My Old Garage

My Best Woodworking Assets

2009-04-22T09:56:00.001-05:00

Ok -- I'll rephrase my original posting which maliciously disappeared into the electronic void yesterday in a flurry of "don't talk religion" messages. The crux of my message was the value of a lifetime partner, and because I quoted scripture in relationship to how I believe my deity taught it should be done . . . people were very offended.

Get over yourselves.

Again, I'm going to reiterate the message but put it into succinct woodworking terms.

My wife and I are working on a multitude of projects, and now with spring here and warm weather, we're about to embark upon outside fixes and upgrades. One thing that I've learned over the years is the power of two people, either working together or working against one another. For a number of years I experienced the "against" part in a failed marriage. My garage became a refuge for me to escape and unfortunately a lot of things around the house didn't get done. Now fast forward to now.

I've been living in my house ten years now, and for the past 5+ or more, it's needed painting. It's in horrible condition now. I almost ended up in another job position a few years ago and was going to re-do the exterior, but in the midst of that I decided to not take the position . . .but I had already ripped down my shutters. You can only imagine what my house looked like then. There are a lot of other projects that have been on the back burner for a number of years.

Over a year ago I met a wonderful woman with Christ at the center of her life and we've been together ever since. I know I made a lot of mistakes over the years, and because of those learning experiences, it's made me into the man I am now. I am very thankful for that, and I'm very blessed that my wife enjoys spending time with me in the garage or wherever in the house working on things together. So far we've built many projects, painted several rooms, and now we're moving forward on the exterior things for spring/summer.

When we were working together on the latest wood project, the overhead cabinets in the garage, she came up with many good ideas -- as she had on the garbage can holder and other items. That's why I consider so many more things important other than what tools I have available. I've learned over the years, that if you put your mind to something, and you have support in doing what you believe in, you can generally accomplish far more than someone who has it all, yet has nothing. I'm still just learning at the ins and outs of woodworking, but I think I've learned enough making mistakes in other areas of my life that I can share . . . and if that offends anyone, then so be it.

“A man who doesn’t stand for something will fall for anything." - Peter Marshall

Garage Overhead Cabinets - April 2009

2009-04-21T09:33:00.001-05:00

You can read about the progress and completion of the cabinets here in this blog series.

Viola! Garage Cabinets.

2009-04-21T09:27:00.000-05:00

(Triumphant sound of music in the background . . . . )

The garage cabinets are finally done. Last night we cut the 2×4 we used for the french cleat on the back of the cabinets and the rail on the wall. That was a kind of terrifying experience . . . getting that much board through the Shopsmith at a 30 degree angle. I had my feather board on and pushing sticks—all the safety measures I could think of. The operation made a ton of saw dust that blanketed us . . . because I forgot to turn on the dust collector and hook it up. Sigh Cleaning up the mess was not very pleasant either, as I absently grabbed the Shopvac to attack it and Peggy noted it looked like as much was going in was going right back (Cough / Hack) out.

As you can see, the white board will be very handy. I’m a big proponent of white boards . . . I’ve designed many computer programs, database diagrams, and systems all on white boards, so our garage/workshop area should be just as organized.

Yea! A place (soon) for everything, and hopefully everything in it’s place! I just had to stick a few things in it to give it a lived in appearance. ;-)

The cleat system was THE way to go . . . hanging the cabinets was just easy, in fact scary easy. Peggy was quite amazed at how well that went. I had my doubts at first . . . I started the concrete drilling for the fasteners and wasn’t for sure I’d ever get through it. I wasn’t using a hammer drill, just my old Black and Decker 3/8” drill. That old drill has been the best tool ever . . . I used it to drive screws in the back deck, and everything in between. It’s quite amazing how well it’s held up. All that we had to do was put a board on the bottom of the cabinet to space them out from the wall, and then just hung them up. Very slick.

It’s slowly coming together!

Re-arranging The Garage . . . Again

2009-04-21T09:11:00.000-05:00

Well, next up on the new “to-do” list is going to be getting my cantankerous dust collector settled in to a new spot.

The trash can with the separator is sitting on a platform (recycled out of an old boat step I made) and actually fits quite nicely. I’ve bungy-corded the whole thing together for now, but I don’t like how the inlet side works. My vision for this is to actually have a 90 degree out of the compressor that goes directly up through the middle of the trash can. It’s a bit weird to picture, but instead of using the separator lid, I’ll make my own lid with a spiral inducer there. That’s the thought at least. In the meantime, the garage will be shuffled and I’ll move the whole shebang over to where it will ultimately live.

Now with the new cabinets up I can work on getting things up and off my worksurfaces and stored adequately away. I need to go cabinet by cabinet through my existing storage and weed out bad/good, but in the meantime I can at least get work areas. This is getting feverishly close to pool opening season, mowing, season, and “where did our time go to” season on normal household stuff. My wife and I are active in our local church, host a couples care (small) group on marriage, and have many other things we help with. My biggest hope for getting things cleaned and organized is maximizing the time we have to work instead of my hunting down of what I left and where. :-)

I’ll post new pics as things come together. At least this blog post will hopefully not invoke such passion as it’s wood based. Hmm—wasn’t Jesus a carpenter? :-)

Almost There!

2009-04-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

This weekend we almost got the new cabinets entirely done. We had quite a few learning experiences along the way, which I’m extremely thankful for since these are just garage cabinets. I’m not exactly making pieces of fine furniture here out of Cherry or Oak . . . but I’m definitely learning a lot along the way.

Here’s the first picture—the back on the cabinets. My daughter and I jumped in the truck and hit the local big box store for some Lauan plywood. (Ugh—am I destroying rain forests???)

One thing that I learned was to double check measurements—I laid the first sheet of the white dry erase marker board material out for the door and cut it – but realized that the 2nd piece was now too small . . . Grr. We decided to cut all the boards down to the smaller size. Had I measured, I would have split the panels in half and then had less gap in the middle . . . but oh well. I ran into a little snafu when attaching the material also.

I tried to glue the door and marker board together, but the panels were warped and the door surfaces weren’t 100% flat. Rather than attempt to glue the whole shebang together, I opted to get some screws and fasten them that way. We first thought of using the decorative kind with a cap, but when we looked, they didn’t have quite enough and at .78 cents per 3 pack, it was going to be a bit expensive. Instead I oped for #6 screws and some decorative washers, which I think turned out pretty nice in the end.

The last thing to worry about was the door hinges . . . and that’s another learning experience. I got the template out and drilled my first holes, but I didn’t pay attention to the directions. I had to go back and remove screws because I didn’t have them quite positioned where they need to be. I still need to fiddle with the doors on alignment, but I think I’ll do that when they are up on the wall and “settled”.

I had a little brain fart (if you will) on the use of the Shopsmith. I was preparing to rip a 2×4 at a 30 degree angle for the french cleat on the wall. I wrestled the blade/table combo for quite a while trying to figure out why I couldn’t get things to work exactly right on that. I finally realized that I needed to run the quill out from the body to get the table to tilt properly. (DUH!) That just goes as another little learning experience. My dad helped me align the table and fence for it when they were over last time. I got to peek at his thread drawers he’s building when I was over the other night.

It’s fun to see how we’re both learning new things in wood working—regardless of how long we’ve been doing it. I noticed a long forgotten scrap of wood in his shop—it had a couple of curves cut in it and I recognized those curves and held them up and we both remarked “that looks like a bed part”. Yep, it was a scrap piece of wood that my dad had started, or practiced doing the bed that he made me when I was a kid. I still have that headboard, it’s in one of my son’s rooms at our house. Someday I’d like to make my daughter a headboard like that too for her bunk bed.

My last “experience” of the weekend just came as I was leaving to take my daughter back home. My wife and I had a very full weekend together with her. We spent time with my parents, and the next night my sister and her fiance. My daughter got to spend time with her cousin (my sister’s daughter). I got to learn my dance routine for an upcoming father/daughter number at my daughter’s dance studio. (It’s going to be a lot of fun.) We also went to see her artwork at the district wide art fair and enjoyed a movie together on Sunday afternoon.

As we were heading out the door, I had a huge wave of angst over all the projects still waiting to be done . . . there is just so much work to be done on the house and everything else. It’s soon going to be lawn mowing and pool season . . . along with house repairs. There never seems to be enough time for everything and I was feeling kind of lost. When we were heading down the road I glanced back and saw my daughter reading her children’s Bible. At that moment I remembered what the most important things are . . . and it’s not all about what projects need done. God has me at work on some much bigger projects, and he’s teaching me all the time. Just like me fiddling with the Shopsmith, or aligning the hinges . . . he’s working on knocking off my rough edges and make me more efficient. I can’t expect to be perfect in everything I do with wood, or what I do spiritually, but the more I learn the more I can grow.

Whew, finally -- More Sawdust!

2009-04-15T09:23:00.001-05:00

Well, Peggy and I finally were able to get a weekend time slot free with good weather to get outside and cut-up the plywood for the garage cabinets. I must admit, that I must have completely been out of my mind when I measured the side pieces. Peggy was looking at them and said they looked a bit tall . . . so I held them up above my workbench and was flabbergasted at the discrepancy. All my plans in Sketchup seemed to just have went out the window. Then when we were talking we realized that they certainly weren’t 2 foot tall—it was more like 3 foot tall! A little measurement taking and we realized that I had marked incorrectly the side pieces. DOH!

