Revelations

Things turned around quickly in the shop after I did some slight experimentation with the layout. I noticed that I had more room in real life between the bench and the cabinet than I did virtually. I slid the bench closer to the cabinet and was able to slide the saw the same distance. This opened up the front right corner, and I'm trying the planer/dust separator cart there tucked up under the wall scrap storage. I only have to loosen the fence on the table saw (to raise the handle) to let it slide out. I can now simply slide the planer out from the corner to use it. May still put the jointer in that corner, but I like being able to access the full front of the saw.

I also reoriented the jointer in the same corner to take up more of the left wall than the back wall. This allowed me to move the router table to the back wall, but it could easily stay where it was. I now have a lot more room to move around in. May play around with it some more before I make any final decisions. I would still like the jointer to be a bit more accessible - merely rolling in one direction versus the parking game I still have to do. Perhaps one of the front corners is still in play.

Until Home Depot does another paint recycling day, I did find some temporary, out of the way storage on the shelf of my old sander stand which is serving as a fake extension table for the saw.

Also got to try out my new toy, but I'm saving that story for another day.

The mess

My wife made a comment to me the other day after I came in from being in the shop. I said I had been cleaning up, and she stated that it was all I did. She's right. It seems like 80% of the time out there is some sort of cleanup or organization. I've been trying to address this as best I can, but it always seems like I'm moving something to get to something else. I'm hoping typing out what I feel needs to be addressed will give me a decent gameplan of how to fix that, and make a space where I do more work.

Front right corner:
I'm looking at two bins that have wood scrap stacked upon them. I need to go through that scrap and weed out what I don't need. I need to take that top bin and find a home for all the cordless tools that are inside it. The bottom bin is household items, neither are a huge priority at this point. The wall scrap in this corner may be better served in the front left corner. Lots of wasted space over here under and around the table saw.

Front left corner:
A bit of a jumble right now. The router caddy is in the wrong spot for where the router table is, and interferes with the drill press. The tall cabinet I currently use for detailing supplies is not a long-term solution. I'd like to move everything in here to the wall cabinet I have built, but don't know where it will go because I plan for a full width wall cabinet for tools and misc storage. More planning will have to be done about that. I'm considering incorporating the router table into a joint saw/router cabinet that would replace the mobile stand that the table saw came with. Another option would have it slide under the full width floor cabinets on the back wall. I could also incorporate the router into the floor cabinet itself, but that limits options for routing long stock. I don't have a ton of router bits, and all my accessories don't have to live in the current table. Hotdog air compressor can go virtually anywhere, but I would like somewhere close to the door so I could wheel it outside and have the air reel near where it stores to hook it up to.

Right wall:
As stated, the wall scrap may be best served on the opposite wall. Existing back wall cabinet may fit in front corner, but limits what I could feasibly put under it due to depth. Router/saw cabinet would probably not work. Jointer could go here, but would necessitate moving table saw for stock longer than infeed table. Window takes up middle portion of the wall, and future wall cabinet takes up back corner. Clamps do and will take up the small amount of real estate available.

Left wall:
Drill press, router table, bandsaw, planer and jointer take up this wall currently. Have to move planer (and DC cabinet it sits on) to get to jointer currently. Everything else is basically usable, but crowded. Elimination of router table would free up room for saw/router stand to slide over when routing. May need to consider eliminating dust separator cabinet and stow planer low under something. I like the height of the planer but I need to consider space here. Possibly could combine planer and router cabinet, but that presents problems of width and depth for router table. Router table is incomplete and due for revamp, so all possibilities are open. Jointer could feasibly tuck under floor cabinets, or move to front corners.

