# Underway again...finally



## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Healed and starting over*

Well I finally healed up and am starting from scratch - again.

I started by replacing my pallet buster with another design that doesn't break or crack nearly as many boards as the first one did. The new one has longer and wider tines that seem to spread the strain/load on the cross members much better than the first one. I've also lucked into a location/business that puts out "quality" pallets on a weekly basis as well as some large plywood-and-2×4/4×6 combination sheets. Today I got 6- 2×3 to 4×6 pieces of OSB with minimal marks, holes, defects. Free for the taking - what more could you ask for (other than winning the lottery, of course)? I've now got more than enough wood to start making "things"... If only I had a pickemup truck rather than just my Prius - I left at least $500 worth of usable wood (if I'd tried to buy the equivalent amount at a big box store) behind today.

I managed to offload my dodgy Craftsman table saw for what I paid for it and have replaced it with a Dewalt 745 job site saw. A couple people advised me to get something more "substantial", but that would have cost me more money than I had. After 3 days of playing around, getting familiar with it and trimming up some pallet wood pieces, it has done everything I've asked of it with no trouble. I've ripped 4' long boards that caused the Craftsman to smoke and whine without any problems. And that's with the "stock" Dewalt blade that came with the saw - I haven't put either of the two more expensive blades I have on the Dewalt yet (kinda establishing a baseline for future reference experience-wise). And, fwiw, it seems quieter than the Craftsman/other saws I hear around the neighborhood.

Some of the very basic things I've done so far (remember I'm just starting out/learning from scratch) include (in no particular order): ripping straight edges on 6' plywood sheets to get rid of de-laminating sections, testing the 5-cut method for table-saw alignment & setup, crosscut some of the less-worthy pallet wood 2×4's to make a very temporary mobile stand for the table saw (in order to lower it as running it atop "standard height" sawhorses is waaaaay less than perfect), and playing around with fence adjustments to see just how thin a strip I can cut with consistency. I've also done the "cut a 2×4 in 2 long passes reversing the ends to simulate cutting a large/tall piece of wood [one taller than I could cut with the blade at full height]. I've also "jointed" a non-straight edge using a quicky jig I copied from somewhere on the Net.

It's gonna rain tonight/early tomorrow so that means I'll need to take the day off (again, sigh).

I know.. pics or it didn't happen… well, maybe I'll post a couple tomorrow showing … actually I'm not sure what it would show. Anything I post would certainly pale in comparison to even the "closest" minimal shop space I've seen pics of here on LJ. I mean, I can show some stacks of pallet wood, the Dewalt 745 which most people have already seen… the piece or **** temporary table saw stand I made which will last only long enough to make something better…. Shrug… tomorrow.

Anyway, I's back and somewhat excited to get started again.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Completing yesterday's entry...pics*

Here are 2 "nothing" pics showing the "basicness" of where I'm starting from…
I work under an open carport - temporarily off sawhorses which raise the Dewalt table saw (under the blue tarp in the second pic) too high to be safe/comfortable for me.









The 2nd pic is of my pallet wood "gloat"/glut/collection thus far, well, a partial shot of it all. Not shown in the wood gloat pic is the plywood, OSB and fllooring I've managed to scrounge, um, collect.








The door on the left is to the house/laundry room. The door on the right is to a small room that has a toilet in it rendering the left side unusable for anything, leaving about 5×5 to 5×7 worth of storage space for me.

I'm too embarrassed to post a pic of the temporary stand I made for the Dewalt saw - definitely a kludged, knock-together piece of junk that won't last more than 2 days before I dismantle it… But it raised the Dewalt to a reasonable height and I used the folding table in the first pic as my outfeed table. Talk about kludges…
--
Something that has struck me while deconstructing the pallets is the variety of wood types encountered - even within the same pallet. I encountered one pallet with four different types of wood in it - pine, oak, maple and a reddish wood I didn't recognize though it might have been cypress(?).

Environmental update: Storm came through last night. Roof has a leak… Trapped just under 5 gallons of water from the leak in a HD bucket placed just inside that right hand storage room door. It almost overflowed. Such are the conditions I will be working in. Man I need to win the lottery like the guy in Eunice, La. did the other day.


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## Kilo19 (Oct 13, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Completing yesterday's entry...pics*
> 
> Here are 2 "nothing" pics showing the "basicness" of where I'm starting from…
> I work under an open carport - temporarily off sawhorses which raise the Dewalt table saw (under the blue tarp in the second pic) too high to be safe/comfortable for me.
> ...


At least you have a roof. My current workshop is weather dependant. It outside in the open…hopefully that'll change soon. In the works of building a new shop. Keep it up, and work with what you have. 
P.S. i've had my "workshop" for 2 years this way.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*The plan, the plan, then doing other stuff...*

There is a saying something along the lines of: the best made plans of mice and men often go wrong….. Well, I HAD a plan for today. I really did.

It was a good plan. A simple plan. Okay, it was kinda vague. Get to work *actually building something*. The workbench, yeah, that's the ticket. Build the workbench. That was the plan.

And therein lay the problem. I needed something more than just a really vague idea about where I wanted to end up. At least a vague idea to start would be good. Something drawn/written to actually cut and build from would be so much better. I hate wasting wood, nails, effort, time. So, I didn't want to just start cutting mindlessly - though that IS its own end in a weird sort of way.

So, I pulled out pen and paper and jotted something down, then realized *measurements might be useful*. I knew I wanted to be able to have the following on the surface simultaneously - mitre saw, drill press, a section for an under-the-top router. Basic stuff. Measurements… I mentioned *measurements. Well, I didn't have any*. So, I went to get them…

Oh wait. My drill press was still in the box. So was my mitre saw. Needed to assemble them. No big deal but there went an hour. Another hour was spent setting up/aligning the saw as it was "not right" straight out of the box (I don't think this is just a Harbor Freight tools issue, I've heard of other people having to spend a similar amount of time setting up a power tool). So, fiddle with this. Adjust that. What does this adjustment do on the saw? Did I forget to say I spent 15 minutes just installing the blade because I had issues with one of the locking adjustment screws? RTFM, you fool! Well, I did! The drill press was its own series of tweak this, measure, adjust that, dang it the er moved, RTFM you fool!, re-adjust, re-measure, re-adjust…. But I finally got it all done.

Hey, did I mention I remembered to actually get those measurements? Well, I did. I even wrote them on paper (now if I could just find the freakin' sheet!).

Then my elderly Dad said "lunchtime" and off we went for pizza. Not a bad idea but not "building something". There went another hour and a half - hey, we eat slowly, very slowly.

Got back to the carport ready to GO FOR IT and immediately got side-tracked with chisels… very dull chisels, very old and possibly unsalvageable chisels. You know the kind - where the metal is covered in dirt, grime, dried oil, other stuff and might just be pitted beyond recognition as tools rather than just hunks of metal slag.

(Aside - my $25 bench grinder needed to be "fixed" a little bit before use. There were a couple loose screws holding the guards that needed to be tightened and a weird, totally unexpected "issue" cropped up. Not just because it's Halloween season, but I think the grinder is haunted. I turned off the grinder and the wheels continued to spin, and spin, and spin, and… well, you get the idea. I even unplugged it and it continued to spin. If my $3000 bicycle wheels spun on their axles that long I'd saved sooooooo much energy! Seriously, the grinder wheels spun for over 2 minutes after being unplugged… over 2 minutes!)

