# Old and new Projects in a New Workshop



## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*First projects*

We moved into a new home from a very small apartment. Fortunately for me, the new place has a 2-car garage; I claimed it right away as a workshop. So far, I've been able to actually use half of it to set up my new shop. I've had larger workshops over the years, and made money from them. Here, I hope to build 36-string lever harps starting next year. Don't know if I'll make money on this one, but that's my plan.

Right now, I'm working with a Skilsaw, hand drill, a not-so-great jig saw and a few sheets of sandpaper. No table saw, no bandsaw, no floor model tools of any sort. They are all on my wish list, though.

In the meantime, I'm starting from scratch. Lots of experience, mind you, but little in the way of resources. I picked up some 2×6 and 2×4 pine lumber and put together an office desk and a workbench. Essentially, the frames are built with the same stock and to the same specs. The top for the office desk is a 30×80 solid core door. For the workbench I ripped two sheets of exterior grade 3/4" plywood and laminated them together and jigged up a rip fence for my trusty Skilsaw to square things up.










And here are two pictures of the workbench:


















The bench is about 30 front to back and about 62" left to right. And it does have a tool tray. I'm used to working on a European cabinetmakers workbench and really miss all of that functionality. But it is a heavy bench, solid and reasonably well made. It's a bear to moved around, I can tell you that.

One of my nephews heard I was putting together a new workshop and he said he had an old lathe if I wanted it. I've worked as a professional turner in the past and made a good living at it, too. But I really don't need a lath to build harps. So I said yes. It's an old - really old - Duracraft WL 1236 model lathe, and it came with a roll of tools. I got it home the other day and almost immediately oiled everything I could reach.

So here's a few shots of the lathe as it is today:



























And two shots of the tool that came with it. I'm cleaning them up with 220 and 400-grit wet/dry paper, and rubbing compound and coating them with a hard wax :



















Finally, That office desk has a lot of room on the top, but no place to put anything. I took some scrap pine, screws and glue and put this set of pigeon holes together:










Mind, it is scrap lumber and it's nothing I'll ever brag about to a customer, but it will hold some stuff for me.


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## DanW (Jan 26, 2010)

garyjs said:


> *First projects*
> 
> We moved into a new home from a very small apartment. Fortunately for me, the new place has a 2-car garage; I claimed it right away as a workshop. So far, I've been able to actually use half of it to set up my new shop. I've had larger workshops over the years, and made money from them. Here, I hope to build 36-string lever harps starting next year. Don't know if I'll make money on this one, but that's my plan.
> 
> ...


Hey there's nothing wrong with second (or third of fourth) hand tools. My grandfather retired from the Post Office in 1952 & he bought a tablesaw, shaper, drill press, joiner, and bandsaw. All Craftsman and all heavy! Anyway I still use the tablesaw and drill press. I have a wide variety of hand tools (planes, chisels, scraper planes, etc) that were his as well. When he gave me his tools it was like it was Christmas for a year!. Anyway, it looks like you have several really nice gouges & skews in that roll. Wish you good fortunes and success with your harps. Please post pics when you complete your first one.
Dan
BTW, welcome to LJ


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *First projects*
> 
> We moved into a new home from a very small apartment. Fortunately for me, the new place has a 2-car garage; I claimed it right away as a workshop. So far, I've been able to actually use half of it to set up my new shop. I've had larger workshops over the years, and made money from them. Here, I hope to build 36-string lever harps starting next year. Don't know if I'll make money on this one, but that's my plan.
> 
> ...


Hi, Dan. Back before anyone saw any value in old hand tools I was scouring the Atlanta flea markets and picked up wooden hand planes and old timber framing chisels for less than the cost of the steel. Nowadays you can't find that stuff outside of antique stores. And all of my stuff is about 6000 miles away, so I'm stuck with starting from scratch. Haunting pawn shops, mostly.

I'll be posting photos of the shop as it grows and my first harp while I'm building it. Lots of jigging up to do before that, too. Reusable jigs, since I'll be building several harps over the next few years.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*Lathe bench and tool cart*

I just mounted my Duracraft WL 1236 lathe on its new bench. I built the bench yesterday and got the first coat of poly on it last night. This morning I was int he shop at 6:30 sanding it down. Then I wiped the dust off with a tack cloth and then wiped it down again before adding the second coat of poly ( I hate polyurethane, but who can afford real varnish these days?). Then I made a quick trip to good ol' Ace Hardware and got 4 3/8" hex bolts 3 1/2" long with nuts and washers, drilled out two mounting blocks and bolted that old girl down.



















I've got several new bench tools coming in on Monday. New for me, anyway:
Router table with router, 6" bench grinder, belt/disk sander and a chop saw, along with a second 16-gal shop vac.

