Jon Toebbe
08-18-2005, 3:14 PM
Well, things are still pretty rough in the "shop," but I've made enough progress on some of the key projects that I thought I'd share. My shop is one half of a two car garage. The other bay gets used from time to time when the lady of the house is away -- perfect for spreading out the Smart Table and a big sheet of plywood.
The first photo shows you a general overview of the space I have to work with. Since the house is a rental, I won't be sheathing the walls. The french cleat attached to the studs is 3/4" birch ply and will soon be supporting a couple of cabinets in addition to the clamp racks. Off camera to the right is my modest pile of lumber (half a sheet of mdf, a sheet and a half of birch ply, some douglas fir 2x4 and 2x6 and some red oak that will soon become the edging for the benchtop.
Speaking of which, my first major project! The first two photos ought to give you the general idea. Douglas fir dimensional lumber, planed (on a Workmate, gagh!) and thus far unfinished. The side assemblies are through mortise and tenoned (more than a little ugly, but they were my first real joints!). Front and rear stretchers are through bolted for ease of moving this beast later. The top is a salvaged, solid-core door with a sheet of hardboard on top. Mounting the Rockler vise would have been much easier if I could drill a hole perpendicular to a surface reliably. Some of the through tenons still need to be cut off flush, the edge of the top needs banding and dog holes need to be drilled. I'll get to it... eventually. On the shelf underneath the bench is an mdf "cabinet" that I glued up to add some weight to the bench and provide an upper shelf for planes, chisels and the odd junk in my way on the benchtop. Putting that ugly little box together was such a pain, I talked myself into getting a pocket hole jig (K2000 on a nice clearance in anticipation of the K3).
I put the Kreg jig to work immediately and knocked together a couple of clamp organizers to hang off that cleat. Pics 3 and 4 should give you the general idea. They're plenty sturdy and even have some room for future growth. :)
That's really about all there is to it. Once the wall cabinets come together and I build a couple of rolling tool chest/work surfaces to go under the clamps things may actually be organized enough to consider working on projects for inside the house.
Thanks for looking!
The first photo shows you a general overview of the space I have to work with. Since the house is a rental, I won't be sheathing the walls. The french cleat attached to the studs is 3/4" birch ply and will soon be supporting a couple of cabinets in addition to the clamp racks. Off camera to the right is my modest pile of lumber (half a sheet of mdf, a sheet and a half of birch ply, some douglas fir 2x4 and 2x6 and some red oak that will soon become the edging for the benchtop.
Speaking of which, my first major project! The first two photos ought to give you the general idea. Douglas fir dimensional lumber, planed (on a Workmate, gagh!) and thus far unfinished. The side assemblies are through mortise and tenoned (more than a little ugly, but they were my first real joints!). Front and rear stretchers are through bolted for ease of moving this beast later. The top is a salvaged, solid-core door with a sheet of hardboard on top. Mounting the Rockler vise would have been much easier if I could drill a hole perpendicular to a surface reliably. Some of the through tenons still need to be cut off flush, the edge of the top needs banding and dog holes need to be drilled. I'll get to it... eventually. On the shelf underneath the bench is an mdf "cabinet" that I glued up to add some weight to the bench and provide an upper shelf for planes, chisels and the odd junk in my way on the benchtop. Putting that ugly little box together was such a pain, I talked myself into getting a pocket hole jig (K2000 on a nice clearance in anticipation of the K3).
I put the Kreg jig to work immediately and knocked together a couple of clamp organizers to hang off that cleat. Pics 3 and 4 should give you the general idea. They're plenty sturdy and even have some room for future growth. :)
That's really about all there is to it. Once the wall cabinets come together and I build a couple of rolling tool chest/work surfaces to go under the clamps things may actually be organized enough to consider working on projects for inside the house.
Thanks for looking!