docholladay's Blog at LumberJocks.com

Workshop Overhaul #6: Finally Some Pics. Some progress, still a long way to go.

docholladay — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:07:52 GMT

Well, I didn’t get to spend as much time in the shop as I wanted to this weekend. Too many honey-do projects and a family reunion took up some of my time. However, I did get a few things done and made some progress. Also, for those of you that have been asking, I did get some pictures this time. I warn you, it is still a mess, but you can get the idea.

I’ll start in the north east corner of my shop where my band saw is now located.

Next we move down the east wall of the garage/shop and my miter saw station and the cabine that holds most of my hand planes.

Next comes my pegboard tool rack.

At the end of the east wall is my lathe and above the lathe a metal wall cabinet that holds mostly paints, finishing supplies, solvents and glues. I have to display my Alabama Crimson Tide stuff somewhere. Ha Roll Tide!

Now we make the turn to my south wall. This wall is mostly storage in the form of a metal cabinet (It stores mostly my automotive maintenance supplies), some file cabinets. These hold items like handheld power tools and accessories. I have a drawer for owners/shop manuals and other miscellaneous items. Also, you can see my hardware storage containers on top of these cabinets. Then there is my big red tool box which holds my mechanics tools as well as anything else that will fit. The workspace on top of this tool box is going to be my dedicated sharpening station.

Now we make the turn from the sout wall to the west wall. Here we have a big cabinet that came out of friends kitchen when they were remodeling. This holds pretty much anything, but it mostly has hardware and parts. Below the cabinet, I have some brackets that hold my 4ft level and some long straight edge guides. Below that is my air compressor.

Moving along this wall I have some clamp racks and brackets on which I hang my saw horses and work supports. Then there is my lumber rack. Also along this wall is the home for my planer and jointer and scroll saw (below the planer).

Then next along this wall is another pegboard. It holds my commonly needed table saw accessories as well as my air nailers, framing squares and a few other miscellaneous items that this was just a good place to put them. This pegboard is mounted above one end of my table saw.

This then brings me to the northwest corner of the shop where my drill press and most of my drilling tools reside. Also, above it, you will see the power subpanel that I installed to save space in my main breaker box and to save on wire to have to be run to the garage.

Finally, you see the north wall which is actually the garage door. In front of this, I keep my roll around hardware and clamp cart.

To really get a picture that shows how much work is still left to do, here is a view, looking back from the north end of the shop.

Here is a look from the south end of the shop.

Also, here are two photos showing the new lighting that I installed. I have a total of 16 4ft flourescent light tubes providing light. Much better than before. I probably could get a suntan in there hee hee.

In addition to the improved lighting, I have a total of 16 electrical outlets spread throughout the garage on 2 circuits. In addition, I installed a 220 circuit for my compressor and another 220 circuit for my table saw. Finally, I won’t have extension cords or power strips scattered everywhere.

Now for my question for you LJ’s to provide some input. I need to make a new saw till/rack for my hand saws. Here is the wall space that I plan to use for this, above my miter saw station.

This space is about 40” wide and vertically, I have about 4ft of space. I’m thinking of using a similar design that I had previously (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/30064), but I want to better incorporate for my “growing” collection of backsaws – what can I saw, they just seem to follow me home. If any of you have any ideas that you think I should consider, please share. I’m thinking of making it enclosed with doors. Part of the reason for that is that I can also mount items on the inside of the doors.

Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this tour. I still have a lot of work to do, but I think in another couple of weekends or maybe even a few week nights, I just might get this project licked and be able to get back to making something.

Doc

Workshop Overhaul #5: A new wrinkle. I will try to get some photos this weekend.

docholladay — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 06:31:00 GMT

I have a new wrinkle in my workshop overhaul. I’ve been working on getting all of my larger machines arranged in an attempt to arrange them as efficiently as I could. However, I now have a new wrinkle that is going to require a little bit of a re-think. My dust collection, up to this point, has been primarily several shop vacs. However, I saw an add on Craigs List for a Delta Dust Collector for only $100. I took a look at it and couldn’t pass that up. The only problem is, it takes up a lot more space than my shop vacs. I have no idea how I am going to change my shop arrangement to accomodate for it. I am very glad that I have it. I just don’t have a clue as to how I’m going to make it work with my shop layout and also, how I am going to incorporate DC pipiing to my main tools. I intend that I will probablyl connect it to my table saw, jointer, planer and router table (the ones that really make a lot of dust and chips), and then I may continue to use my shop vacs for my band saw, scroll saw and other items that don’t generate quite as much mess. I plan to get in there and work out the arrangement tomorrow. I am thinking that I will want to place the DC close to a wall since it is tallish which is going to require some re-arrangement of my wall storage (which is almost all of my wall space). Anyway, the only way I know to figure it out is to get in there and play with some various configurations till I get something I like.