So, I cut all the side pieces off to the correct length and got the shelves cut out—all from one sheet of 4×8 crapwood . . . uh . . . I mean plywood. You can see the blazoned imprint right here . . . man, can we do NOTHING in this country anymore?

When we got done we were looking at the framing for the front of the cabinet face and decided maybe to just attach doors to the cabinet flush. Peggy had a great idea—to use dry erase marker board material for the door fronts to allow me to use them as a giant writing tablet.

I really appreciate Peggy so much. We spent all day working together on the shelves, and then about 8:30 PM, the day before the big Easter celebration we were having at our house . . . we discovered the garbage disposer had corroded through the side and was leaking profusely. We went and bought a new one when we got the dry erase material. We had it installed and ready to go by 11:30 PM . . . quite a feat . . . and leak free!

The next step will be finishing the doors and painting the cabinets. I’m so disgusted with the plywood quality . . . I really need to find a better source. I thought avoiding the big box stores (Lowes and Home Depot) would help, but the rinky dink lumber company (84 Lumber) had crap wood also. Grrr.

Somewhere . . . someday . . . somehow . . .

2009-03-28T09:08:00.000-06:00

I guess spring fever must have hit, last weekend I spent some time changing the plugs in my truck . . . luckily a four banger with plenty of access. While I was out there I saw two eyesores beside my shed . . . testimonies to past “What was I thinking?” projects.

One was a boat step and the other was a boat . . .uh . . . air conditioner setup. The step worked, but since the boat moved and there was a plank to the dock, some people didn’t quite appreciate the movement of the two in concert. The air conditioner setup was a feeble attempt at building a “self contained room cooler” for use on the aforementioned boat. After experiencing numerous problems in cooling properly, I ditched that setup and went with my own “hatch air” setup and had a nice cool boat. (Lesson learned—someone engineers stuff for a living and you should go with your gut and follow them . . . not what someone else thinks could work.)

But I digress . . . (and sound bitter, which I’m well past) . . . and these two lumps of wood were still harboring memories and taking up space. I got busy with my drill and dismantled them both, but the frame for the boat step ended up being a perfect height to go above the motor on the “Super Sucker Dust Collector”. I grabbed some bungee cords and began a fastening fest to attach the wood frame to the platform for the dust collector. I put the garbage can with the cyclone separator on top of that and viola—a self contained solution. (Pics coming soon!)

Another snow storm is barreling down on the midwest . . . the last time one was forecasted I ran out and got the wood for my cabinet project. The wood is still in the garage . . . we’ve been busy every weekend since. I’m hoping that it does snow and we can curl up and make some sawdust. :-) I’ll let you know how it goes!

Lid Is On

2009-03-13T09:15:00.001-06:00

Last night I rushed home to get the lid on the trash can holder. I was pretty anxious to move the box one step closer to done status. It’s still not done . . .need to add some trim and other things to make it look “purty” but I think it’s getting there. A master craftsman I’m not . . . but my mistakes are a learning experience. :-)

Yep . . that’s the trash can (with trash even) in it’s soon to be new home. I haven’t sanded the lid areas that I cut out, so everything is a bit rough . . . and you can see where my jointer blades had the nick. DOH! I gotta make a tool to change those, and then sharpen the offending ones. Hmm.

The door jam holder thingy was a throwback from my daughter’s early days . . . not wanting to have a door shut on tiny fingers. My wife grabbed it and fit it to at least keep the door from banging down and to make it easier to open. I’m going to put trim around the plywood edges there . . . or something. I don’t know what yet. It’s a work in progress . . . remember? I had a Bible reading this morning that reminded me of that very thing—last night I was pretty critical of my work. For some reason I expect “perfection” in my items, when I know I haven’t been doing this too long . . . so my skiils aren’t where they need to be yet. It goes back to the same thought on my spiritual life . . . I’m not perfect nor will I ever be, but I have to keep practicing and learning each and every day. Sometimes I just need that reminder . . . the trash can holder might be a good way to reinforce that for a while. That’s metaphorically so true in so many different ways. ;-)

Super Sucker Completed

2009-03-10T09:07:00.001-06:00

Whew! Last night I put the finishing touches on the new filter project for the dust collector.

The biggest challenge was the bag and getting that all together. I emptied the old bag and contents into a huge 55 gallon contractor style (2mil thickness) garbage bag. When I went to put the system back together I just grabbed that bag and put it back together. There was a metal band around the old top filter, so I used that on the plastic bag and tightened it up. I anxiously flipped the switch and poof—I had saw dust all over the place. Hmm.

Upon closer examination, the band clamp that I was using had a gap and right there it was letting the bag let things escape. I grabbed some cardboard to bridge the gap and re-tightened the clamp. I still wasn’t impressed by the holding power. It seemed like the bag and metal band against the collector wasn’t exactly making a super tight seal. I decided to use the cloth bag with the plastic trash sack in the interim . . .but that lead to discovery #1.

I took the plastic bag down and realized that my pristine air filter was now jammed up with wood dust/shavings. In my haste (and penny shavings) I had simply grabbed the garbage bag I already had out (full of dust) and viola . . . tons of the stuff all inside my new filter. Normally that shouldn’t happen quite like that since the separator should get a larger portion of that. I was quite disgusted. I banged the filter with the bag off and a large “foomp” of sawdust hit the floor. I cleaned up the mess and then went to put a new garbage bag on.

I must have been making some very grumpy sounds (ok—I KNOW I was) because my wife peeked in. I don’t know how exactly I would describe the way i was trying to get the bag combo on but it wouldn’t involve nice language. The plastic garbage bag was staying up (they are WAY too big . . . I need about a 32 gallon size) but the cloth bag was being very cantankerous to say the least. I’d get one side up, reach for the other and try to slither it up and then “shoomp” the other side would come off. I tried holding one side with my legs/knees while bringing the other side up with my arms . . .hugging it. Again . . not a pretty sight. I hope the neighbor’s didn’t peek in the window during that moment, because they might think that I was taking this new woodworking hobby a wee bit too far.

Peggy came in and offered assistance and we had the bag on in 30 seconds. An extra pair of hands was very handy to have! She and I agreed that it’s always better to just ask for a little help before you get in over your head. I flipped the switch again and this time I had a much better seal with cloth bag there also.

So now the only thing left is to move the dust collector back over to where it will ultimately live. I bought a garbage can to dedicate to the chip separator but it ended up being slightly too large. The lid ended up being the exact size of the lip of the can. I guess I’m off to the local hardware store to get a metal can to fix that problem once and for all. I’m going to build a platform right above the blower motor to reduce the footprint of the setup. Ideally I’d like to run an 90 degree fitting and pass it through the middle of a garbage can with 6” pipe for dust collection duties . . but that’s a project on the back burner. I’m planning on duct work down the center of the garage, but decided tha it will have to be beside the existing air return duct work.

Next up—the garage overhead cabinets!

Super Sucker Cleanup

2009-03-08T08:53:00.000-06:00

Ok—I’m not going to argue the virtues of the dust collection in modern psychosis treatment . . . but my therapy session is all about cutting up wood. Hmm . . . I’m on the Lumberjocks site so I guess I’m in the right place. :-)

My first order of business was making sure I was properly protected. I was cutting the wood outside to boot on a nice windy day . . . that helped. Gotta love 70 degree days!

(I’m smiling under that dust mask!)

The first order of business was to make a decent way to cut a hole in my 3/4” MDF. I used a 1/4” bit and a nail in this little jig:

After a few passes at a time I had this circle cut out:

That will fit in my Grizzly dust collector just like so:

But the only problem with the new setup was—it stood at 78”. The garage door track and I-beam in the house are at 76”. This was going to be a small problem This is the photo AFTER I modified the height:

To change the height I chopped 3” out of the pipes that hold the dust seperator section:

And this is where I took it out of. I put the bracket down in the chop saw and then after cutting the pipe I welded it all back together and sprayed some paint back on it.

And while I was in a painting mood I also found some green paint that I sprayed on. I used a grey primer base and on the other side I primered it white . . . just because I had ran out of one color. The green ended up being pretty close when sprayed over the other color:

So here’s what the whole thing looks like now, with new clearance for the filter. The trash can was just sitting there when I removed the support pipes.

I still need to actually attach the ring to the dust collector. I driled holes around the perimeter of the top ring. I’ll screw the ring I made into place and caulk the gap. I can’t wait to try it out. My bolts holding it down are too short and not the right ones. I actually have some nice plastic wing nuts to attach the dust collector. My filter is also just temporary—as Wynn Environmental is sending another one. Mine actually was quite beat up in transit . . I suspect it was on the FedEx truck that crashed not far from my home town. :-)

So far so good . . . but I have an over abundance of stuff that needs to be put back up again! Hehehe . . .another day’s project.

Air Filter Arrived!

