DISCLAIMER: This is lagging behind real time by a few months, but I should be caught up shortly. Please excuse any verb tense errors :o)

So without further ado, here’s about where I started:

The especially observant of you will notice that this space is pretty small. I have about 2’ to the left of the picture before running into the furnace, and on the right I run into the laundry area. Of course, even 100 square feet is better than 0. I’m kicking myself now for not having a picture, but there used to be a massive shelving unit in this corner. There’s a piece of PVC on the floor that used to run around the perimeter of the shelves and serves as a drain for the sprinkler system I didn’t know I had until I chopped through it with a shovel.

After removing the rest of the wood, rerouting the pvc, attacking the wall with a wire brush, and several coats of dry-lok paint, I arrived at this point:

So I think we’re on the right track here, the space seems bigger and cleaner just with a simple coat of paint. If only everything were that easy.

At this point, the plan is to put the workbench on the left wall, and my current miter saw stand (plywood on saw horses) on the right wall.

• Tool wall on the left wall above the workbench
• Better miter saw stand with lots of storage for the right wall
• Clamp rack on the right wall towards the corner
• Better lighting and outlet selection. Thankfully I’m within easy reach of 2 different 20 amp 120V circuits, and 1 30 amp 240V circuit (although I don’t think I can fit anything big enough to need that kind of juice). Currently the only outlet in the area is the one that was on a vertical 2×4 in the first picture, and I’ve rotated up to the ceiling for the second picture.

Next time I’ll post some pictures of the rest of the basement and a floor plan.

I built a massive 8’ long cutting guide for my Ryobi circular saw, which makes it about 1000 times easier to chop up plywood without being dependent on the table saw I don’t have. I decided this evening that I wanted to make a small guide for my jigsaw as well, for smaller cuts or situations where I don’t want to throw dust everywhere. So I took a few pictures and thought I’d walk through the (very simple) process of creating one. Hopefully this isn’t too basic or common knowledge…

1. I chose a relatively straight piece of 1×3 pine to form the “spine” of my cutting guide, and a 48” wide piece of 1/4” ply for the base
2. The pine is what guides the straight cut, so to ensure that it’s straight, I clamp it to my level until I can get it attached to the ply:
   
3. Flip the whole deal over and attach the ply base to the pine. I used some #6×3/4” screws here, about every 6”
   
4. Flip it right side up and run the saw along the guide to trim the ply to size. I put some blue tape down here to limit chip out on the top face (the jigsaw blades I use leave a very clean bottom face)
5. Finally, we’re left with a beautiful new cutting guide. Don’t forget to label it so you know what saw it goes with
   

If you look closely, you’ll see that the whole thing is resting on the base for the workbench I’m finishing up right now (to be posted soon)
Thanks for reading

I also remembered a tip I read somewhere that said if you wax the bars of your clamps, glue won’t stick as much and will be easy to remove. Although that seems to be true, I discovered that if you wax the bars of clamps that work by friction (such as my multitude of the 6” Irwin quick-grip clamps), they won’t work at all.

I discovered this this afternoon when I tried to clamp a few pieces down for jigsawing. Oops. Thankfully a quick rubdown with mineral spirits solved the problem once and for all.

So I guess the complete title of this post is “wax makes things not stick, whether you want them to or not”

So what do you do to keep glue from sticking to these types of clamps?

So being the good aspiring woodworker that I am, I glue them back together with basic yellow glue. A few weeks later I go back to finish up and the handle snaps again. This time though it snapped in a different place. Same handle, but the previous glue joint is intact. You can see it in this picture (looks like a dark grain line along the bottom)

Although I think it’s time for some metal handled loppers now, I do think it’s very interesting that the same break didn’t fail twice. But then again that’s what I’ve been hearing all along, that a good long grain glue joint is actually stronger than the wood itself. The scientist in me is happy to have some supporting data.

Or maybe the real problem is that I’m just too strong for any handle to handle… :o)

Also, please excuse the rusty tool, it sat in the grass for a week or so after I decided it would be retired

• Underpowered shop vac used for dust collection. Perhaps little 5 gallon vacs from Target are not meant for woodworking. Go figure.
• Dust collection bags. These things are actually fantastic, but apparently when you don’t empty them soon enough the motor gets unhappy and goes out in a blaze of glory.
• Inadequate shop space. Probably time to get my basement space all ready to go, or at least add a few more outlets in the garage, so I don’t have to unplug the opener to plug things in (although it’s quite convenient, as the opener is right at about head level…)
• I probably need to be more in tune with the sounds of my tools. Between my hearing protection and the sound of the router, I never even noticed the strained sounds I’m sure the shop vac was making.

On the plus side, I get a nice new (and bigger) shop vac now, and hopefully soon a small dust collection unit as well.

And of course, the aftermath:
Melted casing and burned up paper filter

Dust collection bag stuffed full of dust and such

And a good overview shot

Thanks for reading

I already have several lessons queued up, so hopefully I can keep this going for a while.

So without further ado… Lesson #1: good tools are expensive
Ok I know this is kind of a cop-out, but I forgot my camera with pics of my melted shop-vac at home, so that’ll have to be #2. But seriously, I’ve always been a big fan of buying quality tools (in all aspects of life, not just woodworking) with the goal of not having to buy that tool again. This is why I have the Bosch router kit rather than the Black & Decker, the DeWalt miter saw rather than the Task Force, etc. Unfortunately, this also means that the same start up budget doesn’t buy quite the same “volume” of tools, so I’m getting plenty of opportunities to exercise my creativity in making do without the big tools like a table saw, drill press, band saw, jointer, planer, and so on. Which should result in a few more “lessons” down the road :o) Although with that said, I’m kind of glad that I’m starting out with a more modest set of tools, if for no other reason than I’ll appreciate the nice ones when I can justify their purchase.

Stay tuned for next time, when we learn the dangers of using a shop vac for 100% of your dust collection needs.