I picked up plenty of 5/8" to build a 36" x 36" tool cart on industrial casters, and now that the lathe is up off the floor where I clean it up and the top of my workbench is empty, I can get started on the tool cart. Maybe even get it finished tomorrow.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*Mobile workstation for bench tools*

I spent many years in Atlanta and in Israel as an ornamental woodworker/turner. I am in the process of converting our 2-car garage to a workshop. To save space, I used the idea of a workstation for small power tools and adapted it my needs. It is a cube 36" on a side and the same in height.

I used two free casters and 2 locking casters to make it easy to move around, and as you can see I added a 4 plug outlet to the top for the bench tools and ran a 12' exterior extension cord out one side of the box to run power to the outlet. I works a charm, it does.





































The interior divider wall is set to provide 10" deep shelves on one open face and close to 20" dshelves on the other. The narrow shelves are for drill/router bits and other such and the deeper side holds a Skill saw, orbital sander, router, fretsaw and other hand tools.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Mobile workstation for bench tools*
> 
> I spent many years in Atlanta and in Israel as an ornamental woodworker/turner. I am in the process of converting our 2-car garage to a workshop. To save space, I used the idea of a workstation for small power tools and adapted it my needs. It is a cube 36" on a side and the same in height.
> 
> ...


That's a good idea / use of space…. I am filing this in the possible solutions file for dealing with my bench top jointer, planer, and mortiser. Great addition of storage to boot!


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*

I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.

Most of the floor is flat, but the entry does slope more than I would prefer, and that is where my table saw and eventually my planer/jointer, will live. And my current table saw, a Skillsaw 10" contractor's saw, is most definitely not my long-dreamt of machine. that one will cost a bit more than I can spend right now.

One must make do with what one has, don't one?

That said, I needed an outfeed table behind the saw. That table has to cope with the sloping floor and the top has to be adjustable to suit the table on the saw; it has to be co-planer or just a cat hair below the top of the saw table. That meant the frame and the top had to be built separately, and the feet of the frame had to have adjustable static casters to ensure it sits firmly on the floor.

And the top of the outfeed table had to be adjustable to sit in the same plane as the saw table, so it had to float above the frame. Now, I'm no quantum physicist, but to me that meant securing the top of the table to the frame with four threaded rods, and giving myself room between the underside of the table top frame and the upper rails of the table frame.

The photos will show this much better than I can describe the solution I came up with:





































I built the legs at 27" overall height and the three frames - 2 for the frame and 1 for the top in equal dimensions. In hindsight (often the worst sight of all) I would have made the top 3" wider in in both width and depth to extend over the lower frame, just for appearances sake.

The four bolts are 8' carriage bolts, with the heads countersunk into the top of frame and locked into place by the table top. The hole through the upper frame and the upper rail on the lower frame are 3/8" dia to give a bot of slop in how the bolts line up in the lower frame.

Once it's all put together, adjust the lower frame to suit the floor and then lower the top into place. I used masking tape to hold the washer in place below the two nuts on the blot as I lowered it onto the frame. Then it's a few minutes of fiddling to get the outfeed table top to sit level with the table saw table. Actually about 1/16" below the saw table, just to make sure the stock feeds smoothly onto the outfeed table.


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## Sarit (Oct 21, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


Is there a lot of wobble in the top?


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


None at all. I used 8" long by 5/16" dia carriage bolts, 2 on each side. If you wish you could use 12" by 3?8" dia bolts which would further reduce any chance of wobble and give you the option of adding a locking nut below the frame rail as well as the two nuts on the top of the frame rail. My problem with that is that I did not want to free-hand a 1/2" drill bit in my drill. You need that 1/16" clearance in the holes for the 5/16" bolt. Running a 1/2" bit in my hand drill seemed just a bit dangerous to me.

There is little or no sideways force applied to the table top, and this is a heavy piece of shop furniture. the legs are doubled up 2×4 pine, glued and screwed, and the frames are also 2×4. It ain't pretty, but it is solid, adn that was the goal of the excersize.


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## Chipy (Apr 20, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


Did you sneak in your local bowling ally at night with a saw! .In all seriousness cool idea!


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


No, that painter's quality lumber; 5/8" thickness x 11" width. It's around $2.00 a linear foot at Ace Hardware. But honestly, bowling alley stock is available from Georgia Maple Block company. I think they're in Conyers, Georgia. Years ago I built a European cabinet makers bench when I lived in Atlanta and ordered a 4" x 30" x 72" maple bench top from them. They don't have a web site, but they are in the phone book. Can't recall how much I paid, but it was incredibly reasonable at the time.


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## Sarit (Oct 21, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


Very interesting. I too need to build an outfeed table. Still contemplating if it should be the fold down type attached to the saw or an independent table.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Adjustable outfeed table for my table saw*
> 
> I, too, work in a 2-car garage. Minus the car, of course, although there is an awful lot of 'stuff' that hasn't found it's way into our home, yet (we just moved in a month ago). As with most woodworkers who find themselves working in these conditions, I have to deal with a sloping and somewhat uneven floor.
> 
> ...