Back wall:
Jointer, floor, wall cabinets and sander currently reside, as well as french cleat system for hand tools. Need to revamp most of french cleat holders, so will probably eliminate in favor of cabinet storage. May use cleats somewhere else in a smaller capacity. Current floor cabinet gives very little room to right of miter saw. Very little dust collection for miter saw. Drawers in floor cabinet incomplete; ones that are done suck. Upper cabinet doesn't have doors. Would like two wall cabinets with cubby storage in middle for power tools, miter saw in middle of wall and a better fence system.


Minor issues (stuff):
I can't easily access my tool box. Needs to not sit behind the miter fence.
Need to make storage for drill bits near drill press so they don't constantly sit on surfaces. Same goes for the drills themselves.
Sander - considering putting in drawer in cabinet as it's light enough to lift up when needed (40#)
Clean out scrap bin under miter saw to fit more stuff in. Consider eliminating it when new cabinet is built (and where scrap would then go)
I wouldn't mind a trash can instead of a bag lying on the floor, but I'm not sure where I would put it.
Will need to incorporate storage for my container boxes and new socket case. Probably will go into floor cabinet or new bench.

That's what I can think of for now. Hopefully I'll have a review up tonight of my new toy.

2011 - review and looking forward

2011 was a big year for the shop, and myself with skills I learned and tried. However there was also a lot of things that went unfinished or not started at all.

I acquired a bandsaw, which was one of my last major purchases for the shop. I looked everywhere on CL, but eventually bought one from Harbor Freight. A few upgrades later, and I'm still happy with it. This year I hope to finally order the riser and put some good blades on it. A jointer joined the fray late in the year and has been a great purchase.

The Ultimate Tool Stand was scrapped and replaced with a floor cabinet for my miter saw and some drawers. Unfortunately, it's still a work in progress and may be scrapped entirely for a full wall-width floor cabinet. Plans are still in progress.

I got interested in hand tools, and bought my first plane. I'm hoping to upgrade my chisels this year and refine my technique on both. I made a scrap cabinet and bought some wall storage for scrap and have found them totally inadequate for the amount of scrap I had been keeping. My solution is to keep less of the crap, and keep the good stuff. Most of the non-shop stuff has left the building, with the two golf club bags being the notable exception. When the Christmas decorations get put away, that will be done at the same time. The doors still haven't been replaced, nor have the rest of the walls. I'm hoping both get done this year.

I did some more work on my router table, but it's still not finished. I don't think it ever will be, to be honest.

Some major spacial organization occurred, and that's still a work in progress. But I have managed to be able to use all my tools inside the shop, which is great for inclement weather days. Part of this involved moving one of the workbench tables out, and the other one may get replaced this year with a Holtzapffel bench - then I can really start rocking the good work.

I added a new router for hand work, as well as an additional saw on a track for rip cuts (the 18v just kept cutting out too much), plus some other minor tools that I can't quite remember right now. (edit - like my oscillating spindle sander!)

It's been a good year, and I can't wait to try and improve on it next year.

Holiday time

Not much time out in the shop due to the holidays and friggin cold weather. I haven't bothered with checking on the couple cans of finish, they're probably toast because of the cold. Oh well. Been too busy to consider it. I checked the surface temperature of a few things yesterday afternoon, and they were acceptable. Need to get out there early one morning to check them then.

This is starting to sound like a broken record, but the shop is a disaster from my last project. Now that it's been given as a gift, it was a Keurig K-cup holder that mounts under a cabinet. I experimented on this one, and did sliding dovetails as the sliding apparatus. The tails were too narrow, but they work. Need to investigate how to correct that in the future, most likely a smaller dovetail to create the socket. Holes for the cups were made with a 1.75" hole saw, and eased with a chamfer. I'm sure I have a picture somewhere, I'll see if I can find it. It's not finished yet, because there was the chance it could be painted to match the cabinets.

Christmas was good to the shop. While it didn't get everything it asked for, it did ask for a lot. A new Ryobi Supercharger (6 port battery charger) now holds all my current batteries and gives them a place to charge without having to plug in three chargers. It only charges one at a time though, so if I'm in need I'll have to plug another one or two in to give me rapid charging. If I had constant power out there, it wouldn't be an issue.

