Options

Another thought I had regarding the planer was to put it on a flip panel with the opposite side being a portion of the miter saw fence. This would put the planer out of the way completely unless needed, and give me almost ten feet of a good working surface.

While this would seem like the ideal configuration on first glance, it could create a lot of issues. First is alignment of the fence and planer, as well as fence and fence. Also, the planer would still have to slide forward in some manner to be useful. That means I either have to laterally elongate the pivot point, or make the whole assembly a mobile cart. I don't like the former because of structural and alignment issues (nearly eight inches of travel would be necessary) and I really don't like the latter because it would introduce all sorts of clearance issues with casters, knobs, etc. While the miter fence could simply span the gap and be permanent where the cart would go, I would still have to deal with clearance issues and the problems that would come with having a flip cart with a surface that's three feet tall and has no counterbalance. With the Dewalt 735 weighing in at over 90lbs, almost 15 more than the Ryobi, this isn't something I care to try. If I had a mortise machine that would go opposite, it might be worth exploring. But otherwise, I think my original idea of a sliding shelf would be my best choice.

What I especially like about this design is that I can move several components around under the counter, save for the hardware bins. There will be plenty of drawer or shelf space to store items that are currently stored on the wall or the wall cabinet - that's most likely going to be repurposed into

I have to say though, when designing a project of your own like this that's fairly large in scope and permanence in your shop, options like these are worth exploring in the design phase. The only thing it costs you is your time and patience, and a little bit of brain power.

The South Wall revealed - take two

Ignore the tool cubbies on the right, those will be an as-I-go thing, but it was to get a general idea. Sawhorses on far right, hardware totes next to that under the miter saw. Next bay is regular drawers. Below the planer and above the sander is open. Router table gets moved slightly inward, as a test drive today made it uncomfortable against the wall. The bay next to the east wall is the sockets and the rest is open. Plenty of storage in this design.

Considering actually using 100# undermount drawer slides under the planer for strength, since it will stick out a decent amount. Two bolts with inserts will lock it in place once it clears the miter fence. As for the miter fence, I'll come up with a little something to slide into the planer cavity for measurements that hit that 2' sweet spot that the regular fence won't be there for.

That's basically it. I like it, it's happening. May have to wait until the week after the Super Bowl, and let the finances keep coming up. But I'll most likely be using cabinet grade plywood from either Home Depot or my local yard, whichever is cheaper. I haven't run Cutlist on all the cabinet pieces to see how many sheets I'll need, but I imagine it will be three or four. Kick in another sheet to redo the router table, a sheet of 1/2" for the cubbies and at least one sheet of hardboard and it's not a cheap project. Oh yeah, did I mention the drawers?

What I may do to defray costs is to do it a little bit at a time, although getting the sheets home is the major hassle. I think the first thing that will have to be built is the main right assembly that holds the miter saw and planer. I can then build the left cabinet and tie it together. At least I can disassemble the DC cart and use it for some shorter pieces like cabinet floors or ceilings.

Revelations

As I was lying in bed this morning trying to wake up, I had an idea of how to solve the planer problem. I mentioned a couple posts ago (Figures) that I wanted to possibly keep the miter saw on the right side of the cabinet assembly and have the planer up on the bench with permanent, long infeed and outfeed tables. The miter saw infeed would go through the planer itself for longer pieces. The problem I was having in my head was how far the planer would stick out into the bench walkway to line up with the miter fence. With the lack of space I already have, that's not really an option.

The solution is to have the planer slide out when needed. Now due to the vibration that's inherent in it's operation, I can't use standard drawer hardware. I think what I may do is use drawer slide guides, little buttons of plastic that insert into the bottom of drawers and into the cabinet body. I would lock it in place for operation with knobs and threaded inserts in both the 'drawer' and the top of the cabinet. That's at least how I see it in my head. Since one of my older, crappier sawhorses seems to have broken, I'll be able to shift the miter saw closer to the wall.

