Back in the Shop....Kinda

[ken hatch]

Back in July I had rotator cuff repair on my right shoulder, of course my right hand is dominate. Long story shorter, I'm just now getting back in the shop, sharpening some iron and even piddling around with some small builds. One of the things I found out very quickly was I can't use my shoulder and arm to plane.

The good news is I have a secondary bench with enough leg below the stretcher to allow lowering by 100mm (4") bringing the height down to 800mm (31"). So now I have a joinery bench at 900mm (35") and a planing bench. Only problem the planing bench was against a wall and needed to be freestanding. What to do, what to do? Well I've been toying with the idea of shedding the jointer and maybe the table saw for some time. The table saw is used some but the jointer almost never, it defiantly does not earn its real estate. Bottom line I moved the jointer into the "tool room" to make room for the planing bench. BTW, if anyone in the Tucson area is looking for a good 8" jointer with a Bird head, I have one.

Of course in a shop with 10 lbs of stuff stuffed into a 5 lb shop if you move one thing every thing else must be moved. So everything has been taken apart and/or placed someplace new. It all kinda fits and feels pretty good, there is more room, I think, but until I finish putting it all back together and cleaning/picking up all the junk on the floor and off the benches I will not know for sure.

Here is a photo looking from working position of the joinery bench to the planing bench and out the door. Clean up to follow:

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh222/VTXAZ/shopFromJoineryBench160928_zpsctdiu7lo.jpg

ken

[Pat Barry]

Be careful with that shoulder and moving heavy workbenches and sometimes defiant machinery. :)

[Stew Denton]

Ken,

Plus one on what Pat said, be careful. I had my left shoulder done a few years ago, so I know how much of a problem it is, but at least it was not my dominant arm.

Your bench looks great, and I hope you can be back in the swim of things pretty soon. It sounds like you are being able to do a few things now, though, so that is great, and I'm glad you are on the mend. If yours is like mine, however, it will be a while before you can do anything very physical though, so be careful to not get in a hurry to do things you should wait on.

Have to remember to pray for a good recovery for you.

Stew

[David Eisenhauer]

Back of the hand to the rotator cuff. I had the same done on my dominant-hand shoulder (plus torn ligaments and bone spurs) and then threw myself wholeheartedly into physical therapy rehab. I regained full range of motion and whatever strength I needed for my 60 year old+ life. It took a year before I was able to completely forget the whole fall/operation/rehab occurrence, but was able to use the arm for whatever I wanted to much, much sooner than that. Therapy works if you put the effort into it. Don't never stop.

[Brian Holcombe]

Glad to hear you are getting back to normal. Take your time and be very careful moving things around the shop.

[Stanley Covington]

I bet you could put both the jointer and tablesaw in the big "Expedi" storage shed in the right background, and still have room left over!

[Glen Canaday]

Take it easy and don't injure that shoulder!

That has to be the biggest agave I've ever seen in someone's yard. I used to live in Florida and I know of a bigger one, but only one! It's in the wild on a barrier island on the gulf coast.

[Jerry Olexa]

Take it slow, easy for a while...No heavy moving/lifting..Take care of yourself.

[ken hatch]

Thanks guys, I had a lot of help moving things around which was another story in itself. It was like two old whiskey drunks, one of 'em one armed trying to move things around. BTW, good friends are great to have, we had fun but sounded like folks that had been together for too many years.

The hard part is yet to come....finding some place to put all that "stuff" and cleaning up.

ken

[ken hatch]

I bet you could put both the jointer and tablesaw in the big "Expedi" storage shed in the right background, and still have room left over!

Stan,

I thought about it but couldn't find room for the dust collector:D.

The Dodge truck is my TOAD and will carry a small tool box and English bench in its bed. I'm still jonesing over working wood while RV'ing. It didn't happen this year because of the shoulder and running out of time but....

ken

[Frederick Skelly]

Glad to hear you're getting back closer to normal Ken.
Go slow.
Fred

[Terry Beadle]

I too have a rotator cuff injury. I've switched to using Japanese planes ( kanna ) and in cases where needs be using a Stanley type plane, I only pull it and not push it. Works for me.

This technique/hardware suggestion was offered by another wood worker not me.

Also take only thin shavings of less than 5 thou.

Just a suggestion....good luck and enjoy the shavings!

Terry

[bridger berdel]

You sure have been redecorating.

[Chuck Hart]

Ken get a pulley and put it up where you can string a rope to pull from one hand to the other pulling your shoulder as high as you can on the injured side. I did that after having both of my shoulders replaced. It will help your range of motion a bunch

[ken hatch]

You sure have been redecorating.

Bridger,

I can't do much else so might as well. :)

ken

[ken hatch]

Ken get a pulley and put it up where you can string a rope to pull from one hand to the other pulling your shoulder as high as you can on the injured side. I did that after having both of my shoulders replaced. It will help your range of motion a bunch

Chuck,

I've a set and they help keep it loose.

ken