More Bench progress

After I finished porting the oil pump, I started pulling the sheet of steel that covered a majority of the bench so I can get down to business pulling it apart.

I started by unbolting the vise and pulling out the nails along the edge of the metal covering the bench:

I pulled the shelf off:

Aaaaaand . . . I have to admit I am mostly responsible for many of these holes:

 When I was a smaller cretin than I am now, I loved hammering in nails . . . And the bench was really convenient for that. So, yeah, I made my own life more difficult. heh

This is one of the original (as far as I can tell, or at least way before my time) windows:

There are six of these, and they do let in a good amount of light in the winter (not so much when leaves grow in during the spring), but they are starting to fall apart. I have never made a window before and I really don't like working with wood, but, I might try my hand at making some in the summer.

This is the electrical box for the house: 

 It is REALLY small, only 100A service :

 No room at the inn . . . meaning no room for wiring a welder. I also have never heard of the brand/company before (not that I know a heck of a lot about electrical stuff). This is gonna have to get addressed at some point in the near future.

More progress on pulling up the metal:

 Holes from underneath:

I actually really these pics! 

After a lot of prying and pulling and cussing and fighting with a zillion nails:

 TADA!

This is what I am going to be fighting with to get the wood planks off the top:

As to why I took the time to mostly carefully take the metal off in one piece, I have a few ideas of actually using it. I REALLY hate throwing out material. This has history in the house. Just like the bench, I'm not chucking it, but repurposing it into something that will function better for what I need, and honestly it will be a huge improvement since that bench has always puzzled me as to why it was constructed in the manner that it was.

That being said, I really don't have an exact idea of what I'm going to do with everything since I am still not sure of what I will have to work with. I know that whatever I do end up with will be more useful, allow for more and more organized storage and not cost much monetarily.