Chloe and her new workbench

by Thierry

My daughter Chloe started silversmithing as soon as she turned 12, and has already shown great skills, steady and neat work with her bracelets. While her visits to the club are limited due to school and other activities, I was looking at ways for her to do some work at home in a safe, supervised environment.

I found this old stainless steel medical trolley on Gumtree for $40 and found it perfect for her to use on the patio area, still under supervision. The inside of the trolley is ideal as a workbench and the lid perfect as a soldering station as the lid gives protection. These are the modifications I made:

• 2 x locking wheels -$25
• Rubber matting from an old conveyor belt to prevent parts from slipping – $0
• 2 x storage trays from Kmart to build up height inside – $9
• 1 x chopping board from Kmart, with a handy groove to catch up those things that slip away. I only had to shave off 5 mm each side $19
• 1 Hebel block, hand sawn to size to make two blocks – $9

Chloe loves it and is looking forward to using it. Hope you find this article of interest.

Rubber Mat

Work Area

Storage trays

Soldering Station