbonate; U-V treated if long exposure to sunlight is a requirement) or aluminum (if it needs to be heat resistant) for flat things.
If it needs an edge I sometimes cut grooves in some PVC pipe and use that.
Occasionally I will heat and bend to get a rolled edge on plastic.
For forming sheet metal a box and pan brake is usually the ticket although I sometimes use extruded aluminum angle to form frames/edges (unless its a heavy duty project the I weld something out of steel).
At first pass your Formica and Masonite would likely work well as long as a lot of water resistance (for the Masonite) is not needed.
I try to avoid Plexiglas (acrylic) as it tents to break with sharp pointy edges, (even in 1/4 inch thicknesses... I am occasionally hard on stuff).


I buy metals at the local metal supplier and plastics at the local plastic supplier, about the only thing I go to Lowes or HD for is PVC, occasionally copper, pipe and fittings


Enjoy!

[terasec]

Re: Talk me through Picking a Material to Repair my Camp Kitchen

if you want aluminum/stainless steel top
try a local machine shop,
while i dont know of any in NYC specifically(havent looked) there are lots of metal working shops on long island, they usually work with auto parts, but can probably redo aluminum top for you in no time