Speaking of walls, the two new OSB walls are up and secure. Just like the last time, it was difficult to find the studs since they've used some crappy broken ones. Unfortunately I'm not in the position, nor is it worth it, to fix every problem I find. The whole structure really needs to be torn down and done over. I've partially cleaned up from all the mess - the clamp rack is back up, some stuff has moved around. The extension reels are now by the door, where they should have been from the beginning. This means the detailing cabinet-in-progress is on the ground awaiting a new home and a bit of finish.

Now we can move back to the design phase...

Pardon the dust

In preparation for the South Wall remodel (however it will go), I needed to expand the OSB wall redo to the adjoining walls - just one section each for now. After a couple hours hard work, these sections are now prepped to receive the new wall coverings.

Taking down the 1/4" ply I got a nasty surprise - ants. Giant black ants had infiltrated the wood at the bottom of each wall and came pouring out. Luckily it wasn't summer and they were slow moving. Some WD-40 (closest thing I could grab) and some Oregon-invented waffle sole later and I think they are all dead. Some ant poison will confirm that tonight.

The plywood and hardwood needed to be disposed of, so I employed my newest addition: a Craftsman jigsaw. I'll have an overview of that in a day or so. But I will say it ripped through all of the trash like nothing, and everything is ready for the garbage truck. The shop is a disaster, but easily remedied once the wall panels get installed tomorrow.

Really excited to get started on the cabinets, in whichever form they take. Hopefully I'll get the plans finalized this week and materials on-site next weekend.

Figures

Just when you think you have it all figured out - when you've spent countless hours working on a plan, and then at the last minute decide you might have a better idea...that's me. At least this time it happened in the design phase and it cost me exactly $0.




What I'm referring to is the above. I thought I had everything set where I wanted it until I started thinking I wanted the miter saw to the right and the planer to come up to give the full bench a surface to run the boards through.

Back to the drawing board, literally.

Thanks

Thanks for the views I have been getting lately. Knowing someone is reading the nonsense I write drives me to continue. Comments are always welcome.

New iron

Got a pleasant surprise this morning, as I discovered my plane order arrived yesterday a few days early. I ordered a block plane and a #5 from Woodcraft, both made by Groz. These don't have the greatest reputation, but they were on a deep clearance and I am not going to be able to find some good stuff otherwise right now. A check of a couple of antiques (read: junk) stores didn't net any acceptable old iron.

I don't have the proper setup for tuning up planes, but I got decent results with my other plane, a Stanley SB4 from Lowe's. I cleaned off all the cosmoline from the planes by disassembling them, then set about to see what they could do out of the box. I got fair results from the block plane, but the #5 was giving me all sorts of trouble. I was either getting nothing, or too thick and it was jamming. I did a bit of minor research to see what I was dealing with and I hope to make some adjustments and get some decent shavings out of it. It's a bit different from my other two with a cap iron that I'm not familiar with. Some tips I found hopefully will help me out.

I am going to pick up some glass and some sandpaper and make myself a cheap honing setup for the soles and the blades. I like my Worksharp, but I need to make sure I'm going it correctly. Making a jig for the WS is a top priority as well.


In other developments today, I bought the Ridgid muffler for my vac, hoping to get a dB or two of noise reduction and deflecting the very powerful exhaust. To my dismay I think it got louder by a dB or two. I will have to weigh whether I keep it or not, as the diffusion of the exhaust blast will be helpful. I may at some point want to route the exhaust out the shop.

I did, the other day, create a holder for all of my files that works rather well. Today, I created a new rack for my chisels. I'll get pictures of all of that this week, and I also hope to make some hammer holders, since the one I have won't hold all of mine. All of this will eventually go onto a large rack or in a cabinet similar to the Studley chest. Also, now that I have multiple planes (working or otherwise), I need to find them a home as well. Also in respect to getting the South Wall started, I first will have to replace at least one wall panel adjacent to the wall on the east and west walls. I could go ahead and do multiple at the same time, but I'm not sure I would have the time or space to take down and out a bunch of stuff. I would do those two panels, then probably after the South wall is complete work on finishing the other walls one at a time. The OSB isn't too expensive, but it is an undertaking taking down the plywood and the underlying wood and disposing of it. I'm trying not to have to rent a truck to take it to the dump, but just using trash bags.

I'll be doing some fine tuning of the Sketchup model for the shop this week and hope to get renders of it posted before next weekend.