There went another hour and a half as the light began to fade - here comes a storm, or at least storm clouds.

Time to begin to pick everything up to protect it from the wetness to come. Rather than just throw stuff in the store room and car as I have been doing (yes, the Prius has acted as a temporary storage facility a few times), I began the process of trying to put things in specific locations in a semi-organized fashion, you know, like we all want to do and occasionally succeed at (though it usually only lasts minutes for me before CHAOSs raises its ugly head and destroys my hard-won, often-sought neatness). Believe it or not, I got 99% of my things to fit into drawers and toolboxes rather than having them strewn on the carport and storage room floors.

There went at least another 45 minutes.

And the rain came…

Did you notice that I haven;'t written about actually making something today? Where'd the day go? I had the best of intentions. I really did. That "built workbench" still eludes me though.

As Scarlett O'hara said, "Tomorrow is another day."


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## EarlS (Dec 21, 2011)

JohnTM said:


> *The plan, the plan, then doing other stuff...*
> 
> There is a saying something along the lines of: the best made plans of mice and men often go wrong….. Well, I HAD a plan for today. I really did.
> 
> ...


John,

I can relate, as can most everyone here. It is amazing how many things get in the way of the actual woodworking.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Actual work accomplished...such as it is/was/whatever*

Once again, good intentions were overcome by the exigencies of life (can you tell that I'm an over-educated man of words??? I knew that you could.).

Yup, yup, yup. Little sleep last night due to a continuously barking dog kept me up til 5am which meant I didn't roll out of bed until nearly noon. Then, "brunch" until 1:30pm with Dad (I live with him and it's my responsibility to see that he actually eats because that's when he takes his daily meds…). So, rolled back into the carport only to realize that I needed to make a HF run to buy a couple vertical toggle clamps for a jig.

That took an hour… and yesterday repeats itself. Distraction after distraction ensued until about 5. Finally, I got to work on a jig for the table saw to joint one side of a rough cut board. Slowly. Meticulously - and still I made mistakes, including using the wrong size drill bit to pre-drill holes and using slotted screws rather than Phillips head or square head. This obviously was not optimal, but it eventually got the job done.








Sorry about the straight-on angle…I should have shot it from 45 degrees but I wasn't thinking.

Anyway… It's about as basic a jig as you can make. 2 pieces of wood, the top one's edge nearest the blade is offset 3 inches from the other. 2 vertical toggle clamps are screwed through/to both boards. Clamp the wood to be jointed down and then run it along the table saw fence - voila, 1 straight edge!
*I did not originate this design. I saw a Steve Ramsey video describing this jig*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrYjc3G1vgo".

And that's the accomplishment for the day.

Simple thing but it's funny how it gives me confidence for trying something more.
(Have I mentioned I was one of those studious geeks in high school [decades ago] who managed to fail shop class? Seriously. Where the "A" students in the class ended up doing 6-8 projects in one semester, I managed to bork up the only project I worked on - a VERY simple, 5 board, 1 dowel, open-top toolbox similar to this pic.)









Tomorrow is another day… and I have a plan…yeah, a real plan!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Baby steps... or are they actual steps?*

Big plans, small accomplishments, a couple of them actually.

I'd intended to actually start on the workbench today (sound familiar?) but got side-tracked, as is becoming usual. I notice that many people are counter-sinking screws (mostly for looks, but also for smooth-fit functionality at times) and I remember way back when that my Dad had done this with an over-sized drill bit just drilling slightly below the top surface of the wood. NO big news to you old guys, I'm sure. So I decided to try that on a couple pieces of scrap and was amazed at how difficult it was to manually/hand- drill consistently depth-wise. Obviously some of that difficulty is surely due to mere inexperience on my part. But there's an obvious solution and I took that easy way out.

A trip to HF with 20% coupon in hand brought me 6 counter-sink bits of various sizes for ~$10. I admit to buying 3, walking over to McDonalds next door for a burger and then going back into HF for the other 3 using a 2nd 20% off coupon (and yes, I really took advantage and used 2 more "free blue tarp with any purchase" coupons - shame on me). Anyway, headed back home and realized the bits don't sit well in drawers without "help". I noticed the little router bit box for the set of router bits I'd bought was simple and contained two 1"x1"x4" strips with half a dozen holes drilled in them using a clear plastic piece as the top. Bright (okay dim) light showed up above my head and I figured, "I can do that". So, my second distraction for the day.

Break out the HF drill press for its inaugural run and more minutes later than it should have taken, I had the scrap wood drilled. But, an "oops" reared its ugly head, of course. I had drilled all the way through the scrap piece so the bits sank through the board. No problem, think I. I have more scrap wood. And I can glue my first pieces together too! Whee! And use my clamps! Double whee! The end result is on the right side of the table saw top in the pic below - your 3 year old kid could probably do this in 1/4 of the time it took me as I futzed around cutting scrap wood way too much.

While doing that I realized my table saw's mitre gauge had more slop than was acceptable so I scratched myself (get your minds out of the gutter guys… I scratched the other end ) trying to remember if I'd heard, read or seen a video on solving that and, surprise, surprise, I had. There are a few youtube videos on inexpensively solving just this problem. Blue painter's tape to the rescue… three layers, actually. But there's no side-to-side slop now and the mitre gauge slides smoothly along the length of both slots.

Wasn't there something else I'd considered doing to the mitre gauge? More scratching and another dim light bulb began to illuminate rarely used and aging memory cells actually beginning to show positive results. Another simple "fix" from the youtube realm came to mind. Attach a piece of wood to the front of the mitre gauge extending to just shy of the blade. It provides more support for pieces when using the mitre gauge. Really simple idea, right? I mean, isn't this really just as simple as the counter-sink bit holder "solution" above?

In case you haven't guessed already, I seem to be able to make simple things more complex and "difficult" than they need to be. Even when I move at a seemingly glacial pace. It only took 3 different pieces of scrap wood and rounding the heads of 2 screws to get it right. Eventually, I went to hand screwing the pieces together rather than using a powered drill to screw the piece of wood to the mitre gauge back. I made this way too difficult…waaaaaaay too difficult. Again, I think a 3 year old could have accomplished it in far less time. Oh, did I mention that I split two pieces of wood doing this due to over-tightening the screw?








That's it for the day.
Way too much information on way too small "an" accomplishment (skill level - negative 7 on a 0-10 scale). 
But it's progress, such as it is.


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *Baby steps... or are they actual steps?*
> 
> Big plans, small accomplishments, a couple of them actually.
> 
> ...


Don't sweat it. We've all drilled too deep. Another option. I just bought a 7 bit set at HF last week for $6.49 after the coupon (and the free tarp) and they came in a black plastic case. They are great cuz they are tapered so they are kind of a 3 in 1 thing. Pilot hole, screw hole and countersink all in one. I also bought the set you bought a few months ago but these are a better buy IMO and a *lot *handier to use.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Baby steps... or are they actual steps?*
> 
> Big plans, small accomplishments, a couple of them actually.
> 
> ...