Doc

Workshop Overhaul #4: There is light at the end of the tunnel.

docholladay — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 14:26:33 GMT

Well the shop overhaul is making progress now. I got a lot of work done the past two weekends. All of the electrical is done (no more seaching for a place to plug something in) and the lighting is all installed. It is much brighter. I am going to enjoy that. At this point, the main thing left to do is to get stuff put away again. All of the big tools are in their new homes. I need to get a mobile base to put under my jointer. Since I don’t have a big dust collection system. I typically roll it and the planer out in the driveway when I am using them. Right now, the main thing left to get the shop back to some degree of usefulness is to get stuff moved back into the cabinets (and off of the top of my table saw. I started to get everything back up on the peg board yesterday. There are a few projects that I intend to build that will help. 1) I’m going to build a new saw till that better accounts for my back saws and smaller saws. 2) I need to build a new plane till. I’ve been looking on LJ’s for ideas here. I probably will actually have to build 2. I am concerned that one would be too heavy. I may make one for my bench planes and then a separate one for my block and specialty planes. 3) I need to build a wall mounted charging station for my cordless tool battery chargers and to store the extra batteries. 4) Chisel rack that allows for some growth of my ever expanding collection of chisels and gouges. Another important task is to go through and decide on whether or not to throw away some items. We all have it. Piles of stuff that sit in the corner and collect dust. It may be a few smalll scraps of wood that just seemed too good to throw away (you know you’ll need that little 6’ piece of pine someday). All of those little partial cans of paint or finish. Miscellaneous pieces of hardware, nuts, bolts, screws, pieces of this or that. Anyway, I know that I am going to pare back on the collection, but deciding what stays and what goes is going to be a fun process. I already decided to get rid of all of thos plastic cases that my handheld power tools came in. I never put the tools back in them so apparently I don’t intend to use them anylonger. I have drawers and storage places for those tools already, no need in wasting all of that space storing plastic tool cases. All I know for sure is that if I don’t get the shop to a point where I can use it to complete some of the honey-dos on my list, I’m gonna be living in the doghouse (and we don’t even have a dog).

Doc

Workshop Overhaul #3: The shop is really a mess right now.

docholladay — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:05:40 GMT

Well it is an understatement to say that my shop is a mess right now. I have so much stuff crammed in this 24X12 space that it is really difficult to work around all of the stuff that I have in there. I basically move everything out of one spot so I can work on that spot. Then I clear one area to make another place to work. This is proving challenging to do the electrical because a circuit could run from one end of a wall to the other end. Anyway, right now, I am installing my lighting. I ran part of the circuit tonight and hope to finish it tomorrow night. Having the lighting installed and working will help a lot since half of my struggle is setting up temporary lighting in order to see what I am doing. Also, I spend as much stuff moving stuff around as I do working on anything. I will be glad to get this project finished so I can get back to some fun stuff like restoring old tools or doing some lathe turning. What I am most looking forward to is that, assuming I have calculated correctly, I will be able to get to all of my most commonly used machines (table saw, band saw, chop saw, lathe, drill press, jointer & planer) without having to move anything to get at them. I expect it will take me two or three more weekends to get this job finished.

Doc

Workshop Overhaul #1: Workshop Overhaul Update #2

docholladay — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:15:10 GMT

Finally, I have gotten around to doing some more work on the workshop overhaul that I began recently. I have gotten part of one wall covered with the 1/2” OSB (painted white to help with lighting). I have run a power sub-panel in the garage to control electricl circuits in the garage. I even put in a master shut off so that I can with shut off everything (except the lights) with the flip of one switch as an emergency precaution. To be totally honest, this is to keep peace with my SWMBO. She wants me to be sure that my air compressor is turned off when I am not working in the shop because it is located under our bedroom. There has been a few occasions where it kicked in during the night and woke her up. That was bad. This way, I can flip one switch when I leave the shop and everything is turned off. I am keeping the lights separate so that if a breaker should trip, it doesn’t leave me in the dark with a tool blade still spinning. Anyway, because of the small size of my shop, I have to work in sections and kind of move stuff around out of the way as I can. I have been working on one section of the shop where my drill press and my table saw will be located. I completed a couple of organizational projects for these sections of the shop over the weekend. They are posted here: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/50386. With the holiday weekend coming, I plan to get a good bit more progress completed. I should be posting more updates soon.

