Another woodwork/stupid juggling box post

I keep telling people I’m not a woodworker, but weirdly, my posts “The Stupid Juggling box” and “I am not a cabinet maker” keep getting likes from woodworking blogs and sites. Or maybe the same ones keep liking it, I don’t know. Anyway, in that first link, I explained that my brain likes to complicate my life by coming up with unlikely but just possible woodwork projects that I really, really don’t have time for. This week, as we work to reclaim the wall now the fireplace has been removed, and we fail to go on vacation, and we try to finance the purchase of an apartment, and we want to get the taxes done, my brain decided I should build a handle onto the juggling box.

Not just any handle though.

A retractable handle.

Now, I did not do a series of photos as I went along, nor did I make an easily accessible video for my YouTube Channel. I didn’t do those things because I wanted to get this stupid idea out of my head and done as soon as possible, preferably without purchasing any new materials.

So, using only the plans in my head, I built the system illustrated below. Here it is in retracted position:

And here it is raised, ready to pull along.

Could this have been done better? Yes. Is that a comfortable handle to pull? No. Am I going to make further improvements? Almost certainly, but right now my brain is wrung out and I still have a week’s worth of ironing to get done by tomorrow. If I get time during the week, I might show you the book holder I made for the nice lady who’s had hand surgery and can’t hold her books right now.