2009-03-07T08:51:00.001-06:00

That’s a peek down the inside of the new Wynn Environmental filter - the 9E300BL one. I’m anxious to get some cutting done and get this puppy mounted on my Grizzly dust collector. Once I get it mounted and that, I’m going to move it over to a more permanent location and run one trunk of at least 6 inch pipe to the unit. The only problem with that is the PVC to “air pipe” sizing. It’s just frustrating to measure stuff and see the differences. I can get adapters for the 4 inch stuff very easily through my local Woodcraft store, but the 6 inch stuff might be a bit more difficult.

And . . . there’s always duct tape. :-)

I know there’s a moral in that story . . . . heheh!

Bought Wood - Where Can I Buy Time?

2009-03-06T09:22:00.000-06:00

(Found at http://www.laughingcoyotewoodworks.com/snoozebutton.html)

So last weekend we were forecasted to get a big snowstorm here in KC, and this time the forecasters really did know what they were talking about. I anticipated this and went out for a couple of sheets of 3/4 Baltic Birch plywood and two 8 foot 1×8’s. I figured that would give me the materials to keep working through the weekend, because I wouldn’t want my 2wd Dakota out and about in the snow. I got the wood, and aside from trying to stick my thumb in some falling sheets of plywood, all went according to plan.

The weekend didn’t quite go as planned. Peggy and I helped out with some members from our church with a young mother that needed moving at the last minute. The factor that my projects lack most right now is simply time to get things done. We’re constantly on the go or having things that are a part of our daily routines. Kids on one night (visitation) . . . church caregroup on another . . . Iron Man’s group (men’s caregroup) on another . . . helping with Peggy’s mother with shopping . . . going to my parents . . . kids every other weekend. Whew! It’s a wonder we know heads from tails some days.

So this is just a “catch my breath” type post. I think this weekend we’ll work on cutting up the wood for the cabinets and putting them together. Hopefully we can make a little progress on that . . . because my “cheap” plywood is working very quickly on becoming a bowl on it’s own. I slapped a couple of clamps on the sheets the other day to arrest their movement . . . but I fear it’s not long before they’ll be WAY outta shape. Yikes. I looked and they said “MADE IN CHINA” . . . go figure. Ooof. Read this article on cheap plywood . . . kinda gives me a shudder just thinking of it.

What To Use?

2009-02-28T09:21:00.000-06:00

Well, the weather forecast here is calling for snow this weekend. I’m anxious to have the garbage can holder done, but I want to keep right on going with projects. I’m contemplating loading up the truck tonight with some materials for the overhead cabinets—but I’m kind of wondering what I should build them out of. I’m leaning towards cheap and paintable—and light? I’m looking for some suggestions now so I can call around and get pricing information. A cheap particle wood cabinet just 24 inches in size was $75 at the local big box store . . . so I’d like to target all my wood for three cabinets worth in that range or a little more. (Each cabinet being 3 foot in size. According to my cut list I’m looking at 3 sheets of whatever I choose:

I know looking at it . . . I can probably squeeze it out of 2 sheets depending on how everything is cut. I’m going to use a french cleat system, so holding it up isn’t an issue . . . that’s why I’m doing three foot ones. Hmm. Any suggestions on materials?

Computer Desk - April 2007

2009-02-27T09:32:00.000-06:00

I did this one in 2007 for my daughter’s fifth birthday. She picked out the color . . . couldn’t you tell? (And it was a Disney color, so that carried a premium . . LOL!) I designed it to make the best use of her small room and incorporated a feature I always wanted to do—a sunken monitor. The entire unit was made out of MDF and primed/painted. My only design flaws, was after getting the desk done, I swapped to a more powerful computer and it didn’t have the CD tray in the exact same place . . . so the hole didn’t work out right. Then the new place they moved to was arranged differently so the opening is now facing the wrong wall. And . . . (as if this wasn’t already funny enough) the monitor died on it . . . but it should allow for any 17” sized monitor . . I hope! The only thing that might be awkward is the shelf/monitor clearance. Of course new lower-cost LCD panels also have obsoleted this design—as I was trying to get it compact. (And now she has a laptop . . . go figure!)

Planning Makes Perfect

2009-02-27T09:18:00.001-06:00

Ok—as I learned on the garbage can holder, I think I need a bit more planning on my next project. I’ve in the past at least drawn out some sketches and worked from that . . . which is what I did to a certain degree on the trash holder but I didn’t flesh out all the details until I was in (over my head) on the project. Norm Abram I’m not.

So on to the next thing which will be some overhead cabinets for in the garage. I’ve always wanted something above the workbench area, so I thought this would be a natural progression. I’m envisioning using making two or three of them and to get them on the wall I’ll use a french cleat. Man—I’m suddenly learning new terms in this wood working thing. Hehehe!

I’ve been tinkering more and more with Sketchup and I think I know enough to at least be dangerous. My dad has tried his hand at it and hasn’t quite got there yet . . . so I think I might need to impart some knowledge there too. (The blind leading the blind? LOL) Here’s what I have so far on my cabinet layout:

I tried running the thing through Cutlist 4.0 to see what I would need, but I have something off. It showed two bottoms out of a 4×8 sheet . . . and then kind of didn’t do the rest right. Hmm. I’ll have to play around with how I have my components/etc… configured to see where the disconnect is. I’m assuming that Cutlist will give me a good idea of what the waste should look like on a 4×8 sheet of MDF and how many sheets I’ll need. My daughter’s birthday is coming up soon and two years ago I built her a computer desk. This year I’m kicking around a headboard for her bunk bed. We’ll see how the garage cabinets go and see if I can slide in that project before her April 12th birthday.

Learning Experiences

2009-02-25T09:13:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time . . . in a far away land . . . no wait . . it wasn’t really that far. It was our basement actually. There was a place FILLED with books. (How does this relate to a garbage can holder? Read on.) The culmination of Peggy and I’s households made for a rather large collection of books. We’re both avid readers, as is our family, so we have volumes of books. We needed more shelving and the existing shelving that we had was not quite designed to be up to the task of holding books per se. They were particle board (using that term loosely) ones and already they were bowing under just the strain of the meager things we had in them. We decided that we’d build bookshelves for the basement.

My “new to me” Shopsmith was a bit intimidating so my wife and I began to think of projects that would allow us to learn the ins and outs of it’s operation and be useful also. I had envisioned a roll-out pantry for in our kitchen, but the sticking point was the trash can that currently resided there. We looked around and couldn’t quite come up with a good place for the trash can so the idea was hatched to make a holder as an extension of our kitchen peninsula. After purchasing some lumber and cutting things up, this is what we had:

From My Old Garage

About that same time we decided that perhaps the Christmas gifts project would be another good learning experience and the can holder went into limbo. Last night we started back in earnest on the garbage can holder to get it done, operational, and out of the garage. (See cleaning . . . . whew!)

Now my dad had brought me over the Kreg videos on Cabinetmaking and Trim Carpentry. Peggy and I watched the Trim Carpentry one and were thoroughly impressed. I thought “Hey, that’s pretty easy” and she reminded me that the individual had years of experience and a “cut/paste/rewind” for mistakes. I kind of scoffed and grabbed my Kreg tool and went to work. Oooooof.

My first experience with the tool was not the best . . . I had mitered a door for the front of the can holder and attempted to screw it together with the Kreg tool. The first part that was bad was I had used my son’s sliding compound saw . . . and realized AFTER the cuts how far out it was. It wasn’t cutting anything close to a 45 degree angle, or straight for that matter. I grabbed my square and got it back in shape . . . but the Kreg tool is not the ideal thing for end grain. After getting the door and panel put together I saw back and admired my work . . . no, let me re-phrase that . . . I was disheartened by my work. It wasn’t at all like I was hoping for. I tore the door frame apart and left the pieces for cull pile . . . destined to be sacrificial boards for in the future. (Which I learned about while working on that coaster project . . saves the tear out!)

I bravely decided that this time around (after watching the video) that I would be the “MASTER” of the Kreg tool. I don’t have the handy handheld clamp, so instead I use a threaded clamp. That’s kind of awkward. I carefully cut my board and drilled my holes. I screwed it together and realized the screws went right out the end of the other peice. DOH! I rummaged around in the Kreg starter kit box and found some shorter screws, but they were also slightly smaller and not happy in the holes. In disgust I tossed the tool aside, and screwed some drywall screws in the end. I had originally glued and nailed a board in place, but when I cut the board I measured the opening . . . not the actual size it was SUPPOSED to be. The boards were flared out and I had glued them in place just so . . . so last night I was fixing that mess with this Kreg tool adventure.

By now I was getting a little miffed at the tool. I decided to cut some trim boards for the sides of my cabinet. I didn’t have any side boards, so I took a 1×6 and ripped it to give me 2 1×3’s. I decided to put the rough edge through the jointer and clean all the sides up. It was kind of awkward on that also since my jointer blades have a small nick. I kept getting a little ridge on the boards. I got everything sorta close and decided to put the one board in place for across the bottom. Now it was too thick, so off to the jointer for it. At some point this board must have been on the floor and it picked up a little metal shaving—well guess what found it? Now I have TWO nicks in my blades. (Thankfully I have a brand new package of blades, but I figured I’d leave them off until I had all my “learning” experiences out of the way.) I dug the shaving out with my pocket knife and now was rewarded with a wonderful “quarter round” ridge on my planed boards. I move the fence back and forth and tried to work around the problem the best I could.