There were 2 different 3 counter-sink bit sets. My local store didn't have the 6 bit set.


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## Andybb (Sep 30, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *Baby steps... or are they actual steps?*
> 
> Big plans, small accomplishments, a couple of them actually.
> 
> ...


It's not really 22 pieces. Each bit is made up of 3 parts plus the allen wrench. Worth every "bit" of $6.49 not to mention the free tarp! . I still use the coutersink ones which also come in handy at times.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Baby steps... or are they actual steps?*
> 
> Big plans, small accomplishments, a couple of them actually.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I got the set pictured above on the left as well as another 3 piece set with different sizes. My local HF didn't have the one on the right, which I would have preferred. But, what I did buy should work, so I'm relatively "happy" (meaning I ought to be able to do what I think I want to do with what I bought). Price-wise, it came out about the same using 2-20% off coupons.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*College Football Day freebie haul*

Today being college football day and the area experiencing record setting heat for November as well as early morning fog making humidity uncharacteristically uncomfortable outside between 7-and-11 this morning, I don't plan to do any work on the workbench today. Instead, I took a ride out to my "favorite"/go-to free pallet place and picked up some goodies - even made 2 runs as the Prius can only hold so much.








I got plywood! 3 sheets somewhere between 3'x6' and (just under)4'x8' (I know, I should measure so I can report accurately, but I didn't) - and making THAT fit into the Prius is a trick, let me tell you. The driver's seat was so far forward that I had to turn sideways to get my right leg under and past the steering wheel and then both knees were hitting the dashboard on the 32 mile ride home.

On the way back home, I was pulled over twice by the local PD and a State Trooper as I'd had to tie the hatchback door down because the pieces were just an inch too long to close it. The "Statie" was interested and wanted to talk about what I was doing with it while the local Barney Fife guy just needed to justify his job/take it out on someone because he was working on Saturday morning. Initially he not only wanted to give me a ticket, he wanted to make me leave the car on the side of the road and come back for it - but that would have meant unloading the wood in order to secure the car while it was left. I insisted he call a supervisor; when that guy showed up, he all but "Jap-slapped" Barney and started to say "just give him a warning and be done with it" when I asked both to tell me under which statute, regulation, whatever they were going to cite me. I told them I was asking so that I could tell my nephew the ADA about "how well they were clogging up his prosecutorial docket". Cough, cough, cough. (Nephew's been dead for 20 years but they didn't need to know that.) I also mentioned I'd been stopped and checked by the Statie and gave them his name. A couple more hems and haws and they finally let me go.

If you look carefully, you can probably see I got 4×4's 1×6's, 1×8's, 2×6's and 2×8's and it's all mostly in B+/A- condition (on MY personal grading scale). The plywood is probably B or B-. Oh, and there are some lengths of 1×2's that I guess are called/canbeused_as "furring strips" (correct terminology?). I expect it'll take me 2-3 hours to de-nail it all, possibly more.

Irealize that it may seem kinda silly and almost childish (at least for a 61-y.o.) to get semi-excited about "scoring a haul" like this. But, there it is. My life has so little real excitement in it that I try to take advantage of each little positive I can. *I like "Freebies"* and only wish I'd known so much could be had so easily and so often years ago.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *College Football Day freebie haul*
> 
> Today being college football day and the area experiencing record setting heat for November as well as early morning fog making humidity uncharacteristically uncomfortable outside between 7-and-11 this morning, I don't plan to do any work on the workbench today. Instead, I took a ride out to my "favorite"/go-to free pallet place and picked up some goodies - even made 2 runs as the Prius can only hold so much.
> 
> ...


Way to go John,
I am 66 and excited too!

Check out this find.

Good health !!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *College Football Day freebie haul*
> 
> Today being college football day and the area experiencing record setting heat for November as well as early morning fog making humidity uncharacteristically uncomfortable outside between 7-and-11 this morning, I don't plan to do any work on the workbench today. Instead, I took a ride out to my "favorite"/go-to free pallet place and picked up some goodies - even made 2 runs as the Prius can only hold so much.
> 
> ...


Small update today…Quite a few of those B+/A- condition piece turned into C+/B- pieces while and after dismantling and de-nailing. In most cases, some of the "defects"/ugliness was hidden/not obvious while the pallets were still together. In other cases, the dismantling caused damage - I need to get better at taking them apart without causing damage. Still, 99% of it remains more than usable for interior/structural purposes if not exterior (damn that looks pretty) purposes. Then again, I'm not going to be making fine furniture in the foreseeable future so looks are a relatively minor concern. (I just don't want things to look obviously "kludged".

Aside, yesterday, LSU got blown out by 'Bama… (crying big time despite that outcome being expected…) Today, the Saints, on the other hand, won handily. So, this weekend was better than a 50-50 draw outcome wise after adding in the pallet wood haul results.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *College Football Day freebie haul*
> 
> Today being college football day and the area experiencing record setting heat for November as well as early morning fog making humidity uncharacteristically uncomfortable outside between 7-and-11 this morning, I don't plan to do any work on the workbench today. Instead, I took a ride out to my "favorite"/go-to free pallet place and picked up some goodies - even made 2 runs as the Prius can only hold so much.
> 
> ...


Fine furniture is over rated anyway, its a limited market as most people with the loot to buy dont have kids any more. The market of fuctionality and reasonable cost usually pitched to young families starting out expect and accept gear will get knocked about as it is used.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*

Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!








That pic shows just some of the nails on one side along one edge. Examining the construction left me with the realization that trying to de-nail that and salvage the plywood would be an exercise in time-wasting and material destruction, not salvage. Luckily, that point was before I actually wasted any time trying to de-nail it. Man was did my mood take the opposite tack compared to when I first picked up the palletized plywood.

So I took a break…and engaged brain (such as it is). Can you smell the burning oil and hear the gears grinding? It was difficult to imagine how I was going to "make it work". I ran around in circles in the dark recesses of my mind for a while and finally decided to "go for a drive". (Some people think in a stinky room with men's magazines. I think (?) best while driving.) No deliberate destination.. just drove.

I semi-surprised myself ending up where I'd picked the pallets and plywood sides up the other day. A second surprise, 3 more plywood sides of similar design and size were available. So I snatched them up. And drove some more… gears ground loudly and smoke surely wafted from my ears (I know that because I couldn't hear anything but road noise and my vision was obscured - oh wait. That might [possibly] have been due to the windows being open and the wood blocking the rear view mirror.)

I surprised again by the number of nails/screws in the palletized plywood pieces I brought home - but a light bulb had begun to brighten while I was driving and it involved the angle grinder. Yet… methinks maybe if I cut off all the nails and just make some legs and braces, I might be able to turn these into a couple usable work surfaces - notice I didn't say "work bench"? That kinda reflects my current disappointment due to not "building something" again today.

Oh, did I mention that the plywood structures have 1.5"x1.5" pieces set in a rectangle 1.5" inboard of the plywood edge all the way around? On the other side of the plywood is "normal" pallet construction - crosspieces and stringers. And the ones I picked up today are longer than the ones I picked up the other day. All are 34-36" wide by either 62 or 71-73.5" long.








Analysis paralysis…. too much thinking. My head hurts.
Where's that beer?