I also picked up some 'mechanics' tools, some wrenches and sockets that I've wanted for awhile. Will have to find a place to store them. I should be receiving a One+ Tile Saw today, something of an impulse buy it was so inexpensive. I'm hoping that it can serve double duty as a trim saw, but if it can't I'll get my money's worth even if I just use it to clean grout. Won't take up much room to store either. I'm hopefully receiving my new table saw guard after about a couple of months. Really looking forward to that, so I can work safer with a better riving knife and can use it in instances where I can't use a guard.

New project and interlude II

Set out to do more work on the project, and I did to some degree. I was able to trim up the board to a length a bit longer than intended, but with plenty of room for mistakes. I took one edge and ran it through the router to create the long dovetail. Unfortunately this is about where it stopped for today. I discovered that the piece I was going to use for the sides was twisted. So I found a piece that was suitable, but unfortunately not as wide. So I've changed plans slightly in regard to mounting, but I will need the sample to properly gauge where it's going to intersect the board. Hard to describe, but pictures will do when I get it done.

Did a very slight more amount of cleaning up, and worked to get closer on getting the bandsaw fence done. Took a bit to figure out layout in my head while I was in there, and I think if I can move the wall rack to the opposite wall, I will be closer to where I need to be. Being in that corner takes away a lot of options for me, especially since the table saw is pretty much set where it is.

Still working.

New project and an interlude

I set out today to start on a late Christmas present, one involving techniques I haven't used before and is bound for disaster. Oh well, at least I'll be able to say I tried. I can't reveal too much of it, for obvious reasons. Back to it at the end.

As I was prepping everything I noticed how much junk was lying around in the form of scrap pieces. So I abandoned doing too much on my project in favor of making some progress on this front. Scrap was everywhere - a huge pile on the router table, some in front of the planer, on the work bench, and on the table saw. Basically everywhere I don't want it. So I took about an hour tossing some stuff and finally doing a bit better job sorting my wall of wood. Not the greatest accomplishment, but it was desperately needed.

While doing this, I was contemplating the next steps for organization. I've been thinking over a major change to the south wall (cabinet wall) that would include full width lower and upper cabinets. Unfortunately, where I run into problems is all the other stuff I have that takes up massive amounts of floor space. I had wanted to store the jointer under the miter saw, but this is going to be impossible. It's nearly 40" tall, and that would be to the bottom of any surface. Simply too high to store under there regardless, much less to have a miter saw directly above it. The center is only that tall, so I may be able to shove one of the tables under a portion of the cabinets as the tables are only about 35" high.

I've been playing around with Sketchup for the last couple of weeks trying to figure out a bit better way of having everything stowed. The system now isn't too horrible, but I also don't have as much room as I would have with a full-width lower cabinet. I had visions of storing the spindle sander on a shelf instead of being on it's own rolling cart. Still kicking around ideas.

Back to the project. I had a large board of poplar that I bought several months ago for transforming into a chair. Perhaps even a year ago. Haven't gotten around to it, but I knew it would work for this without having to outlay any cash. It was rough milled, about 1-1/8" thick. I cut off a bad section, then cut approximately a 21" long section of the board, which is also about 10.5" wide. Slightly narrower than I would have liked, but not so much that it was worth gluing up two boards. 11" was my goal, this will be fine. I planed it down to 3/4", and jointed the edges. I did it this way because it was slightly bowed and still got nice parallel faces and edges. It became too low of light to proceed, so I left the board for tomorrow ready to trim to the proper length and run through the router table. I'm attempting sliding dovetails, which if I get right will be a real feather in my cap.

Sneak peak 2

This will at least tell you what tool it's going to be used on. I'm sure you can guess what it is now.

The biggest thing on my to-do list right now is find a way to get rid of these paint cans.