A clean shop is a happy shop

Sometimes buying something will motivate you to do something you could have done before. It's certainly the case with my new vacuum. The shop floor could have been vacuumed up by me at any time, but buying the new one certainly instilled the 'new toy, get some use out of it' syndrome. What does help is that it is more powerful, and the larger hose and wands pick up more things at once. It may be too powerful, because I'm missing a 1/2" collet for my router and it may have been sucked up and now gone.

With being able to get more bins out of the shop, there was room under my work table to stow the vac and separator under it which is a nice central spot. Unfortunately I don't know at this point if they will fit under the new Holtzapffel bench whenever I get it made, but we'll come to that when we do. They could fit under an extension wing for the table saw, or I might have to engineer a vertical solution next to the bandsaw. Not too worried about it at this point though.

With the new vac addition, that makes three I have in the shop. I also have two Shop Vac 3HP/6 gallon units, one still boxed up. Why two? I bought the first one on special for $20, and then when I needed an additional hose for the separator, they were back on sale again for $20 - the exact same price as just an additional hose. The only downfall of this unit is the undersized hose, and thus I can't recommend it for woodworking. One will head down to the house for garage duty, and I can recommend it for that purpose. For cleaning out cars, it will work fine. I will probably give the other one away.

I was going to purchase some dust collection equipment at Rockler last week, but they weren't on sale. New sale starts the 28th, and I'm waiting to see if they put the 2.5" equipment on sale. I received a $10 gift card that had to be used before then, so I used it on yet another T-track kit with hardware (great deal at $20) and a couple of hold downs so I could construct a drill press table. I purchased the Harbor Freight DP table, and while well constructed and nice, it was a complete non-fit with my drill press on both the stock table and the handle. I have the basic idea of what I want, but I'm going to spend the first part of this week researching sizes and making sure the idea in my head is the one I like the best. I'm thinking dual T-tracks, hold downs, a fence and a removable insert. Since I don't need to do sanding, I'll save the dust collection for a simple flanged port that came with a flexible hose kit. I will attach it to the drill press with a magnetic clip, so I can move it to the bandsaw if needed.

While the goal is to never have anything reach the floor from the tools, I know that's not realistic. I have a broom that was handed down from the house that is now broken in two spots on the handle. I can sweep normally in one direction, but the other collapses the handle. I'll replace that, and probably just throw away the bench brush I have that's caked with dust.


I pretty much have the idea of what I'm doing with the South Wall now, just a matter of deciding how deep and the number of drawers I'll have, as well as the number of hardware organizers I'll be using. Details on that next time.

A task complete!

Today the golf clubs, tennis rackets, softball bag and two bins left the shop. I'm down to two bins, both of which serve a valid purpose for the time being.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The South wall

I think it's time to start planning what I need on this wall so the rest of the shop can come together and function as one cohesive unit. I'll have to use some assumptions, and the plans may change slightly, but it's going to be fairly close I think. This wall has been thought of a lot over the months, and I've gone back and forth about what I wanted it to do and be.

Let's start by stating the knowns and unknowns. I know it needs to have storage for my miter saw, various tools (corded, cordless and hand). Unfortunately, that's all that's concrete at this point. A lot of the variables are of the larger corded tools and what I'm finally going to do about them.

I do know the rough design of the floor area. I'm taking inspiration from the miter bench from season 14 of the New Yankee Workshop. I'll be making basic boxes to store the drawers, and any open storage underneath. The top will be half-lapped 2x4s covered by plywood and hardboard. The miter saw is going to be roughly in the middle, (probably) sitting directly on top of the surface. I am eliminating the drop-down shelf that I have on mine because I never know when I'll have to replace my Hitachi, and don't want to be locked into anything. Plus, it seems easier. I do know that due to the depth of the cabinet I will not be making an indentation in the surface. The fence will sit on top of the cabinet and I'm hoping to do a much better job this time of being precise.

Over the miter saw on the wall I will have space for my growing hand tool collection. I have only one plane, and two on order, but I'm going to leave myself room for a couple of more, including some smaller block, bull nose and specialty planes, including a #7 that I yearn for. This will also be where my saws, marking equipment and chisels will go.