Doc

Workshop Overhaul #2: Wood Shop Overhaul Began today.

docholladay — Tue, 31 May 2011 07:18:27 GMT

I am absolutely beat after today. I’ve been so impressed with some of the shops posted her on LJ’s that today I began a complete overhaul of my shop. I’m making an effort to improve the efficiency of my shop layout. My shop is small, so there isn’t much to do to magically make more space. I’ve got to get things arranged better so that I can make more of the space that I have. A few things I am doing are:

1) Covering the walls with 1/2” OSB painted white and painting the ceiling white. This will help to brighten things up a bit. Also, this makes it easier to use the wall space for storage. Also adding some insulation to make things a bit more comfortable during the extreme hots and colds.

2) I’m running new electrical. Outlets mounted roughtly 4 ft off of the floor and spaced every 6 feet or so so that there will always be a convenient electrical outlet handy. Also, I will be updating my lighting a bit, but haven’t bought that yet.

3) Running air lines along one wall with 4 drops so that an air outlet will also always be handy.

4) Arranging my most frequently used tools so that I can get at them without having to move things around. In particular, this will involve my drill press and my band saw.

5) Putting my planer and jointer on wheels so that they can easily be rolled out into the driveway when needed and then stored away underneath my lumber rack when not in use.

6) I’m going to build a dedicated sharpening station. Hopefully, with this, I won’t put off sharpening untill I have a bunch of tools that need to be sharpened.

7) After I complete the shop overhaul, the first project is going to be a new, slighly larger, work bench. This will do double duty as the outfeed for my table saw.

My wife has decided to add her touch. This is Crimson Tide country and since the walls are white, she is painting my peg board racks red to match my big red tool box. Today, I got about half of one wall done with the OSB and electical. Since space is so tight, I have to work in sections and then move stuff into the area that I just completed. I will be blogging about the progress as I go and will update my shop photos when completed. It should be quite a transformation.

Doc

Visit with a fellow LumberJock #2: Visited with Beginning Woodworker this week.

docholladay — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:59:03 GMT

My work allows me to travel some around the great state of Alabama where I live. I have become aware of several of the LJ’s that also are residents of Alabama. Anyway, when the opportunity is there, I am trying to go and visit with these guys. On Tuesday of this past week, I was able to go by and visit with Beginning Woodworker for a little while. I was in between business meetings, so we only had a short visit, but we were able to visit for a little while. He has a nice home and has obviously spent a lot of time decorating the yard of his home. He showed me his shop. It is small, but well organized and he has some nice stuff. I got to see the Morris chairs that many of us have followed as he built them. Nice work Charles. He is in the beginning of building a new work bench. I’m sure it will be a very good bench when he is done with it.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to come and visit.

Doc

Visit with a fellow LumberJock #1: I visited with fellow LJ - Grizzman.

docholladay — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 00:16:57 GMT

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of stopping by and visiting with fellow LJ, Grizzman. He lives in a small community about 1 1/2 hours from where I do and I was traveling close by on business. I was able to meet him and his wife. They gave me a tour of their home and then the shop. It was such a pleasure to meet them. Grizz lives in a small house/cabin that he and his sons built. Not only did Grizz build his own house, but he also built most of the furniture that they have in the house. There are some nice pieces in his home, many of which are posted as projects here on LJ’s. In addition, he and his sons also built his shop building. His shop is nice and spacious (compared to mine anyway) and is well equipped. I was kind of drooling over his Delta Unisaw. He also has a very nice woodworking bench that he build himself. When he found out that I liked turning, he gave me a nice piece of holly wood and also a piece of dogwood. I’ll have to come up with something special to make with them.