Finally I decided . . . the rest can be touched up with the sander . . . let’s screw some boards together. I grabbed my venerable Kreg tool again and made some holes. I screwed first board together and promptly split out the side of my freshly jointed boards. ARGH! I was determined to figure out the tool, so I adjusted it a bit further back and drilled more holes . . . . again far too shallow. I adjusted it forward and drilled again and finally had success. The board looks like swiss cheese, but I was at least able to make a good tight joint. I flipped the board around and did the same on the other side, but instead of 6 holes I was able to reduce it to 4 holes on that side. (The initial two wrong ones plus the new right ones.) I put my triumpant frame peice (minus the last part to close the gap) aside.

From My Old Garage

At this point I was feeling a little on the frazzled and disappointed side. I kind of looked like a wood worker, but alas my skills were certainly lacking. Clothes in this case don’t necessarily make the man. :-)

From My Old Garage

I decided to screw the wheels onto the cabinet to at least see how well that would work. I got them on and took the cabinet upstairs to see how everything was going to work out.

From My Old Garage

Now again—this is “TRUE CONFESSIONS” time. I could BS you and say that it was all planned and everything works out, but as you know from reading my “master carpentry” skills above, nothing is quite that easy. I rolled the cabinet up to the place and wasn’t exactly happy with it’s feeling. The wood on the one side makes it slightly tipsy—a bit heavier there. I had recessed the wheels too making sure to avoid the sides and keep the casters turing/rolling properly. I was looking at it and thinking “ugh . . it doesn’t have the door on, it doesn’t have the lid . . . it’s not going to work right. I was thinking it was sticking too far out with a lid on top, and Peggy agreed it would look a bit out there. I was sitting there thinking about it when a voice in my head whispered “turn it around.”

From My Old Garage

Ok—so suddenly my “great garbage can caper” was suddenly looking like a very slick project. By turning it 180 degrees suddenly the CABINET becomes the door. I can simply roll it out slightly to change the bag. The wheels were originally to be able to move the cabinet to wherever you needed it, but now they act in a dual purpose. The space down below is for storing garbage can bags. I will make a frame for the top and lid, and it will be done. I have some trim pieces for the side to hide the plywood edges. Peggy thought that was a very great idea . . . no doors, no hardware hanging out to snag you. It was like the perfect solution.

So I’ve learned quite a bit along the way here. The first thing is that my projects from the past were generally a lot better when I carefully drew them out and planned everything from the get go. I didn’t do that on this project . . . I figured how hard would it be to build a box around a trash can. Originally I had a double hinged door setup that was going to allow the top to fold back and then the side to fold out (on chains) to let the trash can be changed. That changed to a door setup, with the top door for the trash can and the bottom a drawer for the bags. Then it was going to be a double door when I realized they don’t make drawer slides that short. Then it went to a single door. It’s been quilte a process . . . now we’re at no door (backed up the cabinet) and just the lid on top. Whew! Next time I’ll begin with the end in mind so to speak. (I know . . Steven Covey stuff!)

I’ve also learned that sometimes the pro’s make things look so easy. I’ve watched a lot of videos and perused a lot of books and websites and it all looks very straight forward. It was like that with the thought of collecting the dust. The hoses are very stiff and the plastic adapters on the Shopsmith are very strained with the octopus setup on there. You can see the hoses from purgatory setup here on the jointer.

From My Old Garage

I’m learning—it’s a slow process but my wife is a very great cheerleader for me. She was just having the discussion with one of my sons the other day on learning things and things taking time. I didn’t exactly heed that advice but I’m not completely unteachable. I’ll take my mangled wood and continue soldiering on while learning the skills I need to make better projects in the future.

From My Old Garage

Coughing -- Gagging?

2009-02-25T08:50:00.000-06:00

At first I thought it was just my imagination. I took some deep breaths this morning and felt very constricted and tight in my chest. I was just coming down the hall when I heard my wife Peggy also blowing her nose and sounding congested. We talked and neither one of us was experiencing any symptoms like that until last night’s cutting on the garbage can holder.

We decided that the bag filter system was definitely next on the “must-do” items to help our health. Today I called Wynn Environmental and placed an order for a 9E300BL that I will be retrofitting on to my Grizzly 1 1/2 horse dust collector. I plan on taking a lot of photos of the conversion and any pitfalls I run into. I’m also thinking about that machine placement also. I might have to give-up my current chop-saw location (hot sparks) but I think moving and having one collector pipe might not be a bad thing.

Super Sucker Success! (Try saying that three times!)

2009-02-24T08:46:00.001-06:00

So over the weekend I stopped by the individual who sold me the dust collector. For another $20 I got 30 foot of 4” hose and some connectors. I then went from there to the Woodcraft store and purchased a cyclone separator lid and some other fittings to adapt to the 2 1/2 ports on the Shopsmith and called it a day. I know when it’s more time/money efficient to just purchase something rather than jumping through the hoops. $25 got me into protecting the impeller blades on the dust collector and some rudimentary cyclonic action. Down the road I can add a baffle to help keep dust down.

After finishing putting the Shopsmith 510 back together, and adjusting the table I was ready to roll. My son was staying this weekend to work on the gunrack project that I gave him for Christmas. We purchased the wood and I drew up the plans with the intention of us building the rack together. He was having a bit of a problem understanding the dust collector’s purpose or the time that I was taking getting everything squared up properly. After showing him the “square” edges on the store purchased wood, I think he might have understood a bit better. The clean area under the Shopsmith (and thus no saw dust being tracked in) was a hit with Peggy as well as myself. :-)

Tonight the cleaning of the garage will continue—we’ll work on getting the garbage can holder project done.

This will free up the room that it’s taking up in front of the MGB. After wrestling the hoses for the dust collector I can see the virtues of a solid setup. I think the solution will be to put the dust collector back over in the corner where the old derelict table saw was residing. Hmm . . . but that’s where the chopsaw (read SPARKS) hangs out. Oh I just toss my hands up in the air sometimes trying to figure out things. If the car was on roller skates I could gain a bit more room, but the bikes and lawn mowers are in the way. I’m still harboring some used tires too. Grr.

Well . . . we’ll get this all figured out. My dad and I had some time to look at the dust collector and figure out a way to hook a dial indicator to the tendon jig for the Shopsmith. Once the gunrack is done as well as the trash can, the back wall is getting storage cabinets.

Dust Collection Upgrades

2009-02-20T08:44:00.000-06:00

So now I have this huge dust collector – for what we’re envisioning it should be great for our setup. The key thing is our tools are multipurpose.

One thing that Peggy was very intrigued with was the Ringmaster that came with Shopsmith #2 – the 510 model.

(Read the stand-alone review here on LJ— Ringmaster)

I’ve been reading a lot on Bill Pentz's dust collection site and it was a good wakeup call. Peggy and I both got sick just about the time of the beginning of December and battled constantly until just recently with sinus issues. I think we both originally attributed it to the weather and close proximity of my wife to sniffling kids. (She’s a reading teacher.) In retrospect I was thinking and the Christmas present work was a bit later, but then I thought back and realize we had started the trash can project back before that. Hmm.

The poor MGB bears witness to the dust issue when working with wood.

(Ok—ignore the fact that it’s also a “catch-all” for things right now in it’s non-operational state . . . one project at a time!)

So proper dust collection is definitely very high on my priority list. A stand-alone cyclone emptying outside the house is the best case scenario from what I’ve read on Bill’s site, but not all practical for how we will be working. Both Shopsmiths are mobile and as multi-purpose tools, they wouldn’t need the complexity of a huge dust collection piping system. Instead I think I’m going to go with a combo system that will be a good compromise.

The first part of that will be a chip/dust extractor from Thien Cyclone Separator Lid plans. My idea is to use a similar idea but simply scale it up a bit more. I’m going to put 6” piping from the inducer side of the compressor to the top of two garbage cans stacked together. The top can will have the floor duct to make an air transition and a baffle. The bottom can will serve as the primary collector and will be removeable. I’m envisioning the entire thing being attached to the existing Grizzly dust collection cart. It will probably be just a bit bigger in both dimensions.

The second part of my plan involves using a pleated air filter for the Grizzly dust collector.

One thing that I’m thinking on is efficiency of collection and I’d like to experiment with applying some “hot rod” type things to the dust collection setup. I know that the use of a velocity stack helps transition the air greatly and I think it might be very helpful here because I’ll need all the CFM I can keep for removing the bad dust. The faster the dust enters into the cyclone, the greater the probability is that it will spin out of suspension and fall into the collector. If it’s slowing down and getting turbulence it’ll probably wind up in the air filter and risk clogging it.

Another option I was kicking around was building my own cyclone like this one. The problem is that it’s designed for solid mounting, and again, I’d like some freedom in where the DC goes. I suppose making something like that mobile wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but my biggest liability is TIME. I don’t know that I’d have enough time to rebuild what we already have to build this. From some of the results I've been seeing, I think the separator approach is definitely worth looking at.