Yes, Scarlett. Tomorrow IS another day dear. *Do something with it!*


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*
> 
> Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!
> 
> ...


Given the number of nails you're dealing with, it might be worth it to look into a nail remover like this one.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*
> 
> Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!
> 
> ...


I have looked at those. 2 issues. First - $. 2nd - I don't have an air compressor so more $.
But it's a thought. Thanks.

I really don't mind de-nailing "manually". Being retired, time is a commodity I have lots more of than money. What is "bad" about manual de-nailing for me (at least right now while I'm trying to figure out how to not screw up the boards more than they already are) is that I sometimes do create more damage than I think I should. Shrug. I'm learning… slowly to be sure. But repetition is a hard taskmaster.

Also, I'm learning, unfortunately after the fact in some cases, that some pallet/free wood simply isn't worth picking up in the first place. In the case of the plywood I discussed today, I'm not sure it's unusable. I am pretty sure that I can use it - just not in a straight-forward manner like I would with store-bought sheets.

I'm going to try something with it tomorrow. Will post about the results whether positive or negative.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*
> 
> Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!
> 
> ...


When the pallet craze hit, I looked into it. Ultimately I decided the negatives far outweighed the positives.

Best of luck though.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*
> 
> Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!
> 
> ...


John,
When you encounter that many nails have a re think, .... but do not pull them out. (Not just yet anyway)

Now the thinking should be along this train of thought

1. Have a good look at the ply, and decide is it a piece worth saving
if the answer is no dump it, if its yes or even a maybe yes read on.
2. Now have second look at it and see if there an area free of nails that you can use? its this is a yes consider the following.

3. Can you safely cut the ply and remove the edge off cut with the nails intact? , if yes do it and dump the off cuts and keep the piece/s of ply.

Problem solved.
You now have a piece of ply with no nail holes no raggedy edges ready for a project later.

I am not sure who actually builds these boxes but they must have shares in a Nail manufacturer, as they dont spare the nails thats for sure, no doubt an automatic nail gun.

A nice cold beer always helps!!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Analysis paralysis, but progress...kinda*
> 
> Spent hours and hours de-nailing the pallet haul. When I got to the plywood pieces, I was overwhelmed and disappointed by the construction. There were over 90 nails in the plywood - over 90!
> 
> ...


I appreciate both comments. Thanks.
The spacing of the nails along the perimeters of the pllywood pieces made me think, at first, that I could "save" the middle like Rob suggests - cut off the edges where the nails are. What I didn't notice is the number of nails in the middle. Also, I hadn't noticed that the 1.5" "furring strips" were nailed from below which makes removing them more difficult (if I want to try to save those pieces as well as the plywood). Maybe I'm being too greedy and I need to make a choice - save the plywood OR the 1.5's/ Pick one and sacrifice the other. I'lll look at it again after the Sun comes up.

It's 5am or I'd be outside trying out what I think is a different possible solution, at least as far as using the plywood for the top of a bench structure. Again, not looking for "pretty" right now, just functional. I might be able to put legs on the outside of the perimeter rather than directly under the corners like I've seen with most benches.

Then again, I may be trying to put lipstick on a pig - been there, done that, didn't like the result.

Later.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Actually made cuts today*

Yes, you read the title correctly. I actually made cuts today.

After examining the smallest/shortest of 4 palletized plywood pieces, I decided to experiment with it - why gamble with the biggest, right? We'll jump to the end of day pic first to provide context for the rest of the entry.








Okay, so that's where I wound up…the mockup is upside down though. The red arrows show fork lift tine cutouts in 2×4's that I decided to "salvage" by filling them in. More work than others might do, but otherwise, these large 2×4's would probably go to waste and they should make good legs. You can see that I already cut the fill-in pieces which now need to be glued and screwed in.

Okay, back to the day's progress. I spent more time looking at the wood this morning than actually cutting. My examination of the plywood pieces revealed even more nails than previously found. So, I concluded that I'd have to use the piece as is if I was going to use it at all. The plywood was framed with/1×6's along the perimeter with another piece crossways of the midpoint.The plywood was 1/2" thick. So, I concluded that I should be able to just make legs where the top would sit on 33.5" legs and those pieces with the fork lift cutouts were prime candidates for that, despite the cutouts (initially considered for pre-cut shelf supports, but they were at the wrong height).

I also decided to "frame" the outside perimeter of the plywood, saving me from having to rabbet anything. Which lead to the 2nd picture, a miscut.








Total dumbness move on my part. I'd actually measured it correctly but cut on the wrong side of the line which led to trying to fix it (yeah, cut it again when it's already too short, right? You can follow that logic IF you place the piece in the wrong spot when checking for fit….). Anyway, that's why I picked up more wood than I figured I'd need, especially with pallet wood being free.

Along the way, I found that the stacked palletized plywood pieces made a reasonable facsimile of a mitre saw table, being just about the right height and more than wide enough to do the job.









So, the status at the end of the day: 
The "Design" is complete, in my head at least. 
Cutting the pieces is 75% complete. 
-I still need to make 2 cross braces that will double for shelf supports.
-I have to cut pieces for the lower shelf - will be using 1/2"x4"(or 6")x40" pallet pieces cut down to the depth of the table (Reach across distance, width being left-right as you look at it).
-As noted above already, I need to glue and screw the fork lift cutout fill-in pieces.
The work table is temporarily clamped up.

Lessons learned today:
1. Measuring twice before cutting does you no good if you cut on the wrong side of the line.
2. Swapping back and forth between mitre and table saw is a pain when the mitre saw doesn't have a temporary table and you have to keep clearing things off the cutting surface to use it.
3. Cutting a 10' long piece of wood can be a pain when working by yourself. Balancing it on a small contractor's table saw is impractical - hence, using the mitre saw AND the table saw was the order of the day. (And yes, I did get a 2"x4x"10' piece from a throwaway pallet.)

Added: Sketchup screen shot "as-built"


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Actually made cuts today*
> 
> Yes, you read the title correctly. I actually made cuts today.
> 
> ...


No work the lastcouple of days. Been sick with earache - balance/vision issues. 
Hope to continue tomorrow.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Progress... seriously.*

*You read that correctly. I made actual progress.* (This is not fine furniture. It's a workstation that will remain outdoors 24/7 and is made 99% from freebies [CL and pallet wood]..... It's also the first real project I've ever done - since high school 45 years ago, at least.)
Here's the end of Day 1 pic as proof:








No, it's not screwed and glued together. Just placed it all in approximately the correct final places.

So, here's how the day went. First, use the Prius as a tool caddy.









Then start working on the mobile base. Pics show base upside down. Add casters in each corner as well as a small block of wood to bridge an open gap (gap is a result of sloppy pallet construction, not a measuring error on my part. I'll admit to my error later).








Found out later that I may have to adjust the caster placement on 2 corners as they don't rotate 360degrees.
Turned it over and stood on it in the center… way too much deflection. Time to go cheap and add support.









Time to cut down the cabinets in order to get the surface height where I want it. I don't have a tripod for the camera so I had to just show how I used the circular saw with a clamped straightedge without me in the pic (use a little imagination, you really don't want to see my ugly mug anyway). 








Consider the circular saw flat, not tilted when I was cutting. Rinse and repeat for other cabinet.