Thanks Grizz,

Doc

Entertainment Center/Cabinet Built In #1: My Wife has put a challenge up for me.

docholladay — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:17:55 GMT

OK folks. Who wouldn’t want to take on this deal? Recently, my wife and I went into Best Buy. I don’t remember what we went to get. Probably something for her phone or something like that. Anyway, llike any normal male sports fan, I was drawn toward the flat screen TV’s. I was looking at a 46” unit in particular when my wife says to me, “If you will build this cabinet system (incorporating a space for said TV), I will buy that TV for you.” First of all, I’m not so naive as to not understand that, ultimately, I am the one that will pay for this TV, but the lengths that we guys will go to in order to be able to purchase something like that with our spouses blessing, can be pretty great at times. Anyway, I did a little bit of mental math on approximate materials cost and basic design ideas began to run through my head and then I said, I’ll give it a shot. Well the project has begun (no pics yet). My youngest son and I spent the day in the shop on Saturday and assembled some of the basic boxes for the base cabinets. To get some perspective, this will be a base cabinet system along a wall in the great room of our home. The wall is approximately 30 feet long on either side of a fire place. All total, approximately 24 feet of cabinets with shelves to the ceiling above the cabinets. I’m not very concerned about the construction. I am still working out some of the final design details and that is what is proving to be a real challenge for me. Too bad there isn’t enough time to get this finished in time for college football season. It sure would be cool to be looking at that big TV when the Alabama Crimson Tide takes the field on the first weekend of Sept. Maybe I can have it finished in time for bowl games at the end of the season. Who knows, maybe I could be watching the guys take another National Championship on that new TV. Sound lik a motive to get myself in the shop and get to work.

ROLL TIDE!

Doc

Sharpening Hand Saws #1: My first attempt and sharpening my own hand saws.

docholladay — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 05:40:10 GMT

I have amassed quite a collection of handsaws. I have a particular weekness for old Disston saws. If I find one at a flea market and it isn’t just completely eaten up with rust, I just can’t seem to let them pass, especially if I can get them cheap. Anyway, I’ve been on a bit of a tool kick lately in making my own tool handles, including saw handles. Anyway, I was investigating sending some of my saws off to be sharpened. Have you looked into what that costs? For a saw that I paid $10 or less for, it’s pretty hard for me to bring myself to spend $50-$100 to have it sharpened. Anyway, I was doing some research and decided I would try my hand at sharpening my saws myself. I scrounged up a saw filing vise and purchased some triangular tapered files and a saw set (actually several till I found one that I could figure out how to use). I found some very clear instuctions on the Vintage Saws website (http://www.vintagesaws.com/). Anyway, here is my first attempt at sharpening a saw.

I filed this saw in a rip tooth pattern because I plan to use it as a tenon saw. This particular saw was a bit of a challenge because it involved straightening a slight bendin the spine of the saw as well as jointing the teeth prior to filing. Once completed, the saw cuts very well and I now have a good tenon saw. I am very pleased with the way this turned out. My next is to attempt to sharpen a crosscut saw. If I get pretty good at this, maybe this could be the beginning of a new source for income.

Thanks,

Doc

Dovetail Saw Rehab #5: All Finished

docholladay — Sat, 29 May 2010 06:14:41 GMT

Well I have now finished the rehab of this old dovetail saw. After much sanding, I put some finish on it. I had planned on using tung oil, but changed my mind and applied 4 coats of laquer. Here is the handle after applying finish.

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Now for some pics with the handle installed. I think it turned out well. I will post as a finished project as well.

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Dovetail Saw Rehab #4: Posting pictures - try number 2

docholladay — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:10:14 GMT

Let me see if I can get this deal of inserting pictures right. Let me try this again.

The last picture has the new handle beside the old one.

Dovetail Saw Rehab #3: More progress made today.

docholladay — Wed, 26 May 2010 06:03:08 GMT

After 2 more hours of work, the handle really is starting to “shape” up nicely. I did the initial shaping using a rotary tool with a rasp bit in it. Then started using files and 150 grit sandpaper to get it to it’s current stage of completed. Here are the most recent pics.

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/J%20and%20I%20Taylor%20Dovetail%20Saw/IMG00155-20100525-2211.jpg

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/J%20and%20I%20Taylor%20Dovetail%20Saw/IMG00154-20100525-2211.jpg

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/J%20and%20I%20Taylor%20Dovetail%20Saw/IMG00156-20100525-2211.jpg

I intend to sand down to 320 or 400 grit then add a couple of coats of wipe on poly. I should have it finished and be cutting dovetails by the end of the week.