So . . . this weekend . . . more projects to come! :-)

Dust Collection Decision

2009-02-19T08:42:00.000-06:00

Ok—after getting numerous comments yesterday (THANKS LJ! – You guys/gals are fantastic BTW!) I decided that a dedicated super sucker – AKA – dust collector was going to be what we needed. Over the weekend I had missed out on a Jet DC1100, and another one . . . I forget what brand it was. We figured we would end up with some deal on Craigslist and sure enough, there popped one up buried in a “wood tools for sale” ad.

The price was definitely right—about 1/2 of what a new one would be and no taxes/etc.. to deal with so now we’re the proud owner of a Grizzly dust collector.

From the label it was manufactured in October of 2001 and it’s 1 1/2 horsepower.

Getting it home was a chore, as the bags kept blowing around and causing the straps to loosen up. I had the “brilliant” plan of putting the top bag holder loop through my strap and run that strap diagonally across the truck. The problem was the bag kept whipping around and the strap cinch down mechanism was being beat against the truck bed. (Thankfully I drive a ‘real’ truck with little paint, scratches, and all the abuse of the years . . . so a little less paint wasn’t a consequence . . . LOL.) I had to stop twice on the way home to redo the straps to make sure it was still going to be riding with me. The “brilliance” part was that the loop chafed enough to cut it in two. We looked at it and decided it wasn’t a big deal if we’re going to replace the bag anyway. I applied some fabric glue last night and it appears to be holding today. :-)

The handle for the Shopsmith Jointer finally came yesterday also. I popped it on there and viola—all ready to roll. I have a new set of blades and I’d like to put on it and take the old blades and sharpen them. There is a very slight nick in them that most of the time would cause little issue. I still need to get that rust cleared off and then give the bed/fence a good wax job.

The cleanup/oiling process still in limbo here. I have a lot of the egg and ice trays from fridges . . . they’re great for corralling those little screws and things from projects. The machine oiler was great for getting the pulley sheaves just what they needed. A little wax made a huge difference on the tubes and quill.

After dealing with the dust in the Shopsmith, I can’t wait to see how this dust collector will work. The 510 that I bought had a hard life already, but with a little TLC I think it’ll be as good as new.

The next thing with the dust collector will be getting a better bag for tighter filtration and adding a cyclone of some type. Since my main focus will be just on the two Shopsmiths, I’m not anticipating putting any piping to the rest of the shop. I’d rather keep my run just limited to the 10 foot section that I have and bring the DC to the work area. I’m envisioning a platform that is integrated with the current DC body/blower setup and does the chip/dust collection. Hmmm. Lots of possibilities there! I wish they made that Oneida Dust Deputy in a 6 inch or 4 inch size . . at that price! :-)

Dust Collection Thoughts

2009-02-18T08:39:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was a lot of fun. Peggy and I went to two woodworking shows and a wood working store. It’s a new affliction we have—with the new shop toys we are looking at what we “can’t live without”. Thankfully nothing else followed us home, but we did get pretty excited about dust collectors. When we were doing the Christmas gifts the sawdust being generated was being dragged into the house each time we’d come in from the garage. Peggy looked pretty amazed when I told her of the virtues of a dust collector.

At the show we looked at a lot of things, but the ShopFox dust collector (the only one setup and running) was the one that I think made the most impression . . . it really (in a good way) sucks! It was a bit alarming to put your fingers in front of it and suddenly “whoosh” it would suck them in the hose. They had a really sweet deal on that particular model at the show, but we decided we’d stop and look around some more.

Once I got home I began reading and researching further. I’m more confused than ever, but I think we are going to remain status quo for a bit while working to pay off other debts. Instead we’ll keep watching for a smokin’ great deal on something like that at a sale of some type. We’ve had good favor being patient and waiting on the right deal to appear, and I suspect this will be the same way. In the mean time I contemplated building a air scrubber to instead do the heavy lifting for a dust collector. From what I read, most of the time unless you change to a better bag, you are just spewing all the ultra-fine dust right back in the air with a dust collection setup. If you vent the dust outside, your emptying the AC or heat too. Since we’re working on the premise of everything being portable, a huge dust collector setup with ducting isn’t going to be a great idea.

This might be an idea, but I envision this constructed to go under the Shopsmith with a small 5 gallon bucket for dust collection duties. In the meantime I’ll work on ways of using my current (minuscule) ShopVac to keep up with the sawdust.

Last night I continued to work on the cleanup of ShopSmith #2—the 510 model. I went to put it on the high speed side and the speed changer was difficult to turn and the speed seemed to lag quite a bit. I opened it up and put my new machine oiler to work. I found two different ones, one with a long snout in the 3-in-1 oil variety, and another in a special machine “turbine” oil. I went with the turbine oil version—that promises to be non-gumming, a definite plus in my opinion. I showed Peggy how the pulley/speed changer system works. (She was a lot happier when the belt covers were back on—at high speed she was a little alarmed.)

I got some Naval Jelly for the jointer top cleaning. I’ve waxed the tubes and I took the quill out and gave it a thorough cleaning. The unit is a lot happier now, but I still think there’s some improvement to be made in the speed changer dial—it probably needs cleaned out also. It’s very relaxing to me to work with my hands like that—because my day job is computer programming. There’s just something satisfying about the mechanical side of things . . . which is probably because of the long line of mechanics in my family. Soon we’ll have more projects out of the way—we’re very excited on that prospect. When we get a nice warm weekend I think we’ll destroy the front porch and rebuild it. Ah projects!

Sales Bonanza

2009-02-14T08:37:00.000-06:00

Ah—the bliss of more room! I shuffled off one old Craftsman table saw, and the individual who was picking it up made me an offer on the small Montgomery Wards one too—so I got rid of them both!

(The picture is deceptive—that saw on the right is sitting on the main table for a Shopsmith 500—the blade was about 6 inches in size.)

So now the space that stuff was taking up can be reallocated to some more shelving. Next up will be getting rid of the huge honkin’ console stereo and in it’s place I’ll build some shelving for air tools and perhaps a surround for the air compressor to quiet it a bit.

This is the next project on the must complete list. I started on this and need to get it completed and in place in the kitchen. It’s a trash can holder and in the bottom we’ll have room for bags/etc. It will be on wheels so you can simply position it where you need it.

Progress - Sweet, Sweet, PROGRESS!

2009-02-10T08:33:00.003-06:00

The pictures don’t tell the whole tale, but they give you a glimpse. I wish we had a time lapse version of what’s happening in the garage, but I’m not taking the time to setup a web cam there. You can see the progress for yourself:

And as you can see . . . it’s actually pretty close to my model. For right now we’re going back into a defensive mode and getting projects that were started (aka – the trash can holder) done and off our plate. Then we can move forward. I’d like to have some cabinets across the top of the garage. The file cabinet storage actually ended up being more useful than I first thought. One drawer now holds the grinder, another a scroll saw, another a mini-lathe and the last the Shopsmith Ringmaster.

I have an absurd number of drill bits and other doo-dads. I’d like to have something to organize those. Peggy (my wife) will be going through the huge boxes of nuts/bolts/etc… and sorting them all into plastic bins. The plastic bins I’m thinking will go onto some type of storage device with layers so I can get a lot of stuff in there. They are the Harbor Freight grey ones that hang on a plastic piece. I think that I could make a sliding panel to hold two layers of them and make them easily accessible. Hmm.

Almost There - The Mega Model

2009-02-07T08:31:00.000-06:00

I don’t know how many people have went to this extreme, but it’s about the only thing I have time to do right now . . . it takes very little time to add/refine to the Sketchup model. Here’s what the garage looks like in it’s current form . . it’s about 90% there. I don’t have some things in there yet, but it’s a pretty good picture:

Right now the biggest thing is the clutter . . . the “before” photos were a bit of a worst case scenario. The empty spot in the pic along the back wall is where the one worktable I had was, so the MGB clutch parts and old RC car stuff got booted in the floor. There’s just a ton of stuff that needs to be put away properly, but figuring out what’s good/bad/etc.. is the key. I’ve had some nibbles on my Craigslist items, but nothing else has sold. It’s probably time to drop the prices a bit more and give them another round of listing.

Speaking of which—I still follow along on Freecycle/Cheapcycle lists and snagged a pair of Carhartt Bib insulated overalls for working in the garage. That’ll help a lot on keeping my jeans and clothes from getting mangled in the garage. They look pretty toasty and fit really good. A little snug around the midrange, but that’s just my gut. :-) Working out a bit in the garage and elsewhere will help that. ;-)

This weekend hopefully we can get some more time to get stuff off the floor. There’s a truck seat that will be gone soon, so that’ll free up space, and some other things will be given the boot also. Maybe I’ll get that plywood out and build a shelf under the one workbench to gain some space and get that thing out of my sight. I’d love some overhead cabinets right there for storing things, but it’s the question of building or buying . . I know which is cheaper and what takes the most time. Sigh

Craigslist - Going Outbound

2009-02-05T08:25:00.000-06:00

Ok—two success stories last night. I got rid of one cheesy (cheap) toolbox that I bought years ago for the princely sum of $40 . . . some happy owner has a new $10 toolbox for his grandson. The most important part is I have more floor space! As you can see in the recently updated Sketchup drawing . . .I need it!

