Thomas Wilson
04-02-2019, 2:15 PM
I am not sure whether to put this post in the Neanderthal or Workshop forum. The cave is not quite a workshop yet and this post is more about tools and projects to level up to official "shop" status so I will put it here.
A few years ago, we got booted from our Atlanta condo by a boomerang daughter and her new son. (We did not mind. And, they are doing great. Thanks for asking.) We suffered along with a small one-bedroom rental that was available and nearby for a few years and helped with childcare. Last year, my wife decided to upgrade to a larger condo. When my wife went looking at a new listing, she saw this mysterious door in the back of the closet to the master bedroom.
407022
Lo and behold, behind it was an enormous storage room. She made an offer the same day.
407023
The room is roughly 9x 20 and houses HVAC and the hot water heater. But still there is lots of room. My wife, whose full legal name is Janicewhokeepsmehumble, had visions of this as a place for me to do some woodworking and bicycle wheel building. I gave up my studio at an art commune in a place called The Bakery. (The building had formerly been an actual bakery but the name still seemed apropos.) It was just too long to drive to in Atlanta traffic and I never went. As you can see, I have put in a nice store-bought bench and have some tools. The project parts on the bench are for the obligatory saw bench. I confess to cutting the pieces to length on the Dewalt but the rest will be hand tool work. My excuse is that I did not have a saw bench. (A truer excuse is I am lousy at following a line with a hand saw.) More work needs to be done. Here is the current state of tool storage.
407024
I keep the tools in their original boxes on warehouse shelving. From the standpoint of tools, it is a well-equipped, hand tool shop. Lots of LN tools. I am on first-name basis with Kirsten Lie-Nielsen. (At least she addresses emails to me about back-orders and such to "Hi Thomas". I respond "Hi Kirsten".) For tools in use, the boxes are open and I rest the tools in the open box when I need to clear the bench. But this is not a long term solution. The shelves are a mess. I have some 2'x4' sheets of plywood and other lumber for a couple of tool boards. I will make cute little custom fitted holders for the tools that I use all the time. This is the project after the saw bench. There won't be room for all the tools on the wall so I plan to make some shelf boxes and galleries that will house the rest of the tools on the warehouse shelves to make tools more orderly and easily accessible.
Here is the wood. Yes, this wood is not in the cave. It is in the floor of the master bedroom. After 45 years of marital bliss, JWKMH is remarkably tolerant of such intrusions. The bicycle wheel building bench is now in the bedroom too in front of the window because I had to put the Dewalt in the cave.
407025
If you read the Workshop forum, you know I am currently building a power tool workshop in Tennessee. The rest of the wood in the picture above is defect free Frankenspruce. It is for a tool box to carry the main hand tools to the Mountain Kingdom when I need to. I have my grandfather's tool box. It is a traditional box from the late 1940's made from 1x12, nailed together. It has a single simple till. He made it after he retired and started woodworking as a hobby, true story. He was a machinist by trade. I will post someday about his tools particularly the ones he made himself when I can get them out of storage. I will upgrade the wood and joinery for the box but my spirit will follow his lead. That will be the project after the tool boards. The jury is still out on whether I use the hand saw or the Dewalt to cut the parts to size.
Last couple of shots illustrate my modernity as a Neanderthal. Here is my LV jack with its fence. I am surfacing and squaring the 2x material for the saw bench. I really need a fence to get the edges at 90 deg. For those who have the same problem and are wondering, the fence helps a great deal. For those who scoff, look at page 304 of The Anarchist's Tool Chest. Chris Schwarz is using a plane with the same fence. (I think it is pg 304. I don't have the book with me. It is near 304 for sure.)
LV jack with fence
407026
Here are my David Barron dovetail guides and the saw he recommends. I have not gotten to the point of cutting the dovetails on the saw bench but I will use these guides to do it. I bought these because I think they will help me saw straight. I also bought them as a thank-you to David for being such a great sleep aid. When I can't sleep, I turn on one of his videos. He has this smooth, low British voice that puts me right to sleep. So thanks, David.
407027
I have reached my limit of pictures. I will start a separate thread for the first completed project that I planned for a conclusion to this introduction to the CotMN. Thanks for reading.