Now onto the unknown quantities, primarily how tall the floor cabinet will be. What affects the height is primarily my jointer, and where it's going to go. If I have room, I'd ideally like to stow it completely under the cabinet and pull it straight out for use. However, this would have the effect of limiting the outfeed for my table saw, since it would be too high for the stock to exit onto. I'd only be losing a few inches with the miter fence, but it's still a concern. Being that high would also impact any cabinets and other storage up on the wall since I'd effectively be taking up half the wall. If I put it at counter height (36") then it would be even with the other surfaces, aiding with assembly and outfeed. But the jointer could not rest under it the way I want to, or possibly at all. It would only be able to stick it's nose under.

I'm thinking the planer is going to go on it's own rolling stand and will tuck under the cabinet in an open bay, just to the left of the miter saw (or possibly right under it). I'm going to size the compartment opening to be able to fit a Dewalt 735, but the stand is going to be just for my Ryobi AP1300. I think on the bottom of that cart will be a drawer that will hold some knickknacks, and I'll be able to get to it while the planer is tucked away. I could certainly see the replacement knives and wrench going here. Some for of weight on the bottom of the stand might be prudent for stability.

I think I'd like the Ridgid OSS to sit in a drawer and pull out for usage. If I use a door or a fold down front, I could simply pull it out and use it with dust collection while sitting, or it could come up to the bench or another surface if I was doing a large piece. I quite like this idea, and it's light enough to be done with the full-extension slides. It would have to go into an open floor area of the shop if I actually want to use it though. May change my mind based on room.

I think I'll keep all my sharpening equipment in one drawer on the bottom. This would include the Worksharp, and any future things like wetstones or glass-backed surfaces. A regular drawer deep enough for the WS should be fine, nothing special required. Although another option is to make a little sharpening station for the WS that expands it's abilities, but then I run into the problem of where do I put it. Stones, glass and paper can go anywhere, really.


Sometimes I feel a bit caught up in the plan of doing this that I can wonder what I'm actually going to put in these drawers I'm planning to build. I only have four now, and there's a whole lot of what seems like nothing in there. Well I know that I want one full bank of just hardware containers. I'm not too much of a classical woodworker, so I use plenty of mechanical fasteners. So I'd like to have 3-6 hardware cases on flat drawers that I can pull out and open either in place or on the counter. That's easily enough done in the design, just have to get the width of the drawers right this time. I also want to do something similar to my nice set of Kobalt sockets and wrenches. That's only one 'drawer,' so under that would probably be regular drawers or either the planer or sander could stow underneath.

There's quite a few tools that will need to go in either drawers or up above, but that seems to be up in the air as well. I know I want my drills up above, jigsaws...stuff like that. Perhaps some of the lesser used tools like my angle grinder, recip saw and the like can go in a drawer. My crappy biscuit joiner will either go in a drawer (or trash) or be made into a biscuit jig. Up on the wall probably goes the sanders I have. They could go in a drawer as backup, but so could the papers. Will have to see what room I have on the wall.

On an edge or both I think the sawhorses will find a home. I don't use them that much, but that's the best spot for them for when I need them. If I have a spot big enough left under the counter, I'd like to roll my router table underneath. If not, then I'll rethink having a stand-alone router table. On the counter I'm going to have a removable small section for a future mortise machine and to drop my Kreg jig in.


Hopefully all of this made sense. I'm going to take some measurements and see what we're talking about here.

The planer problem

By far, this is the most troublesome piece of equipment in the shop. The planer itself works fine, it's just that I've wrestled since I got it about where it should go. It's funny that the larger tools I have don't do this, but this does.

It came with this metal stand that almost, but not quite matched the planer. The colors were Ryobi, but the planer wasn't quite secure on it. Took awhile, but I finally scrapped it last year. I built a flip-top stand, but it was never quite stable for my liking. When I thought I would be forced to buy a dust collector I built this big stand that served double duty as a separator. It's too big, but I like the height.