So the plan is to keep on selling/giving away/trashing what I don’t need. Thus far I’ve discovered that if you put it on Freecycle/Freebie type listings people will stiff you on showing up, but if you attach a price tag to it they’ll beat the door down. I sold some old aluminum wheels also last night for $25, so I’m making a little money here and there on items. I have my eye on some nice Carhartt Bib overalls which would be great for a work outfit in the garage (presently $15). I’m eyeing a piece of plywood that has been an eyesore in my garage for a LONG time:

My most recent idea was using some cheesy (but free) plastic “wanna-be” pegboard stuff on it to make it functional at least. I’m going to ditch the “pegboard” and instead cut it up and use it for a shelf under one (or more) of my workbenches so stuff isn’t on the floor. The stereo cabinet and old workbench/storage/water bed thing are next up on the chopping block for Craigslist fodder. The 2nd Shopsmith might just hang around as a turning station for my wife (Peggy) to experiment with. (Yea—I’m very blessed . . . I don’t use my garage as a “man-cave” to ditch my wife . . . she’s right beside me, as it should be.)

So even if it’s little things, I think I’m making progress. Last night I took a few minutes to put together my Shopsmith tendon jig that was new in the box from my Craigslist find. I’ve got a list of things I’m missing from various parts of my jointer and my mortising tool—so that’ll be an upcoming purchase. My floating table from eBay is on the way and could be here on Friday or Saturday. Good times! ;-)

The Goodies - Part 2

2009-02-04T08:21:00.000-06:00

Ok—so I have a TON of sawblades, 90% of them Shopsmith ones with some oddball Craftsman and other varieties in there. I grabbed a basket to put them in, many of them still NEW in the case. (No banging around at least!) I’ll have to come up with a better solution someday, but this will work for now.

I got some more miter gauges . . . the plastic storage unit ended up a good temporary solution to accomodate accessories for now. I’d like to build a mobile storage cabinet down the road to have everything right there.

Oh this is just the fun drawer. A stacked dado set, multiple arbors (not counting some already mounted), router bits, and all sorts of other goodies. Many things all new unopened. In the depths there are some extra jointer blades too.

Inside the faceplate box is a whole bevy of sand paper rolls, various sizes of drum sanders and that big one hiding beneath the fence straddler.

And the ultimate in toys . . . and now that I know more about them. . . the real “wow” factor:

Funny During Superbowl

2009-02-03T08:18:00.003-06:00

I got a chuckle out of this one . . . I’ve kind of done that first thing shown, only my flying object was a peice of PVC pipe chucked out the Shopsmith blade. Wheee!

-- Bradley Miller, Blue Springs, MO - http://myoldgarage.blogspot.com

DOH! Adding more clutter?

2009-02-02T08:16:00.000-06:00

Yea . . . something new followed me home the other day:

And it had this big box of stuff with it . . .

And inside the box . . .

It was like Christmas time . . . digging into the presents:

And as an added bonus . . . the jointer:

I’d say I did pretty good. My dad looked at some of the stuff and I have several hundred dollars worth of stuff just in blades/arbors. Some of the things were brand new (like a tendon jig) and many were unopened. The box of goodies was worth what I paid for the whole setup.

Creating A Plan

2009-01-30T08:11:00.001-06:00

So I have the dimensions of everything in the garage area, so rather than moving things multiple times in RL (real life) I’m going to create a model of the garage space and what I have in there now and see what would work and what wouldn’t work. One of my concerns is to segment the garage a bit better for metal working versus wood working. The welder/air compressor/etc.. should be in the far back left corner nearest to the fuse panel, because I have a dedicated plug right there where I can power them from. I’m currently thinking of using the items I have now to create a walled peninsula to designate the two different areas. That way sparks/etc.. from the welder and cut-off saw won’t have the potential to land on wood or mar anything on that side of things. I’m not for sure how it’ll work out, but that’s why it’s fun to have the Google Sketchup model here. I can put stuff where I want it, measure, and see what would work and what wouldn’t work. I’m not opposed to booting anything out of the garage, so it’s all fair game.

We were originally thinking of getting a Storage PODS and having it placed to take everything out of the garage and start from scratch, but the economic reality snuffed that idea out (over $200!). Instead we’ll take things out from one half, move them to our semi-finished basement and then do the re-arranging and put back. Not ideal, but far more economical.

From My Old Garage

Getting The Facts

2009-01-29T08:09:00.001-06:00

GOk, so I have to know where I’m starting out from and what I have so I did a little inventory last night. Below is the items I have in the garage. Wow . . . that’s a lot of stuff. I’m thinking some items might just need a re-do to gain functionality. I have one item that is on spindly 2×2 legs, but I might be able to add some addition boards/bracing and put it on wheels for a rolling work table. My next course of action will be to plug all this into Sketchup and re-arrange things to get a better workflow and separation of areas between woodworking and metal working. You can kind of see my idea in the sketch—I used the sketch to get the dimensions. I figured I could Google the MG dimensions. I have some car rollerskates so I can swing it around wherever I need to.

From My Old Garage

The Before Pic (Caution: Graphic images -- LOL!)

2009-01-28T08:05:00.000-06:00

Ok . . . this is just ugly I know. Part of the reason for that is it’s actually “in process” because I moved some stuff to get a work surface that I moved into the basement area. I have a 4 foot high table and a hutch type table area that I moved into the basement area for doing electronics and computer type work on. That freed up some area along the back wall, but left me with a lot of mess that was being stored on the table. Ugh.

You can see the variety in storage cabinets and their “era” from the paint colors. Oh that lovely avocado color . . . and then basic white and even a smattering of brown. The only thing missing is harvest gold. The purple one was only $10. They’re hanging lateral file drawers and I bought them to replace open faced shelving and keep dust off things.

The plastic storage units I got for free . . . and the irony is the one on the bottom is empty. In fact a lot of my storage facilities are empty . . . they’ve never been adequately designated and items moved into for storage.

Yep, below shows a waterbed framed tool bench . . . my only storage area for tools when I was first starting out. I stacked the drawers together, screwed 2×6’s to the sides, and then put a door on top. (Hollow-core unfortunately!) The drawers were way too deep and were not on very sturdy slides at all . . . but it served it’s purpose. Now I have at least a Waterloo top box for my tool storage.

That file cabinet is OLD . . . very old . . . it might be 60+ years old if I was to take a guess . . . it has served as my catch-all for some things. Again . . . love the avocado.

Doesn’t everyone have an old console radio? That’s one of those things (under the window there and on a stand made from more waterbed parts holding it above the air compressor) that I’m happy to give up. It has great sound, and it’s plenty loud, but it takes up a lot of room in the process. I can find a surround sound stereo system and run a lot of wire instead.

Sniffle . . . the MG buried in dust. The back wall has some shelving that might be better for wood storage than it’s current purposes. I’d like to get pool chemicals out of the garage and under the deck or in the shed outside. Likewise the bikes should head that direction too. The storage shed needs to lose some mowers (inoperable . . . of course) and other items and be back to storing items just for the outside.

Stopping The Madness

2009-01-27T07:58:00.001-06:00

Where did I lay that down at? Oh yea . . . there’s the pencil. No wait . . . I was looking for the drill chuck . . . it was . . . wait . . . is it here? No . . . hmm . . . oh look, there’s that thing I was looking for last week. Now what was I looking for again? Oh yea . . . wow . . . this would be great for something else I was doing . . . it would just take a minute to do. (Four hours later) Now what was I doing again?

Yea . . . that’s my garage experience in a nut shell. I got a Shopsmith from my dad (that was my grandfather’s) and suddenly I joined the rank of “woodworker”. I’ve had a motley mix of projects in my garage from time to time . . . from car things, to bicycles, and now wood things. I have a welder and cut-off saw, but not enough metal working stuff to quite get started on my (newest) project car—a 1974 MGB convertible (chrome bumper). The Shopsmith gave me a plethora of new gizmos and gadgets to keep track of, and I don’t quite have the feel for how the workflow should be. BUT, the biggest problem is my garage is a complete shambles with half started projects, bits and pieces, and things shoved where they can fit.

I made a modest attempt at taming the craziness a year+ ago, when I went to a local office surplus place and purchased some hanging file cabinets. They were replacing my open faced shelving that I had transplanted from my “dream garage” that I had at the lake house. (3 car garage—10+ foot ceilings) The problem now is I have a wide variety of storage devices and things spread all over the place. I also have an “eclectic” (at best) variety of do it yourself type work benches and tool storage places. Add a liberal amount of clutter/junk/accumulation from the past 10 years of home ownership and you can pretty well imagine what I’m dealing with.

The new plan is to get a storage pod of some type and simply empty the garage out entirely and start from scratch. We’ve been thinking on when our schedule would allow this to happen, but sometimes you just have to draw a line in the sand and say “ok, here’s when it’s happening” and go from there. We know March/April/May will just be a blur, and then we’re into the summer months, so right now we’re seeing how quickly we can get a storage pod and start from there. The only thing we probably can’t work around is the MG, as it’s garage bound for now. Someday it will be weather tight again, but in the mean time it’ll have to be a item we plan around. We’re going to question each piece of storage and/or item going back in to see what use it really has and if it’s not necessary, it’s getting the boot.

