Organizing for the New Year
I like to start off a new year by getting my shop in shape. After the busy holiday season, offcuts are piled everywhere, edges are dull and the deficiencies in the workspace are sharp in my mind.
Shortly after Christmas, I set to work making a new stand for my lathe. The old one was designed to stand in the middle of the room and had storage on both sides. I ended up pushing it against a wall, which made that space either worthless or terribly inconvenient. The new stand-not a thing of beauty-has everything accessible from the front. This one will shortly have (ugly but functional) doors to keep the insides mostly dust free.
That done, I turned my attention to inventory. I spent the day yesterday hauling sticks of lumber around the shop, cataloging and organizing it. So far, I've itemized about a hundred different sticks of wood, some big, some small. Some, I completely forgot I had. It's mind numbing, thoughtless work-a long way from the normal creativity of woodworking-but worth it, if only for the neatness I get in the end.
Still to come this week: hand tools to sharpen and a pegboard to reorganize. Also, I really, really need to open up the planer and figure out why I'm getting so much snipe.
I like to start off a new year by getting my shop in shape. After the busy holiday season, offcuts are piled everywhere, edges are dull and the deficiencies in the workspace are sharp in my mind.
Shortly after Christmas, I set to work making a new stand for my lathe. The old one was designed to stand in the middle of the room and had storage on both sides. I ended up pushing it against a wall, which made that space either worthless or terribly inconvenient. The new stand-not a thing of beauty-has everything accessible from the front. This one will shortly have (ugly but functional) doors to keep the insides mostly dust free.
That done, I turned my attention to inventory. I spent the day yesterday hauling sticks of lumber around the shop, cataloging and organizing it. So far, I've itemized about a hundred different sticks of wood, some big, some small. Some, I completely forgot I had. It's mind numbing, thoughtless work-a long way from the normal creativity of woodworking-but worth it, if only for the neatness I get in the end.
Still to come this week: hand tools to sharpen and a pegboard to reorganize. Also, I really, really need to open up the planer and figure out why I'm getting so much snipe.