| Blog series by NedB | updated 217 days ago | 18 parts | 4410 reads | 72 comments total |
Part 1: The Beginning
For all of my new (at this point in time anyway) LJ friends, I thought I would take a couple of minutes and go over how I got started in woodworking and where I hope to ‘go’ on this crazy journey called a woodshop. My woodworking hobby got its start a Long time ago on a small farm down in Drumore PA when I was around 13 . My cousin Lewis had a wonderfully equipped shop, with everything from a tablesaw to a metal lathe, he did it all in there. I got to use his bandsaw and sandin...
Part 2: Doors!
Howdy folks, got a little more progress on the shop this weekend. It’s been a long project, and I’m far from done. This weekend was spent avoiding the last summer blast of heat, and hanging the doors on the shop… This may seem like a small step, but for me it marks when I can truly start moving in equipment and stuff into the shop. Starting to get a little crowded in there, but that’s the nature of the beast… at only 240 sq ft I’ll be doing...
Part 3: Pondering the next Tool Purchase
I’m taking a few minutes during my lunch hour to think about my next tool purchase. I have a pretty good core set of tools, but there are a few items which I’ve used in the past, which were my mentor John’s tools. One of those was a dado stack, and I’m debating about whether or not to bump that up the priority list of tools to buy. Thinking of what a stack does might help. The primary function of course is to make a Dado. I can do that with multiple passes of my nor...
Part 4: Lights, Camera, Bench!
Now that my shop is dried in, I’m making a conscious effort to make progress every day to get all of my materials moved up from the storage unit, as well as get what I do move put together and functional. Tonight after work, I started with temporary power to the shop. I’ve been living off of an extension cord with a multi plug splitter. That ‘works’ for now. Obviously, I would rather have the power done before I move in, but I need to stop paying for the storage uni...
Part 5: First turning on my lathe
I glued a sacrificial block onto a chunk of Mahagony I found in my storage unit the day before yesterday. Last night I broke out the turning tools after cobbling together a temporary lathe stand… I actually used my miter stand: One thing I found, was that I want to lower the lathe a couple more inches, II will need to get shorter bolts, which will help, I wound up putting the 2×8 I bolted the lathe to on top of two 2×4’s, which really raised things up higher than ...
Part 6: Organizing continues
Picture your shop… now picture it packed into a storage unit for 2 years… As I’ve mentioned, I’m finally to the point where I can move stuff in, but that means I have to clear out the construction debris which I’ve been making of late. I spent an hour or so this morning after a Dr’s appt. I had the morning off from work as well, so I went out and tidied up. Not something I had done yet, I was just letting the sawdust and cutoffs pile up… until no...
Part 7: Lumber Rack
Looted my storage unit today. I had this pile of wood in there… plus just a bit more ‘shorts’ and ‘cutoffs’ but they’ll come home tomorrow. I had to clear out the rack just above the mitersaw, so I put up a couple more arms on the wall and moved the short stock over there. I won’t need to buy too much wood for awhile.. who am I kidding anyway? Mostly cherry, (middle section), plus some maple and butternut (bottom and top sections) ...
Part 8: Storage cabinet for the shop
Now I’m all for building my own cabinetry, but this one will be very tough to beat. It’s a cabinet any computer type who used to sit at a ‘terminal’ instead of a PC will recognize. Originally purposed to store data reel to reel tapes, I’m going to use it to store most of my tailed and battery op tools, along with a shelf for fasteners, etc… It measures a whopping 7’ 1/2” tall, 36” wide and 18 1.2 ” deep.The tambour door should keep ...
Part 9: One more load in the shop...
My youngest son and I spent the day together, and we loaded up the remainder of the short stock, plus several boxes of ‘shorts’ which I salvaged from the burn pit at the LOML’s fire company field days bbq. Several of the firemen work at Stickley, so I picked through after the weekend was over and came up with several boxes of cut offs similar to these: those are 6 to 8” long, 10 to 14” wide 8/4 Mahagony pieces… plus some QSWO hunks as wel. I need to go...