This will definitely be an adventure. I’m already planning out things that I can see going away. My old cabinet stereo has been one of those “oh, I can’t give that up” type things, but in the interest of space efficiency, I can see ditching it for a better solution. I’m not ruling out anything from the chopping block—well, besides the Shopsmith for example. I’m trying to eliminate frustrations where ever possible. Wish me luck!

Bird Feeders - December 2008

2009-01-07T09:31:00.000-06:00

This is the very first project actually completed . . . it was a warm-up for the coaster building idea. We made two matching ones for our parents. We did some stencils on the side to dress them up a bit and just hit them with a little Thompson’s water seal.

Drink Coasters - December 2008

2009-01-06T09:29:00.000-06:00

These are some drink coasters that I made for my sister and her fiance for Christmas 2008. We guestimated the size of a beer bottle holder, and decided 8 would be enough to tame most of the drinking duties. They loved the gift, and were just thinking about getting some, but lamented the number you typically get in a store bought set. It was a great first project, and I had a chance to refine my cutting techniques to minimize tear-out and to drill holes with my ShopSmith. The 12” disc sander was a great thing for this project in particular

Finished Products

2008-12-30T08:54:00.005-06:00

Projects

2008-12-22T09:24:00.002-06:00

Media bias and project updates

2008-12-03T08:25:00.002-06:00

Ok -- I had to laugh just a bit yesterday when listening to the radio. The news announcer was talking about the "Big 3" domestic automakers and talking about their percentages of loss in sales, but then when he talked about import manufacturers he said that they were down by one third. Now they said basically the domestics were down by over 30%, but they said the exact same thing in different words about the imports, but how many people are going to say "oh wait -- 1/3 of 100% is 33.33% . . . duh?! It was just a little interesting media bias that gets read into things that I think is one way to get people to think by not thinking. People rarely think for themselves anymore, they want it spoon fed to them, whether it's product safety directions, or choices in presidential candidates, they like to feel intelligent by listening to what the media tells them they should believe. Enough ranting there.

(And for the real facts on who's down and by how much: http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/02/by-the-numbers-november-2008-brother-can-you-spare-a-dime-ed/ )

So in other news, we've been anxiously working through some projects. I think I've got the hang of the Shopsmith finally . . . or at least enough to be dangerous. We were considering a pull-out storage pantry thing for the cabinet beside our refrigerator but instead we were considering the implications of the trash can in that scenario. After some more careful consideration we decided that a slide out pot and pan holder would be a much better idea for that area. The trash can went for a tour of the kitchen until we decided that it would be best at the end of the cabinet that we have. We decided that the trash can could go in a nice and swanky cabinet and that began the design process.

The design process was one of those "by the seat of my pants" thing. We first decided on having a flip open lid, and then the front was going to also flip open. I started building the cabinet and learned some important things in the process. I had to get a few more things, like clamps, and saw blades. I measured and decided to put the bottom of the box at one point and then under the trash can we would have a drawer to put trash bags. We stopped by the store and while there I was looking at sliders and realized that they didn't have any drawer slides that were less than 12 inches . . . and my cabinet was at 11.5 inches. DOH! We decided that instead of having a tilt out side for removing the trash can we'd make it a door, but where I put the bottom for the trash can portion then was going to interfere with the door, that I already had cut out. After some deliberation, we decided to just make one big door. On the bottom we're putting wheels to be able to move it for cleaning as well as those cleaning emergencies.

Whew! So the biggest thing is not the zillion dollar trash can project, but instead all the learning processes that I've dealt with. I bought a plywood blade for my Craftsman hand saw as well as the Shopsmith. I found out the Shopsmith uses a 1 1/4" arbor, so the one blade will need a 5/8" arbor adapter instead, which will also be needed for the blades that my dad gave me. It's been amazing working with my wife Peggy on this project and seeing the confidence that she has in me and my abilities. I'm pretty critical of my work and I'm wanting perfection, but I know I've only had a handful of wood working projects under my belt. I need to build a few jigs to help out with my accuracy in cutting, and the first one will be a cross-cutting sled. I bought some oak boards for runners and will work on getting that put together. My biggest problem right now is that all too elusive specter of time.

IT CUTS!

2008-11-25T13:21:00.003-06:00

Ok -- it's the little things in life that sometimes gives me a little joy. One of those things was getting my grandfather's ShopSmith finally up and operational. My dad had gotten it and had rebuilt the speed changer and added wheels to it, but then decided to just get a brand new one with all the goodies. I finally got it all setup with the newly welded legs and was just itching to cut anything. I found a little 1x2 board in the garage and plunked it down on the miter guage holder. I put it forward into the blade and it was jumping up and down and not at all happy. I tried it again and was met with the same issue, so I decided I'd quit while I still had all ten fingers . . . Peggy appreciates that aspect. :-)

I went back upstairs to read the manuals again and this time I caught one little point that I remember my dad remarking on -- the way the blade was facing on the arbor (attaching it to the machine). He said it was backwards, and sure enough, I double checked it and it was. I don't know how long it had been like that, as he had just boxed up what he could find and brought it from my grandparents home. With some quick action on the arbor flipping I was back in business and soon had a perfectly cut piece of wood. Yea!

Peggy and I have been planning to build some nice book cases for the basement to handle all of the books we have, but I think our first "get our feet wet" project might be something simpler, like perhaps a roll-out pantry for in the kitchen. That's something I've always wanted to tackle, and I think that it would be just enough to let me get a feel for how the thing should work and that. I'm thinking of a lot of different gift ideas for Christmas also . . . some other ways to see how this thing works and that. I'm quite excited to do some projects, because I've been kind of limited by the tools I had available to me. Now I have quite a selection of tools for accomplishing a wide variety of things. The only remaining thing to get is time!

New toy

2008-11-19T08:04:00.004-06:00

This is my newest toy, it's my grandfather's ShopSmith. It's a 1985 model that he bought used about several years before he passed away. My dad got it and rebuilt it and was going to use it, but then he decided to just go and buy a whole new setup. I helped them sell a wood stove and had been hinting that I was looking for one and he said once things were all settled I could have it. Well, on my birthday my parents came over and Peggy hinted to have them bring it over. (The papers on the floor was from a batten board painting project.)

The only problem with the ShopSmith was in my grandfather's basement, the legs on one side were continually exposed to water and rusted away. I have been watching on Craigslist for parts/pieces for these and thought I found a really good deal one day. I had emailed/called on one particular ShopSmith in Kingsville, MO. One night Peggy and I drove out in the pickup truck to see the $100 special. First of all, any directions that involve "turn at the hood in the yard" should give you a little clue on what is up. The end panels on the $100 Craigslist one were ok, but the rest of it was totally trash, the aluminum tables were so badly pitted it wasn't even funny. The guy wasn't there when I showed up, so I don't know if he would have accepted $25 for the unit or not . . . because that's all it was worth!

So my thoughts of getting another end panel faded, so I came up with a better solution. I was considering some fancy metal work, but then opted for the brute force method. I took two peices of angle iron and welded them onto the end panel where I cut away rusted metal. (It ended up about 3 inches shorter when all the bad metal was removed.) I checked my work, and found that even though I carefully angled the ends on the iron, the Shopsmith was still only touching the floor at the highest spot, hence it could scoot around a bit on the concrete floor. I decided that the legs could have been just a tad longer, so I took another piece of angle iron and put it across the two legs and welded it together when the angle iron on the floor. That gave a much wider base and tied the two legs together. The wheels on the ShopSmith helped in that regard, but now the tie-in really makes the unit solid.

The best part of the whole experience was spending time with Peggy in the garage. She got to watch me weld with the old mask I had, while I tried out the new welding mask. My old mask had quit "lightening" and was stuck permanently dark. That's great if you can weld in the dark, but I have a problem getting the MIG gun and sparks going all in the right direction. It was great for Peggy though because she could watch, and she even said she would like to give it a whirl!

So that's the latest and greatest in the garage right now. All this is actually preparation so that we can start building some new book shelves for in the basement. This has been like a series of dominoes in the chain of events that needs to happen. I needed the ShopSmith to build the shelves, and once I got it I needed the welding mask to fix the leg. Now I've got the leg fixed, and I also bought a used router also to help out with the project.

After the ShopSmith experience, we were a bit hesitant on finding another good deal, but thankfully we did find one. I finally stopped by the person who was selling it and found a very nice Sears Router in a case with some new bits. I was going to haggle a bit on the price, but the seller was getting rid of it because her dad was in hospice care. As Dave Ramsey says, there are good deals, and there are times to know when you known you don't need a good deal. I opted for the full purchase price of $50, which was still a great deal with the bits. I like to have a clear conscience.

God's Guiding Hand

2008-08-08T11:16:00.001-05:00

I shudder at the possibility . . . the pics make it seem so insignificant.