There as some attached images that I deleted from this post and I don't know how to get rid of them. Just ignore them.
A few years ago, we got booted from our Atlanta condo by a boomerang daughter and her new son. (We did not mind. And, they are doing great. Thanks for asking.) We suffered along with a small one-bedroom rental that was available and nearby for a few years and helped with childcare. Last year, my wife decided to upgrade to a larger condo. When my wife went looking at a new listing, she saw this mysterious door in the back of the closet to the master bedroom.
407022
Lo and behold, behind it was an enormous storage room. She made an offer the same day.
407023
The room is roughly 9x 20 and houses HVAC and the hot water heater. But still there is lots of room. My wife, whose full legal name is Janicewhokeepsmehumble, had visions of this as a place for me to do some woodworking and bicycle wheel building. I gave up my studio at an art commune in a place called The Bakery. (The building had formerly been an actual bakery but the name still seemed apropos.) It was just too long to drive to in Atlanta traffic and I never went. As you can see, I have put in a nice store-bought bench and have some tools. The project parts on the bench are for the obligatory saw bench. I confess to cutting the pieces to length on the Dewalt but the rest will be hand tool work. My excuse is that I did not have a saw bench. (A truer excuse is I am lousy at following a line with a hand saw.) More work needs to be done. Here is the current state of tool storage.
407024
I keep the tools in their original boxes on warehouse shelving. From the standpoint of tools, it is a well-equipped, hand tool shop. Lots of LN tools. I am on first-name basis with Kirsten Lie-Nielsen. (At least she addresses emails to me about back-orders and such to "Hi Thomas". I respond "Hi Kirsten".) For tools in use, the boxes are open and I rest the tools in the open box when I need to clear the bench. But this is not a long term solution. The shelves are a mess. I have some 2'x4' sheets of plywood and other lumber for a couple of tool boards. I will make cute little custom fitted holders for the tools that I use all the time. This is the project after the saw bench. There won't be room for all the tools on the wall so I plan to make some shelf boxes and galleries that will house the rest of the tools on the warehouse shelves to make tools more orderly and easily accessible.
Here is the wood. Yes, this wood is not in the cave. It is in the floor of the master bedroom. After 45 years of marital bliss, JWKMH is remarkably tolerant of such intrusions. The bicycle wheel building bench is now in the bedroom too in front of the window because I had to put the Dewalt in the cave.
407025
If you read the Workshop forum, you know I am currently building a power tool workshop in Tennessee. The rest of the wood in the picture above is defect free Frankenspruce. It is for a tool box to carry the main hand tools to the Mountain Kingdom when I need to. I have my grandfather's tool box. It is a traditional box from the late 1940's made from 1x12, nailed together. It has a single simple till. He made it after he retired and started woodworking as a hobby, true story. He was a machinist by trade. I will post someday about his tools particularly the ones he made himself when I can get them out of storage. I will upgrade the wood and joinery for the box but my spirit will follow his lead. That will be the project after the tool boards. The jury is still out on whether I use the hand saw or the Dewalt to cut the parts to size.
Last couple of shots illustrate my modernity as a Neanderthal. Here is my LV jack with its fence. I am surfacing and squaring the 2x material for the saw bench. I really need a fence to get the edges at 90 deg. For those who have the same problem and are wondering, the fence helps a great deal. For those who scoff, look at page 304 of The Anarchist's Tool Chest. Chris Schwarz is using a plane with the same fence. (I think it is pg 304. I don't have the book with me. It is near 304 for sure.)
LV jack with fence
407026
Here are my David Barron dovetail guides and the saw he recommends. I have not gotten to the point of cutting the dovetails on the saw bench but I will use these guides to do it. I bought these because I think they will help me saw straight. I also bought them as a thank-you to David for being such a great sleep aid. When I can't sleep, I turn on one of his videos. He has this smooth, low British voice that puts me right to sleep. So thanks, David.
407027
I have reached my limit of pictures. I will start a separate thread for the first completed project that I planned for a conclusion to this introduction to the CotMN. Thanks for reading.
There as some attached images that I deleted from this post and I don't know how to get rid of them. Just ignore them.