Boundaries in Time: Shop Progress

Somehow between a baby, a full-time job, and new old house I found some time to make progress on the shop. Over the 4th of July I was able to clean/organize the garage and basement, enough that I could disassemble the table saw cabinet/bench and rebuild its base (after ripping a bunch of french cleats). This went smoother than I thought, though I now need a new screw extractor, and sawzall blades (someone used cheap screws and left broken drill bits in the wood). I was able to rotate the caster mounts which provided enough clearance for 360 rotation. I tried adding some Spax screws to hold the MDF platform to the maple frame, but it never gave me that warm fuzzy I was looking for, so I glued and screwed a sheet of plywood on top of the MDF and it was solid. The only downside was it raised the table height 23/32" and now that the base was flat and not flexing, not everything lined up "perfectly" on top. I reassembled it inside the power tool room, and all is well (though it does take up quite a bit of room).

Back power tool wall after cleaning and cleats.

Hand tool room after some cleanup

Then I took some time off from house/shop work. The last weekends in July I finally came up with a wiring plan I liked, and ran the 350 ft of wire to provide separate circuits to the shop. Right now I have 3 separate 120 V lines, and 1 dedicated 240 V for the dust collector. If/when I get a bigger planer/saw/something I will just swap out the breaker and the outlets on the red circuit for 240 V.

The plan.

3 in the shop (the 4th is hiding)

4 circuits at the source

I then spent a few weeks hemming and hawing over how to run the ductwork for dust collection. The last time I hung duct work was in Houston after I had an established workflow. This time I need to get the dust collection up and running before working on any projects (except for this shelf):

First woodworking project in the new house. Yes, it's just a planed cherry board.

Eventually I came up with a plan that didn't require purchasing extra fittings, and would allow for 6' boards to make it through most machines without too much reconfiguring. It isn't a perfect setup, but it will allow me to get working, and will evolve as my shop does. Now the shop is ready for use, and I even have a month to make some birthday gifts for Ian; some blocks and toy chest.