So what's a guy to do? I could try another flip-top, with the Ridgid OSS as the opposing tool to help balance it out. I could go to the other extreme, and make one that's really low and would fit under the bench and table saw. I could do something in the middle, and have some storage underneath. I could make a stand with the planer on top, and the sander could slide out. I could make something low enough where it could slide under the countertop. I could make a cart where my dust separator or shop vac stows underneath.

I think I need to continue to find spots for other things before I tackle this, because I'm really hoping I can upgrade to the Dewalt 735x and whatever I do needs to be compatible with that.

To be continued...

State of the Shop, 2012

Since there's a bit of downtime right now with work and weather, thought I'd take a look at every aspect of the shop and assess what needs to be improved. This may or may not be a multiple post endeavor.

The shop itself:
The shop needs some TLC. It's in decent enough shape, but there are several things on the wish list. Getting OSB up on the rest of the walls is the first to-do, as is putting newer doors on. A window would be nice, but it's a luxury. The floor is in good enough shape, but the ceiling needs to be replaced. Clearing out the stump pile on the side and getting it level would be great. No electricity is coming, but there is a plan in place for lighting.

The big guns:
The table saw now has it's new guard, and I'll be ordering the hardware soon to create the miter slots and the aux table. The aux table is probably going to be more like an aux cabinet that secures to the rails and will hold a future sled and various table saw parts and accessories.

The bandsaw is coming along nicely, with the fence almost done. Well, it's pretty much done as long as it works, haven't tested it yet. The new power switch works fine, need to order the riser so I can finally get some good blades on it.

The drill press is fine, only thing needed is a table so I can make repeated holes. Storage nearby for bits would help.

The only thing the miter saw needs is some dust collection and a good cleaning. It would be nice to be able to cut a wider board, but such is life.

The jointer just needs some dust collection, and for me to make sure the infeed table isn't drooping (appears to, but I get nice boards from it).

The planer has benefited nicely from the 2.5" vacuum hoses, but one day I'd sure like to upgrade to a Dewalt 735. Needs to find a new home if I won't be using the big separator, possibly low under the left side of the table saw. Need to cut the prefinished ply for a aux table.

No issues with the routers outside what a good cleaning might bring. Need to investigate making the depth adjustment on the table router work smoother, but I have a lead on that and just need to do it and stop procrastinating. Height adjustment is getting to be a huge pain.

All of the Ryobi One+ tools are working great. No problems whatsoever, and the NiCd batteries are still working fine in the fan and radio (two plus years). Just need to get them out of the bin and into their own storage.


As for any tool upgrades I might be looking into, I mentioned the planer on my ultimate wish list. More reasonable are upgrading my B&D jigsaw to possibly a Bosch barrel grip, and upgrading some smaller stuff like chisels. I've made pretty good buying decisions, so most of my tools I'm extremely happy with. I'd like to add a couple of sanders to the arsenal, a 1/4" sheet and a belt. May consider a corded ROS with dust collection should I not figure out how to control the dust from my cordless version.

Storage is always the bane of my existence, so I hope to have some projects coming along over the next 11 months chronicling how I'm addressing them.

Happy New Year (belated)

I tried to write this post a week ago, but app issues prevented that. So now I write a new one that's been updated with the results of today, starting with today. It was a fantastic day of getting organized. I have a slightly new layout that's too mundane to go into great detail. Suffice to say the jointer, router table, drill press and planer are all in new spots from two weeks ago. I may be getting closer to a final layout, with some minor changes still to come.

What I found out last weekend is that I don't need a dust collector, at least for the foreseeable future. My Shop Vac wasn't cutting the mustard when it came to my planer. Turns out the Shop Vac was fine, but the 1.25" hoses it came with were not. I purchased a couple of 2.5" diameter hoses - one from the vac to a separator and from the separator to the tool. This worked great, so long as my depth of cut is shallow.

This revelation caused me to rethink a couple of aspects about the shop. The first is I need a different separator. I had intended to use the big cabinet separator, but with the smaller, less powerful vac solution, I think its too big. My current 5 gallon pail fills up quickly with the planer. Something to think about, and perhaps plan a solution that houses the loud vac as well.

There are other layout plans as well, to be discussed later as I decide on them. Now, pics of the cleanliness.