If I were to change anything, I think that I would make the handle a little larger in the palm area. This one may be a sort of rough draft, but that is the beautiful thing about wood – you can always try again.

Dovetail Saw Rehab #2: Link to instructions for making and fitting saw handle.

docholladay — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:52:32 GMT

I neglected to post this, but here is the link to download instructions for making a saw handle from Gramercy Tools. The instructions are very simple to follow and they provide some very useful hints to help in fitting the handle to the saw. In my case, the brass back for my saw is not exactly the same dimensions as the one from the kit, so I had to carve the groove for the to some slightly different dimensions than the instruction, but otherwise, I pretty much am following the instructions to the letter.

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/prodimg/gt/pdf/GT-DKITXX_INST.pdf

Dovetail Saw Rehab #1: Dovetail Saw Rehab

docholladay — Tue, 25 May 2010 05:48:19 GMT

I picked up an old dovetail saw at a flea market a while back. It was in kind of rough shape in some ways, but it cuts well. The handle had obviously been damaged. I actually think the hand was not original to the saw, although it probably is the correct style. Anyway, I decided that I would try to make a new handle for the saw. I downloaded a template for this style of saw handle from Gramercy Tools website. I took some rosewood and beech wood that I had and glued up a blank to make a handle from. The beech is sandwiched between two pieces of rosewood. The template from Gramercy also includes instructions for fitting a handle. It is actually the instructions that go with one of their saw kits. Anyway, I have a saw with a blade and back and a piece of wood to make a handle so, effectively, I have a kit. Anyway, I have cut out the handle and fitted it to the blade. All that is left is the hand work to round off all of the corners and fit it to the hand and then of course the sanding and adding finish. Here is a link to pictures of the saw before I began and also of the current progress with the handle template still glued to the blanck.

http://s870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/J%20and%20I%20Taylor%20Dovetail%20Saw/

Tool Gloat #1: I can't help but brag - Delta Band Saw

docholladay — Thu, 13 May 2010 06:02:11 GMT

I saw an add for some older band saws advertised on Craig’s list. A millwork shop had upgraded to an 18” band saw and they had 2 14” saws they were selling. They had listed a Powermatic and a Delta. When I got there this afternoon, someone had already purchased the Powermatic. However, I discovered that the Delta was an older Delta that is in very good condition. It is a 1 HP with enclosed base. Runs smooth. It needs a little bit of tuning and cleaning, but otherwise in very good condition. It even has a sharp blade. Best part, I only paid $250 for it. I pick it up on Friday and will post pictures then.

Son's Art Box Project #1: An afternoon in the shop with my 15 year old.

docholladay — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:58:13 GMT

This is my first attempt at embedding photos from PhotoBucket so hopefully, this will work.

My youngest son (my 15 year old) is a bit of a budding artist. He is quite talented as a sketch artist and is branching out into painting. He also enjoys tinkering in the woodshop and is showing some talent there as well. He needed a means of containing and organizing his art supplies. My wife found a wooden box that, in another life, was probably a wooden brief case. The outside of the box was in decent condition, but the organizers on the inside were in bad shape. I suspect that someone had attempted to “repurpose” and almost destroyed the whole thing. If it weren’t for the box joint joinery on the corners, I suspect that teh box woud not have survived. Anyway, we removed everything from the inside of the boxe to get it down to just a box and then proceeded to make some new dividers and trays to hold and organize his art supplies and materials. First we made some fixed dividers to go in the bottom of the box.

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/Art%20Box%20Project/IMAG0012.jpg

Next we made some removable trays that essentially sit on top of the bottom dividers.

http://i870.photobucket.com/albums/ab265/docholladay0820/Art%20Box%20Project/IMAG0013.jpg

We made the dividers and trays out of some scraps of 5/16” plywood that I had and we used a scrap of 1/8” hardboard for the bottom of the trays. We made it all so that the lid of the box just barely closes so stuff is snuggly contained if the box gets turned upside down.

We then spent some time applying some finisth to the box and we will put on some brass hardware to protect the corners from damage. We should finish it this week and will post as finished project when completed.