The frightening part was this was a "clip" on Interstate 70 this morning as I was braking for traffic . . . the rear tire is very close to having the bead blown out. The kid in the Mustang didn't stop . . . in fact, I had to call Peggy to take down the license plate while following him. When I finally got him to pull over he asked me to come up and look if the damage to his front wheel was repairable . . . it turns out it was just the rubber scraped on his rim . . . but the fact that he was so concerned about that is what I couldn't imagine. If there was just a small variance in ANYTHING this could have been a major crash. If it would have an inch further over it could have taken the rear wheel completely out, or off, or who knows.

God gives us each and every day and we can only wonder about TODAY'S events . . . and not worry about anything. There is NOT ONE THING that worry can change. It was God's guiding hand that kept a significant accident from happening . . . but I know if today would have been my day to meet God, that I would be totally prepared for that. I know my friends and family would immediately know where I would be. I know where I'll be, not because of what I do, or don't do, or what I give, or not give. It's not ANYTHING that I can do . . . aside from accepting God's grace into my life. Knowing that Christ died on the cross FOR ME. He took my punishment for EVERYTHING I have done, or will do. I only live my life like I do now because I want to please him -- to be an example of Christ in my life. I pray each day that I can be the father, husband, son, and friend to those people who matter the most in my life.

Today was just one other small episode in God's presence in my life. Things can literally change in a heartbeat. Don't let that heartbeat be your last before asking God in to know him further. Life is too short. Period.

Venting for a minute . . .

2008-07-22T14:21:00.003-05:00

Allow me to apologize here, but I'm sick and tired of listening to the whiners of the world going on and on about how ____ (insert your favorite domestic manufacturer) is an idiot for contributing to global warming, inefficient vehicles, etc. It really irks me to see people babbling on completely at odds with what they (meaning the general population) have been buying for the past number of years. Once upon a time, I purchased a fairly lightweight (all aluminum V8) Buick sedan with decent gas mileage, room for six adults, and many other wonderful features. It, along with a lot of other vehicles in the era were manufactured for gas savings and guess what . . . it wasn't five years ago . . . or ten . . . or even twenty! My Buick was build in 1962! GM and it's subsidiaries (Buick/Pontiac/Oldsmobile) were making all sorts of interesting vehicles . . . even if your name wasn't Ralph Nader. My point is, the buying public shunned them and they went away very quickly . . . well, almost . . . the light(er) cars stayed and the engines just got bigger and become the muscle car fodder. (Ford Falcon -> Mustang, Pontiac Tempest -> GTO, Plymouth Valiant ->Barracuda, etc...) Fast forward to the 1980's . . . four cylinder cars with fuel savings . . . but trends towards bigger engines and bigger cars. Why? Because PEOPLE BOUGHT UPWARDS!

The minivan is a prime example of this trend . . . what started as a small people mover has blossomed and grown over the years. In doing so it brought people into shunning the platform, going instead to the SUV ranks to avoid "soccer mom" badges. ARGH! I remember having discussions wtith people . . . talking about the "need" for a huge four-wheel drive vehicle. I'm sorry, but the weather in the locale I'm at only makes 4wd a convenience a few days out the year . . . adn I've maintained, if I can't get around in a vehicle with FWD, then there's probably a good reason not to even be out!

So cry me a river how your not going to trust _____ (fill in your punching bag manufacturer) because they don't provide xyz car with 100 mpg. People are wondering how manufacturers can make money on small cars . . . . it's very simple . . . do the same thing that they did with trucks/suv's. They took standard old technology -- simple RWD platforms and began optioning them to the moon. Suddenly the farm truck had heated leather seats, power windows, moon roof, and a bazillion other options . . . since the suburbanites "need one" for towing a boat or camper once or twice a year. The balancing act will be offering cars they can charge a premium for, and ones that will be affordable for others to drive . . and making them appeal to each target market. Can you picture a $30K Chevy Cobalt or Ford Focus? Honda/Toyota/etc... have successfully pushed the envelope in that . . . but we'll see what happens in the next five years.

Changes

2007-12-10T11:55:00.000-06:00

Ok . . . it's time for some changes in the ol' garage . . . I yanked down all my old open faced shelving . . it was never a great thing for the way my current shop/garage is setup. I used the shelving extensively at the house I used to have at the lake -- I had a 3 bay garage with tall ceilings and stored a lot of stuff there . . . hence the boxes. Now my garage is more of a work area than anything so I decided to get some cabinets.

I'm a cheapskate though . . . well, not only that, but I'm not going into debt and I don't make a lot. I decided to use cheap lateral file cabinets in the garage . . . these are so nice to use. I can put plastic storage containers in them and organize things, then shut everything up and not have the cluttered look. That also keeps the dust down to from when I'm sawing and that. The big purple one (pictures coming) was $10, the other one was $25, and the little three drawer high one was $10. I'm very happy with my purchases . . . one day I'll paint them all the same color to pretty them up. :-)

I also got another pair of car skates.

I had one pair of skates, which did make it easier to move a car around, since I could just put them under the rear end and roll it around, but with two pairs I'll really be able to get the car out where I need it to be and then roll it back away. Very handy.

That's about it . . . other than cleaning and organizing. I need to toss out a lot of stuff and get things more in order. I'm re-arranging where stuff goes and that . . I still need a place for bikes, as I've temporarily moved them in the house. Not a great solution in my book. In the spring I'd love to have another shed or something to store them in, but for right now we'll have to make do with what we have.

Not Much Going On

2007-08-15T09:33:00.002-05:00

I ended up getting some tubing for a frame on the recumbent . . . got things cut up and then my welding mask quit working. I decided to just set everything aside at that point. I put ANOTHER fuel pump on my truck and it's finally running right . . . now I just need some tires and the headlights to be figured out and I'll be in business. The headlights are a huge pain . . . I have no clue what the problem is on them. I'll have to start tracing back and see where it leads. Ah what fun. Hopefully I can get a new welding helmet and get something going on the bike sometime.

Work continues

2007-06-25T11:07:00.001-05:00

Like the mad scientist's labratory huh?

Just a few things cut up or in the process of being cut up . . .

So far so good . . . I was able to get the square tubing to fit in a round hole, and I'll gusset the joint as well as add a brace to triangulate things.

Progress

2007-06-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

So far I've only been able to disassemble a few things and that. I cut up one crank mount the other day from a bike with a 3 ring crank. I've got a 6 speed cassette on another bike, so I might be able to combine the two of them and have an 18 speed trike. I've got to looking at my other parts and pieces and I'm considering taking the women's 10 speed and chopping it up to make a long wheel base recumbent.

Long wheel base recumbent

Tadpole recumbent trike

Yea, they look unusual . . . but there is a reason I'm getting all these bikes for free . . . most people hate riding a bike! I want something comfy that I can get out and enjoy using and believe me the thought of a little bike seat scrunched up my rear isn't a pleasant thought. (I know, I could get a better seat, but that doesn't solve other issues also.) I have a lot of time right now and this is a good way to get some good experience with my welder on a project that is fun. I was hoping to work on my convertible, but replacement body panels parts to get it up and going are expensive. This will be a nice diversion.

Used Bike Store?

2007-06-11T10:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, it looks like a used bike store around my house. I'm gathering victims for my first bike project, a recumbent "tadpole" style trike. What does that mean? It means the back half of a normal multi-speed bicycle, with two wheels up front with a laid back seat and the pedals out ahead of the front wheels. Once upon a time when I was a kid I wanted to build a bike. I even got a few frames together and got the parts -- my idea was to flip the frame around, swap the derailer (shifter) around and the wheel so the front wheel was the driving wheel. Then I would sit down low between two front wheels in a rear steer type setup. I experimented by fastening a skateboard to a bike the way I mentioned to see if I could make it work, but I never got past that stage. I never lost the itch for building things though. I got into motorcycles, go-karts, and mopeds eventually and my bicycling days went away. Recently though I decided I could use some exercise and biking has been my idea of a fun and cheap outlet for that. Of course when I was young I didn't have all the tools and neat stuff that I do now, so the idea to build a bike popped back in my head. I'm not going to do much trailblazing in new concepts though, I'm going to build something that is a proven design.

While I was carting away used bike parts, I happened upon a jogger frame. Talk about fantastic luck! The wheels are great for building a tadpole style trike, they have nice big bearings that can easily be replaced. (Normal front bike wheels have a very narrow bearing that doesn't like a lot of side loads.) I was very happy about that find. I started cutting up bike frames yesterday with my handy reciprocating saw. I can't wait to start welding things up for my first crack at a trike!

Welcome!

2007-06-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

Welcome to My Old Garage . . . a clearing house for things that I'm working on whether it be cars, furniture, or bikes. I'm just an average guy living in suburbia. My profession is computer programming, but playing with mechanical stuff is a hobby of mine. I know enough to be dangerous, and sometimes a bit more (danger that is). I've worked on cars for 13+ years, and go-karts, motorcycles and bicycles before that. I'm a father of two, one from scratch, one from a previous marriage. My son is 13, my daughter is 5 and I've been married over 11 years. I'm currently going through a slightly rocky point in my marriage, so getting out in the garage is a great way to keep my mind sharp and focused. Follow along as I spout random wisdom on my project and life itself.