Part 10: All Moved in... now on to the sorting phase...
After nearly two and a half years in storage, I finally moved all of my stuff into the shop tonight. Here’s ‘proof’ that I emptied the storage unit… Now I know it doesn’t LOok empty, but as far as stuff I’m going to keep in the shop it is. The dishwasher and desk (including the box of shelves and hardware) are on craigslist as I type, and I’m giving them one week to ‘move’ then they go to charity as a donation, or to the curb with a &#...
Part 11: Look what followed me home today
pardon the crappy cell phone photo, my work camera was in the house, and I just wanted the proof of ownership…Picked this up from a fellow LJ member, whose screen name I must admit has slipped my mind at the moment. Found it through craigslist, and was happy to learn he was on LJ as well. Good price on a nice little DT jig, which I’m looking forward to putting into use for an upcoming kitchen renovation! I will have to pick up the proper bit and so forth of course. Thanks Bud!
Part 12: Lights, camera Sawdust!
I haven’t been out in the shop much the past couple of weeks, short of turning a couple of pens and starting a spoon last weekend. I decided to rearrange a few things today, starting with my temporary wiring panel. I’m still saving up for real wiring in the shop, among other things. I Swapped locations on the bandsaw and storage cabinet. I hung a 4’ shop fixture, which made a world of difference. I also ran an extension cord up and over to power my tablesaw and chop...
Part 13: Wolvie Clone in progress
With my shop mostly completed, I have turned towards getting my tools in order, including setting my grinder for sharpening my turning tools. I found this plan online and decided that it would be easy enough to build instead of shelling out $90 for the wolverine jig itself. I still have to mount the grinder to the platform at the proper height, as well as recut the v-block. The one there isn’t cut evenly, so I’m going to cut another piece on the tablesaw instead of the bands...
Part 14: New fangled Bench
Add me to the list of fans of the Jim White Newfangled workbench. I stopped at my local lumber yard today and picked up several 2×4x12’ boards. Then I headed up to Jim Capozzi’s shop where we dressed the boards and cut almost all of the major parts to size, I didn’t bring my 2×8 with me or I”m sure we’d have gotten ALL of the parts cut. I just looked at Ben’s bench blog, and realized I need to cut two more back bench support pieces, That’s n...
Part 15: Drywall storage rack
I picked up several sheets of drywall, plus some cement board and even some pegboard in the past year or so… all for very little money ($20 total), and no immediate plans to use it… It has been cluttering up one corner of my shop. Today I decided that I would do something about that. I”ve got my newfangled workbench to complete, and that is going to need a spot in the shop before I can assemble it, Well, here’s what I did to get rid of the clutter: I cut the 2x mate...
Part 16: New fangled bench part II
I’ve got most of the dimensional lumber cut to length now, as well as the pipes on hand, and the clamps. I’ve decided to make something of a traditional bench on one end however. I have been gathering tools for several years and I scored a very nice old Morgan model 100A quick release vise off of craigslist last a couple of years ago: the vice on the left is a different model which I had for a friend of mine, neither one of us have installed them yet. Speaking of whi...
Part 17: New Pen Mills & I'm a glutton for Pen-ishment... a different swap underway
I’m a member over on the IAP forums, and they recently had a group buy which I took advantage of for $15 a set, plus shipping you could order a full set of pen mill shafts and heads in all the usual diameters… interchangeable shafts and two different heads, one 4 blade, one 6 blade. Oh, and just for fun I started another pen swap over on FamilyWoodworking.org Here’s the box as it stands now. A buddy of mine and I jointly loaded it up for the startup: Ther...
Part 18: New fangled Bench almost complete
Well the past two weeks the shop has actually warmed up to a point where I can be out there without losing body parts to frostbite. I hauled a few 2×4’s up to Grizz’s shop and we got nearly all of the parts cut to dimension. I could just as easily done it at my shop, but it was fun visiting his shop as always.Once I got them back in my shop, here’s what I wound up with:all cut to length and ready to go, except for the holes for the cross clamp piping. I tried asse...
general musings on tools etc...
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