Birthday Gifts

This time last year I was just starting to gear up for the crib.  I never made it.  Ian came a bit early, and now I have a bunch of 6/4 cherry, but that's a problem for the future.

This year I had some birthday requests.  As soon as my shop was setup I started making Ian a set of blocks.  I based them off of Unit Blocks available from different places.  The idea is that 1 unit is 1 3/8" x 2 3/4" x 5 1/2" (nominally 1x2x4).  The rest of the blocks are based on those dimensions.   There isn't much to building them, just cut them out, and plane or sand (I planed the faces and sanded the corners).  Any non-90 degree cuts were roughed at the band saw and then cleaned up with a plane.  I finished them with an walnut oil carnuba wax blend.  It gave them a fantastic feel and nice color.  It is safe for mouths, and easily repaired.  Ian is a bit young to be building with them, but he will gladly knock over any tower we make.

This fort didn't last long once Ian woke up.

The completion of blocks created another problem; Ian's toys had taken over multiple rooms.  To help remedy that I built a toy chest.  This was a pretty simple build; just dimensioned poplar and plywood glued and screwed together.  The finish is chalkboard paint and milk paint.  It was a quick, fun project, and a good way to test out the new shop space.  I did splurge on the Rockler torsion hinges, and they are well worth the investment.

Ian thought some of the screws could use a little help.

With his birthday out of the way I got back to organizing the basement and found one box of beer glasses that hadn't been unpacked.  Since we ran out of room in the kitchen I made some quick floating shelves out of some oak scraps I had laying around.  I sank some 3/8" rod into the studs, then marked the boards with those locations.  I had to use a slightly larger drill bit on the boards, but they fit snugly and aren't carrying that much weight.  During a test fit, they didn't look the way I wanted so I added a bevel on the edges.  I finished them with a quick pass of a smoothing plane and a coat of danish oil.

Nothing special but they work.

While none of these projects were very challenging, the items were needed and it was a good way to test the work space. The shop space works well, and is by far the nicest space I've had.  The only problem was the lighting in the hand tool area.   That was a quick but much needed fix.

The two new lights throw plenty of light on the work surface.

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.

Handtool/lathe area with door to machine room.

Dust collector, clamp rack to be improved.

Planer, tablesaw and air cleaner.

Other side with bandsaw (drillpress is on the floor for now).

Looks like I need to make Ian a bench too.

New Shop (almost)

The first weekend in June my dad helped me move all my shop stuff from the 1 car garage in the rental townhouse, to the basement of our new house.  This was no easy feat, and I am very grateful to him for helping.

This will be the first time my shop is inside.  Like everything there are pros and cons.
Pros:

• Climate controlled
• Laminate floor (would prefer hardwood, but it's better than concrete)
• I might actually see my family while in the shop
• Less rust
• More walls
• Two rooms (hand and machine shops)

Cons:

• Must be diligent with dust collection
• Need to run a few extra circuits through finished walls
• Could be noisy in the rest of the house
• Less lumber storage (likely in garage)
• Can only spray in garage (though this could also be a pro since it could be thought of as a separate spray room)
• Current table saw bench doesn't fit through the doors (though I need to rebuild it anyways since the casters can't swing fully)

Luckily I thought about most of these before purchasing the house.  My dad brought back my Oneida cyclone which he was kind enough to store and help install.  The shop will be furthest from the bedrooms, and there are doors that can be upgraded to provide some better noise/dust control.  I can free up 10 slots in the breaker box, and I can see where to route the wires about 90% of the way.  I will have to be careful with lumber purchases but an oversized garage and lumber stores open on the weekend will help.

Hand tool room.  Roughly half of 17' x 17'

Machine room (11'x16' and really hard to take a picture)

Okay, so the ceilings are 7'8" and my dust collector is 8'... nothing's perfect.

While I would love to spend two weeks getting the shop all setup and ready to go, I have a day job.  Oh and a house that needs new lighting fixtures, a bathroom fan, and a handful of other projects.  Progress on the shop will be slow and steady, but now there is light at the end of the tunnel (behind all the boxes).