I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and a spectacular New Year! December was such a busy month around here! After my craft show, I ended up having people from work asking for presents to be made. The last request was for wine bottle balancers, which was picked up the 23rd. I won't go into all the feasts at work we had! The 12th-21st seemed like a Christmas Party every day. My (now) tight clothes show the repercussions of those. Christmas was spent at our daughters, coming home the 26th. My gifts included another cordless router (DeWalt) and the battery pack to go with it. (It was a HD special - buy the multi-pack of 5 amp batteries w/ charger and get a free tool). Two small tape measures, Dremel bits, and wall clips to hang tools, but gave those to Ken, since I'm creating the french cleats for my tools outside the cabinet.
Instead of playing during my winter break, I decided to take some much needed control of my shop, which has gotten out of control at this point in lawlessness and disorganization.
Starting with the space under my "sanding table" I decided to take that lovely mess and make it the home for my templates. Before I emptied the shelf, it held a crate of shop vac tools, a small crate of sandpaper, a cardboard box of tab sorted patterns, a bunch of various wood pieces, unfinished wood projects, etc and was a complete mess. This project took up most of my time off last week, especially since I broke my 10 year record of being cold-free. This little beast started Wed. and took hold till Friday. I also didn't get out to the shop as early as I should have, and as usual, there were places to go, so...
I was given a bunch of laminated mdf wood some time ago and I decided these would make a good cubby rack. I'll interject here (before I even really start), I'm not a fan of mdf, mainly because of what it's made of. Before I even started cutting it, I found my 3M rubber mask with the pink filters and wore it until this project was complete. Ken also wore his mask when he was in the shop while I was cutting it, and my air cleaner was on high. Ken cleaned it out afterwards to boot.
Ken had originally been in on the build, but ended up leaving this design up to me. He wasn't seeing my idea, and kept throwing out "it isn't gonna work" comments, and lost his welcome status rather quickly. Once the dividers were in place with the first two walls standing, and it started taking shape, Ken was finally seeing what I envisioned. He came out to the shop and said "you work better by yourself." I was like "yup" (sometimes. Until I get the idea worked out.)
Since money doesn't grow on trees, I decided to repurpose the plastic drawers (that were holding things from a craft cart that fell apart - that should have had a home long before now). The rest of the storage, I had to find trays. (That was fun - NOT).
I did all the tedious measurements, and brought out the router. Not having a router table, all the slots were done freehand. Of course, this took a little extra time and may have a slight weave to the slots, but I used a smaller-than-needed bit, so I was able to get my cuts a little straighter without sacrificing the size. Ken helped a bit while I was cutting these slots by sucking up the sawdust using the shop vac. The other bad thing about mdf is the excessive sawdust. With him following behind the router with the vacuum, it helped make the process go a little faster and slightly cleaner.
Once all the slots were done, Ken was again in on the build. He came out and helped me get the dividers glued in and helped me square it up. (NOT our strong suite!) We actually succeeded this time. I was so proud of us! (It was then "straight to the showers" for me! I wanted to get rid of all the mdf dust that was all over me, my clothes, and in my hair.)
The next day, we began attaching the top. We began with using the nailer and nailing everything up. The great squaring job we did the night before would have been great, if the cuts made for the top had been straight... *UGH* Ken's cuts weren't so far off that it's super noticeable, so I'll leave it alone. Without a table saw with a reliable fence, that's the price I pay; but I'm still terrified of table saws, so...
After visits to numerous stores, we finally found the small trays. (Found these Thurs. when my cold was at it's worst.) Ken had originally gone to Dollar Tree but none of the trays he had found would work. Hadn't thought of checking other departments besides the storage area. We ended up finding the perfect trays (get this:) in the school supply area of all places. They're adjustable, so I'm going to glue them to the length I need to prevent them from self-adjusting.
This build was completed Friday night. Saturday I began the process of getting my French cleat system together. Again, no table saw, so my band saw was called up to duty to perform the 45 degree cut on the five foot board. Did my best... not perfect, but it's working. The first one I did was for my clock that was my uncles in his basement workshop so many years ago. I see I made a major boo boo in the construction of it, but believe it or not, it's secure. I plan on a rebuild once I get the shop done. My plan is to get everything off my working tables and onto the wall to allow more working space for my projects.
*Phew* damn I'm long-winded! LOL The frustration of the cleats I won't go into. I have one done for one of my (five) routers done (doing two, storing three), and one for the sander. I have plans on cleats for everything that is currently on my tables, making an additional cleat for my tablet to hang in front of me for reading instructions, watching videos, etc at my tables. I also plan on making one for my eyeglass stand.
Here's what's done so far. Thank you for patiently reading through my long-winded story for such a small amount of work completed
