I didn't really build anything today but I found something I built many years ago. I have been in my current house for 35 years and am fortunate to have a huge workshop in the basement with benches and shelves everwhere. And with me being a packrat all the shelves and benches are full and I have been trying to clear the many shelves so I can sort out all of the shit on the benches and put it up on the shelves. I ran across something in a box on an upper shelf I had totally forgotten about. Do you know what this is?
This is a funnel ashtray (butt can). Made from a solvent can and a funnel. The spring in the top holds the cigarette tightly and won't let the wind blow it off while the ashes fall into the funnel then the can. Then you let the butt drop in the can when finished. I don't know where these originated (probably WWII Navy) but we had two on our houseboat that my wife used. Friends saw these and liked them. Someone asked if I could make a "few." I found the cans and funnels online and got the wire for the holder and made a jig for bending the wire. These became very popular with local boaters and I don't know how many hundreds I made until I got tired of it. What is shown in the pic is the last one I had a can, funnel and wire to put together from parts in the box I found. I still had the invoices for the parts in case I needed to order more. The last batch were done in 2004. My wife would paint them and put custom graphics on them like boat names.