Made the tablesaw stand shown in the center of the End of Day 1 pic above. 









What did someone say about measure twice, cut once? Well, there were minor cutting or measuring errors as you can see if you examine the joints closely and the platform.

Oh, and learned a lesson - making it the way I did was technically more expensive than just using a piece of MDF/plywood for the platform. Screws cost money while the wood was free. I didn't think it through before doing it this way. ...next time….

Now it was time to place all of the pieces together - not quite a dry fit… more like a throw-together. It was getting dark and I was ready to end for the day anyway. *See first pic.*

End of day analysis:
1. Lesson learned about cost versus just being cheap - using screws vs wood mentioned previously.
2. I am slooooooowwwwww. Really slow. Going slow does not preclude making errors - cutting, measuring, whatever. Got to concentrate on what I'm doing, think things through first, then act. 
3. Getting smooth surfaces on pallet wood makes working with the wood so much more enjoyable to work with. It is worth the time it takes, even if I've done it less than perfectly. If I'd used a planer, which I have but haven't set up yet, the tablesaw stand would look less rough but be no more functional. So, prioritize things - function over looks or vice versa.
4. Just get over my fear of making mistakes. It's going to happen. Wood, at least pallet wood, is all but free for me so cut and measure carefully, but mistakes may still happen. Either make an adjustment or cut another piece correctly. Just get on with it.

So went my day.

Tomorrow - I'll fix the height issue with the tablesaw stand - raise it to absolute height (need to cut a couple thin runners to place under the stand legs OR under the saw itself. Dunno which. Also, I need to cut plywood or MDF for cabinet top surfaces - may use thin hardboard atop 1/2inch MDF [need to check if if I have enough]. Finally, I need to attach the 2 cabinets to the table saw stand to get side to side stability and unify the structure.

At least that's the plan.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *Progress... seriously.*
> 
> *You read that correctly. I made actual progress.* (This is not fine furniture. It's a workstation that will remain outdoors 24/7 and is made 99% from freebies [CL and pallet wood]..... It's also the first real project I've ever done - since high school 45 years ago, at least.)
> Here's the end of Day 1 pic as proof:
> ...


Looks like you've got the ball rolling. It'll go smoother as you get more practice. Thanks for sharing.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Re-did the casters... very early end to the day*

I must be the klutziest, slowest to learn woodworker on this board.

Re-mounted the casters. *Had to do it twic*e because I went the easy way and just stuck another of those small square blocks beside the existing ones. Then, silly me, didn't check it by spinning the caster 360 degrees and they didn't go all the way around - just like yesterday (headsmack!!!)... Of course, I only caught my mistake AFTER removing and re-mounting a pair on one end and then moving to the other end to start the second pair.

All but threw in the screwdriver at this point but took the time to go to the Big Orange store to get some washers as a way of giving myself some distance from the problem and giving my Freudian Unconscious time to think. $4.88 plus tax for 100 washers??? [and that's the best per unit price they had on the size I needed.] Screws and washers are going to nitpick my wallet to death (fixed income griping!)

Returned home and took a second look at the casters, the plywood corner (that I would not have constructed this way but I'm stuck with it because removing all the screws would be too time-consuming and probably very destructive to the plywood itself) and the 2 support pieces comprising the gap. (Realized I was using more square blocks and screws to cover the gap and mount the casters & blocks than necessary. Took off all the square blocks entirely replacing them with scrap 1" x 4" x 6"pieces to cover the gaps and then mounted the casters directly to that. Result - no height addition (that is, I didn't raise the base's surface height from the ground), the gap is covered & the plywood is supported along both wider and longer dimensions and the casters actually rotate 360 degrees like they are supposed to.

Tested it by standing on it in the middle and it rolls and is as solid as I imagine will be necessary. (My retired engineer father came out and made the comment, "You're never going to be putting that much weight on the middle of the plywood span. It's over-constructed!" Hmm, thanks Dad fr you uninvited opinion but too bad for you. It's my base and I'll live with it so long as it works. 
(I thought that but was diplomatic enough *to not actually say it*...
...
...
I think.)

Not worth posting pics about this. Made the post as much to vent frustration as to simply update.

Made a very early end to the day for 2 reasons. It's College Football Saturday. My back must have been strained yesterday - I'm very sore. Time for the heating pad and lots of beer.

Tomorrow is another day - Scarlett O'hara.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Re-did the casters... very early end to the day*
> 
> I must be the klutziest, slowest to learn woodworker on this board.
> 
> ...


Ahh John …Hey ripped off !! where is the picture of you load testing it

Hey I hauled home huge wooded pine crate from Smiths this week the planks were full of nails of which I started to removed but found I was doing more damage than it was worth trying to get them out so I left them there and cut them off flush, it will be a new roof for my mower shed.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Re-did the casters... very early end to the day*
> 
> I must be the klutziest, slowest to learn woodworker on this board.
> 
> ...


Np pics of me for 2 reasons… No desire to break the camera lens. Also no tripod for the smartphone, currently my only camera.

"Ripped off", eh? I think one of your own posts advised "cutting one's losses" as far as time, effort and results goes (could have been someone else). I'm learnin' that that is actually a good thing to remember/do when working with pallet wood/throwaway stuff off the street. There's so much good stuff being offered/thrown away for free, there's regularly no real upside to spending lots of time trying to recover a board. For instance, the plywood piece I used for the mobile base has too many nails to disassemble economically and the plywood would definitely be damaged by the effort.

Today, for instance, on the way back from the run to the HD store, I passed by Lumber Liquidators (an American flooring supply store) and found they'd thrown 5- 1/4-1/2 and 3/4" x 3-4' x 4' pieces of plywood in their dumpster. God knows what they had been part of - no nail holes in any of them. I assume they were side pieces to some container, but that's merely a guess.

Had I had these piece instead of the ones I picked up a couple weeks ago, I probably wouldn't have picked what I used up based on the cost-benefits time analysis… Still, what I have used works just fine as a piece no one will see. Ain't pretty but it's the bottom of the mobile unit.

Ripped off, indeed?? Lol!

Btw, my team(s) won today. Fingers crossed for my NFL team tomorrow.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Pro Football day - some progress in wood and football*

Let's get the "big deal" out of the way first. After a shaky first 3 quarters, we pulled it out in the last couple of minutes. My team now has 8 wins in a row! Geaux Saints! Whew.

With that taken care of, I did a bit of work both before and after the game. Before the game, I worked on strengthening the table saw stand and raising its height to what it should have been yesterday. Nothing major skill-wise. Just the usual "do and re-do" process for me as I futz my way through things - learning what seems like it really should work sometimes doesn't which requires re-doing something. (I THOUGHT I was pretty good with spatial relationships before now but am learning that it ain't necessarily so.)








Stand is turned on its side and you're looking at the bottom. I used the big "cubes" I got off a couple pallets for squaring up and blocking a couple corners - just 'cuz. Also stuck a couple 1.25" x 1.25"'s under the bottom cross-pieces to raise the stand-platform/tablesaw-top to the correct height.

Spent way too long on this and it was game time.

After the game, I went back out to work on figuring out what I wanted to do with the unaccounted for space in the width of the mobile base. (Cabinet width + tablesaw stand width + unaccounted for space width = mobile base total width [yeah math… um, no.. I hate math….]). Moved things around, got a brain freeze a couple times and finally figured that I would use the space between the saw stand's side and the left cabinet as a vertical cubby for a yet-to-be-made crosscut sled. So, that's what I worked on until it got dark - which it did promptly at 5:03PM. Outside & carport lights came on and progress slowed appreciably as they aren't the greatest.

I spent some time picking and prepping pieces for that cubby only to find some of the pieces were unusable after I'd cut them - things like cupping and twists and other things I should have noticed as I pulled them out of the pile. Finally, between "squaring and jointing" twice as many pieces as I thought I'd need on the tablesaw, I started cutting things to length with the mitre saw. Oh, and the cabinets have already been "used" as you can see… (Actually too high for the mitre saw but it was in the light so it was safe to use there.)








The picture makes things look brighter than I felt they were… and at this point I was tired of "workng" so I decided to "play" by experimenting with my first half-lap joint.








I'd show the result but it was actually kinda embarrassing. I only eyeballed the heights of the two pieces so I cut out way too much in both pieces and was off by about 1/4" after placing them together. But it was a good experience as I learned "don't eyeball… measure, then measure again - both with the pieces to be cut and with the saw blade height". (Sound ike I said that before - "measure twice, cut once"? Told you I was slow… In my case, some lessons apparently need to be *learned and re-learned and re-re-learned*).

That was my rather tedious day. Snail's pace progress, but progress nonetheless.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Pro Football day - some progress in wood and football*
> 
> Let's get the "big deal" out of the way first. After a shaky first 3 quarters, we pulled it out in the last couple of minutes. My team now has 8 wins in a row! Geaux Saints! Whew.
> 
> ...


John,
You can use your miter saw to do the cuts as well, just set the depth gauge screw on your saw then after the first two cuts adjust it by half the thickness for a perfect fit.

Lookig good, ...it sure beats being in a sub in the South Pacific Ocean,


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*OMG-I cut the free cabinets!*

Spent the day semi-waiting for a roofer. While I waited, I fiddled slowly with fitting the tablesaw fence rail guide and the cabinets. The fence extends further to the right than to the left. The cabinets are deeper than the tablesaw, so openings in both cabinets had to be made in order for the table saw fence rail guides to extend fully in both directions. This (obviously) only needs to be done for the rear rail guides as I am mounting the cabinets so the tablesaw's front rail guide passes in front of both cabinets.

I thought I was taking my time and being accurate. Notice that I said, "I thought…" Well, I did take my time and still had to do it, re-do it and do it a third time. Story of my woodworking life it seems.
The first time.








Forgot to account for the fence alignment bolt head.








Finally, it all works.









This was an interesting "Fix" as I did it with the cabinets standing up, fully assembled. Making the cutouts would have been so much easier mentally had they not been assembled - that is, until I realized I just had to think about using the jigsaw as a reciprocating saw. Then it became much easier if not more accurate.

Roofer came and gave us an estimate for resurfacing the carport - took much longer than expected and my mood changed during the "delay".

Finished up the short "workday" by making a kludge - something I've seen elsewhere for wrapping and storing electrical cords. I got the width wrong as I had no idea how wide the cord would wrap (shoulda just wrapped the cord from my hand to my elbow then measured the size of that….20/20 hindsight). I will shorten the middle pieces tomorrow.








Used the jigsaw to round ends and a trick I've seen somewhere on the 'Net about scribing a curve using a piece of tape…








I know the end result looks "rough" - it is. I was cleaning up and just wanted to get something done. It's much more functional than pretty (which wasn't even a consideration).

So, another short day. Small progress.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *OMG-I cut the free cabinets!*
> 
> Spent the day semi-waiting for a roofer. While I waited, I fiddled slowly with fitting the tablesaw fence rail guide and the cabinets. The fence extends further to the right than to the left. The cabinets are deeper than the tablesaw, so openings in both cabinets had to be made in order for the table saw fence rail guides to extend fully in both directions. This (obviously) only needs to be done for the rear rail guides as I am mounting the cabinets so the tablesaw's front rail guide passes in front of both cabinets.
> 
> ...


It's coming along. However, I gotta channel my inner George Carlin and ask how you were semi-waiting. Either you're waiting or you're not. Like George's semi-boneless ham, either it's got a bone or it doesn't


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *OMG-I cut the free cabinets!*
> 
> Spent the day semi-waiting for a roofer. While I waited, I fiddled slowly with fitting the tablesaw fence rail guide and the cabinets. The fence extends further to the right than to the left. The cabinets are deeper than the tablesaw, so openings in both cabinets had to be made in order for the table saw fence rail guides to extend fully in both directions. This (obviously) only needs to be done for the rear rail guides as I am mounting the cabinets so the tablesaw's front rail guide passes in front of both cabinets.
> 
> ...


Well, the guy said he MIGHT be out today… so, waiting but not waiting if you see what I mean now. Figured there was a >50% chance he wouldn't show.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *OMG-I cut the free cabinets!*
> 
> Spent the day semi-waiting for a roofer. While I waited, I fiddled slowly with fitting the tablesaw fence rail guide and the cabinets. The fence extends further to the right than to the left. The cabinets are deeper than the tablesaw, so openings in both cabinets had to be made in order for the table saw fence rail guides to extend fully in both directions. This (obviously) only needs to be done for the rear rail guides as I am mounting the cabinets so the tablesaw's front rail guide passes in front of both cabinets.
> 
> ...


I should have added - Fridgideezer..JUMBO shrimp… and the 7 Dirty Words you can't say on television…

GEAUX George! One of my all-time favorite comedians. As a species, we are less since he's no longer with us.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

JohnTM said:


> *OMG-I cut the free cabinets!*
> 
> Spent the day semi-waiting for a roofer. While I waited, I fiddled slowly with fitting the tablesaw fence rail guide and the cabinets. The fence extends further to the right than to the left. The cabinets are deeper than the tablesaw, so openings in both cabinets had to be made in order for the table saw fence rail guides to extend fully in both directions. This (obviously) only needs to be done for the rear rail guides as I am mounting the cabinets so the tablesaw's front rail guide passes in front of both cabinets.
> 
> ...


LOL. You can change your plans and alter your plans and it's the same thing, but changing your pants and altering your plans isn't.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Post-Thanksgiving return to "work"*

Well, I took a few days off to "do stuff".. you know. Life happens. Too many obligations. Earache returned. S_ happens You know how it goes.

Anyway, didn't construct/build anything again. Instead, I ran out to my favorite pallet wood place and got some more… It's way easier mentally to dismantle than to build… and you really can't "fail" dismantling. Oh, you can make a mess and destroy things you're trying to salvage. But you just keep hammering and screwing and ripping away until there's nothing left to take apart - and you have a pile of stuff/parts/whatever strewn about you. "Success" is how big a pile you have when you feel like you've done enough - at least it is for me.

As has been hinted if not actually stated before, I have a "fear of failure" of sorts. My ego gets in the way of lots of things - either I have too much hubris or too little confidence with things. Right now, the woodworking effort suffers from the latter rather than the former. So dismantling stuff builds the ego at least to a little extent. So, getting "back to it" after the holiday required me to go get more things to bang on and rip apart.

I mentioned the "nice plywood" I picked up the last time out. Today I finished tearing them apart and recovering lots of stuff. Each plywood piece had 4 plastic corner "guides" (either 4 or 5 screws) and 2 straight pieces (about 9 inches long, 2 screws) and 3 runners on the opposite side separated with 3 3.5"x3.5" OSB/glue blocks with 4 or 5 2-inch nails. Had to use a chisel to pry and separate the plywood from the blocks after unscrewing all those screws. Here's what I recovered from the 6 plywood pallets and the tools I used.









Here's a pick showing the thickness and number of layers of the plywood.








Boring/bad pic I know. Sorry. The inset shows the layers detail, such as it is.
Got 2 different types of screws, some washers, those white plastic cable guides, 24 black plastic corners and 12 straight plastic pieces. And the plywood, of course - it's 3/4 inch, btw. What "impresses" me about it is the exterior ply/layers on both sides is almost veneer-quality. Shrug. Dunno what it was used to carry.

Only took 4 hours of careful prying so as not to damage the plywood any more than necessary.

Well, tomorrow is supposed to be back up around 72F again, perfect weather after a week of fairly cool temps (low-mid-50F's). So, that should encourage me to actually get back to work on the mobile table saw with cabinets.


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## Kilo19 (Oct 13, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Post-Thanksgiving return to "work"*
> 
> Well, I took a few days off to "do stuff".. you know. Life happens. Too many obligations. Earache returned. S_ happens You know how it goes.
> 
> ...


I've noticed sometimes that when I hit the wall, taking apart pallets and doing "mundan" jobs will actually get to think about something else besides what I'm doing. No big deal cuz its mundan. Then I'll see a piece of wood or look at a pallet a different way (you know, when your standing on one foot, prying down, pulling up, and go…..ohhh, yea, that would work.) Then I have another project to work on.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Sidetracked - but it's a good thing, really, it is!*

No, I didn't get anything done on the mobile table saw and cabinet base.
Yes, I got sidetracked - but it was a good thing! *REALLY!*

Started off looking for 2×3's to act as connecting pieces between the cabinets. Ran into this mess:







and this:







and this:








Seriously - can you find the 8-foot long 2×3's? It took me over 5 minutes and I'm the one who put it "there".

So, I sat down and thought - "This has to be fixed. Wasting time is bad enough but the mess is even worse." (I'd feign embarrassment, but I've seen other people's ;umber piles/workshops….There's some weird sense of pride in THE MESS though it interferes in efficiency.) Obviously, the answer is a lumber rack, at least one. Unfortunately, it has to be "free-standing", not attached to any wall. And, I need to handle lumber, plywood and MDF/OSB. I decided to tackle the rack for lumber/cutoffs first - will make a plywood/MDF/OSB cart next and then get back to the table saw/cabinet base. (Though the mobile table saw/cabinet setup isn't finished, throwing plywood atop the open cabinet tops temporarily works to add width [need to figure out a similar temporary outfeed "fix").

Found the 2×3's.








Here's the basic layout after all the cutting (more pics of the process follow):









Will use pallet forklift cutout pieces for "feet". Cut 2 pair - 1 pair 34 inches long, the other pair 24 inches long. I'll use the longer pair of feet as the outer of 4 - 2"x3"x96"vertical pieces. The shorter feet will be on the inner pair of vertical supports.









I didn't start with a written plan… I wrote things down as I figured them out/need to figure them out. Here's "the plan" I wound up with at the end of the day - it's pretty much the process I thought the plan out and cut things. May seem out of sequence, but I actually think this way - started with height and width, then figured I should make it so the mobile table saw/cabinet base would fit under it. 








If you look at the lower right part of the picture, you see the front elevation view with the table saw/cabinet base rolled under the lumber rack. AT least, that's how I want it to work.

Cutting the 45 degree "shelf" supports - same idea for the foot-to-vertical-piece supports(they're just larger/longer):









Not quite finished at the end of the day/when I started to clean up due to fast-approaching dusk/darkness. All pieces are cut, *ready to assemble in the morning*, including the diagonal brace which should prevent "wracking" (that's what the math on the left side of the last picture is all about - figuring the length of the diagonal brace). Turned out I didn't have a long enough piece for the diagonal so I had to try another hap-lap joint to make 2 shorter pieces 1 long piece. This half-lap came out "better" than my previous try, but I still added a 10-inch long plywood "backer" across the the half-lap joint for insurance" [not sure if it was necessary, but why not?].


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Sidetracked - but it's a good thing, really, it is!*
> 
> No, I didn't get anything done on the mobile table saw and cabinet base.
> Yes, I got sidetracked - but it was a good thing! *REALLY!*
> ...


Looks to be all go there John.

I am doing some roof ridge capping rebedding went to our local Bunnings Hardware store to buy 4 x bags of mortar

spied a "Free wood" sign

came home with
2 x interior doors
1 x Full 6×4 sheet of 16mm MDF that had some corner damage
1 x shorter sheet of an off cut of HDF, good for templates 
and 4 x bags of mortar!!

Hey what are the two grey items on a frame in picture No 2?

I built a lumber rack one day and by the time I was finished I had no lumber to put in it !! so I opted for a steel frame one now its chockers!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *Sidetracked - but it's a good thing, really, it is!*
> 
> No, I didn't get anything done on the mobile table saw and cabinet base.
> Yes, I got sidetracked - but it was a good thing! *REALLY!*
> ...





> Hey what are the two grey items on a frame in picture No 2?


Sorry. I don't see what 2 grey items you're referring to. Tell me a quadrant or something near it?

If you're referring to picture 3, not 2, you might have spotted an estate sale "freebie" (I know, that's contradictory but I actually got something at a sale for free.) There's a light stand with 2 oval halogen lights on an orange T-stand in the top left quadrant visually about level with the bottom of the fence in the background. Currently non-working - haven't troubleshot it yet; could be just bad bulbs. If I get even one of the 2 lights working, I'll be able to continue working past dusk (the carport lights are really too dim to work safely under).

Nice rack and nice haul, btw. Your rack is much fancier (well, maybe just better constructed) than mine will be and the wood on it looks of primo quality.


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Sidetracked - but it's a good thing, really, it is!*
> 
> No, I didn't get anything done on the mobile table saw and cabinet base.
> Yes, I got sidetracked - but it was a good thing! *REALLY!*
> ...


Well colour me stupid its picture No 3 and again at No 6! still would not have picked it as a light.
and I now understand its a outdoor llighting setup but only for use during the day at this stage!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Rain, rain. Go away...*

Not a long downpour, but heavy enough to cause work to stop.
This after a short morning due to the roofing guys returning and starting work on the carport roof. They actually took up the existing tar paper, ripped a long, rotten 2×6 out replaced it before the rain hit. Luckily, their work seems to be "holding", that is, not leaking anywhere obvious. OTOH, the wind blew the wet stuff all over the carport area, leading to an early end for my day's effort.

I may have spoken a bit prematurely yesterday and unintentionally misled ya'll when I said all I had left was assembly. I forgot about having to pre-drill holes - lotsa holes - prior to assembling anything.
(Robert, you asked for it… squint to save your retinas… I warned you.)








(I/you can blame my father for his sense of humor in taking that pic…without me asking or being warned. As you can see, Brad Pitt has nothing to worry about from me in the looks-competition-market.)
I think I'm going to have to pre-drill somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 screw holes for this lumber rack - that or use a similar number of nails (if I get bored and decide to try to straighten some I've salvaged from the pallets).

So, short day… lotsa holes to drill tomorrow or later today if it dries up and stays light long enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Added: There's gotta be something wrong with the "page view counter" for yesterday's blog entry. I can't believe there were actually over 3000 views. (Unless I take the view that it's like people slowing down or stopping to watch accidents on the roadway.)


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *Rain, rain. Go away...*
> 
> Not a long downpour, but heavy enough to cause work to stop.
> This after a short morning due to the roofing guys returning and starting work on the carport roof. They actually took up the existing tar paper, ripped a long, rotten 2×6 out replaced it before the rain hit. Luckily, their work seems to be "holding", that is, not leaking anywhere obvious. OTOH, the wind blew the wet stuff all over the carport area, leading to an early end for my day's effort.
> ...


Page view counter ? oh now I see it not really sure what it means, apart from the obvious. 1000 are possibly mine as I electronically wander back and forth around you backyard looking for work lights and such!

Always good to record the moment too! Keep up the drilling!

At least you have a carport to work under !!


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*95%, okay, 85% finished with lumber rack*

I must be the SLOWEST of the SLOW as far as woodworking goes.

I got all 4 of the major/vertical supports built. They each look like this:









As you can see, what probably looks like over-engineered joint supports is what I had to do because, no matter how much I tweaked my cuts, there were gaps (ex., a 45degree cut meets an adjoining edge fine IF AND ONLY IF the adjoining piece is tilted to match the 45degree edge). Poor workmanship on my part, obviously.

Probably should have been more careful/done more prep work and really jointed/planed the wood before trying to screw it all together… but it's a lumber rack and I figured "just get it done….danggit!). 20/20 hindsight makes me re-think that decision every time I look at the pieces.

Toughest part of the attaching process was not having drill bits long enough to reach through a 2×4 and mark the other/adjoining piece. 2nd toughest part was the lengthy thought process that led to me drilling 2 holes per screw - one for the screw shaft and the 2nd with a larger diameter so I could bury the screw head (rather than spend money on longer screws). It took me a while to decide that *I really AM that cheap*. Well, I actually knew it already, but this was just another example of it affecting the work process.

Then again, after futzing around trying to make 4 decent "length extender half lap joints" so that I'd have vertical pieces that were long enough, and NOT being satisfied with the results, I broke down and went to the Orange Box Store and bought 4 of the least expensive 2×4x8 pine studs they had. Too much time wasted for unacceptable results in a "time crunch" situation.

The other thing that made things go slowly for me today was I had to cut additional pieces - somehow I miscounted despite having made a cut-list from a slightly more detailed drawing than I posted the other day. Oh, and I added the aforementioned additional diagonal supports for each joint (none of which had been cut before this morning). Well, that and the fact that I tried to build the vertical pieces oriented incorrectly twice and had to take it apart and re-do that (foot pointed 180 degrees out from the upper shelf brackets…duh!).

It's gonna rain for the next three days so *I really need to finish this* tomorrow morning. I've got a diagonal piece to attach between the 2 outside vertical supports and a couple of "spacers" to attach between all four vertical supports. It should take anyone else about 30 minutes max.

I figure at the rate I'm going, it'll surely take me at least 2 hours. Dawdling and distractions will surely also interfere, so if I'm lucky, I'll have it finished and loaded before the rain hits around 1PM tomorrow.

We'll see.

Rob-"Big eyes" are looking at you….!!! :wink


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *95%, okay, 85% finished with lumber rack*
> 
> I must be the SLOWEST of the SLOW as far as woodworking goes.
> 
> ...


Eye see em.

Slow and steady wins the race.

I wont show you the bucket of screws I recovered from my Smiths Pallet when I broke it all down 2015
Some got tossed but the majority were able to be reused I was plesantly surprised with the useable booty


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## robscastle (May 13, 2012)

JohnTM said:


> *95%, okay, 85% finished with lumber rack*
> 
> I must be the SLOWEST of the SLOW as far as woodworking goes.
> 
> ...


Here is something for you that may be worthwile following up.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

JohnTM said:


> *95%, okay, 85% finished with lumber rack*
> 
> I must be the SLOWEST of the SLOW as far as woodworking goes.
> 
> ...





> Here is something for you that may be worthwile following up.
> --ebay pic-- - robscastle


I'll have to take a look at that….thanks.


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## JohnTM (Aug 21, 2017)

*Unbelievable - actually finished something...2 somethings even!*

Well, the title kinda gives my day away. But I finished the lumber rack…. the 2nd something is further down the entry.

Here's what I'm hoping to store on the rack - currently stored on the white table and 2 sawhorses behind my stack-of-4-pallets-laying-on-the-ground-worktable situated behind my Prius.








Trying not to have things get wet seems to be a big motivator. I started bright and early (though I was not birght-eyed or bushy-tailed energy wise) - 8am, which is as early as the local gendarmes allow noise-making. Yesterday's slowness repeated itself though I thought I was fighting a 1PM rain-deadline. Laid all 4 verticals on the ground to try to connect them and ran into a "wtf am I doing?" moment.

Um…I thought it was going to be straight-forward - lay them down. Connect stringers/spacers, stand it up, done. If only it was that easy.

I screwed up squaring up the first 2 verticals and making them parallel in 2 planes. Dunno how or why it was so difficult, but that's me. Took me the better part of 30 minutes to get them right. Then it dawned on me to use clamps - told you I was slow. Getting the 3rd vertical connected correctly only took me 25 minutes, even with the clamps. Told you I was slow. The last vertical only took me 10 minutes - big improvement time-wise but still waaaay too slow.

Then it dawned on me I still had to attach the diagonal support on the back of the verticals - but the rack was laying on its back on the ground. I'm working alone and the danged thing is heavy and awkward, being somewhat wobbly left-ti-right. I eventually got it upright.








Then I attached the diagonal brace and moved it to its final location. Test loaded it…it didn't fall apart…...........................yet.








Beat the rain------well, to be honest….it didn't rain before 5:30PM, so I lucked out in that department.

About 3PM, I figured 1 success leads to another, right? So, why not try to get the plywood, MDF and OSB I have lying around in its own cart? Should be much easier than the lumber rack I just completed, right?

I'll spare you the long story and suffice it to say that I managed to cobble something together that only took me 2 hours of serious working. Was only 85% finished when the rain finally came. Had to run around throwing blue tarps over stuff I wasn't going to be able to stick under the carport/on the cart or rack - like Craigslist cabinets.

End of day after building and cleaning up pic:








It's only "partially" finished though I've got wood in it now - it's 3 inches too wide for the space I want it to fit in. But it does have casters and it holds about 85% of the engineered wood I wanted it to.

The tablesaw and 2 cabinets are under the blue tarp in the center of the pic… Another cabinet is on its side in the far right of the pic… it's a Craigslist freebie I haven't decided what to do with yet.

So, it was a good day.


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