I am very satisfied with the solutions I came up with for this table. It is as strong and as stable as I hoped for, and I have the flexibility needed to suit my next table saw, whatever it may be.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*Wall Mounted Tool Chest*

I've got most of my hand tools - chisels, small saws, measuring tools, hammers and all that sort of clutter in a few metal tool chest that take up precious room on and around my work areas, and I am fed up with that. I am also somewhat deficient in fine hardwoods. Deficient to the point that I don't even have any off-cuts of hardwood to toss into making a nice tool chest. In fact, I could be brutally honest and say that to date no hardwood lumber has seen fit to enter my workshop.

I take that personally. But it's my own fault, since I haven't bought any, yet. But I did have some off-cuts from a few sheets of 5/8" underlayment and a few odd bits of pine lumber I used to build my workbenches. With that and a few compromises on standards and building practices, I was able to nock together a wall mounted tool chest just large enough to hold the majority of my current crop of hand tools witha bit of space left over to acquire a few more.

The chest measures 25" across the face, 11" front to back and just under 30" in height. The two doors measure 12 1/2" wide, 17" tall and are 3" deep, which gives me room for a few shelves on one and room to hang small tools - squares, calipers and rulers, etc, in the other.

these photos were shot before the hinges were mounted and the green felt applied to the shelves, the backs of the 2 doors and the drop-down lid along the top. But they will give you an idea of what is possible with a bit of scrap and a quart of polyurethane.

The doors are 3/4" pine, panel and frame construction, using a 1/4" router bit to cut grooves in the edges of the frame members to accept a tongue on the outer edges of the panel members.

This image shows two frame members glued (epoxy - so sue me. It works very well in such joints) and screwed together in a lap joint, with one of the stiles glued (Aliphatic resin - yellow glue - for these long joints):









This next image is of one of the two doors after glue-up. the middle panel is 5/16" ply; again, nothing special, just pine plywood. The doors were sanded to 220 before getting the first sealer coat of poly. I would far prefer to use natural urea varnish (yacht varnish), but who can afford it for nothing-fancy tool chest?









The next two photos are of the finished piece after four coats of poly. The hinges have yet to be mounted and the three fixed shelves and two sliding trays are not yet covered in green felt. I hope to get to that stuff in another week or so.










Once all that fiddly work is done the box will be mounted on that red brick wall just to the right of my workbench. It has to be mounted low enough that I won't need a step ladder to get into the top bin where the hammers and other such will be kept, and still be high enough to be out of the way when I'm working on money-making stuff.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Wall Mounted Tool Chest*
> 
> I've got most of my hand tools - chisels, small saws, measuring tools, hammers and all that sort of clutter in a few metal tool chest that take up precious room on and around my work areas, and I am fed up with that. I am also somewhat deficient in fine hardwoods. Deficient to the point that I don't even have any off-cuts of hardwood to toss into making a nice tool chest. In fact, I could be brutally honest and say that to date no hardwood lumber has seen fit to enter my workshop.
> 
> ...


Nice tool chest….


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## GaryD (Mar 5, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Wall Mounted Tool Chest*
> 
> I've got most of my hand tools - chisels, small saws, measuring tools, hammers and all that sort of clutter in a few metal tool chest that take up precious room on and around my work areas, and I am fed up with that. I am also somewhat deficient in fine hardwoods. Deficient to the point that I don't even have any off-cuts of hardwood to toss into making a nice tool chest. In fact, I could be brutally honest and say that to date no hardwood lumber has seen fit to enter my workshop.
> 
> ...


Nice looking chest. SHould work well for you. Thnaks for posting.


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## Bertha (Jan 10, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Wall Mounted Tool Chest*
> 
> I've got most of my hand tools - chisels, small saws, measuring tools, hammers and all that sort of clutter in a few metal tool chest that take up precious room on and around my work areas, and I am fed up with that. I am also somewhat deficient in fine hardwoods. Deficient to the point that I don't even have any off-cuts of hardwood to toss into making a nice tool chest. In fact, I could be brutally honest and say that to date no hardwood lumber has seen fit to enter my workshop.
> 
> ...


Nice job! That ply should hold up really well. I like the design.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

*Tool Chest completed*

Remember, this is a scrap wood project. It's just a tool chest tool hang on a wall and hold my more important hand tools and measuring tools. It was never meant to be anything fancy, or the tool chest to end all tool chests. It's scrap wood, for crying out loud; 5/8" exterior ply, some old 1/4" ply and a bit of pine for the doors.

But for all my protesting, it did come out pretty damn nice, if you don't look too close. I got the felt laid down yesterday and managed not to muck it up too badly, and was even able to trim off the worst of the dangly bits without digging into the poly finish more than a few times.

I'm still figuring out how to stick a bit of felt along the inside faces of the two doors to act as a dust barrier. Felt is a pain in the butt to cut straight, if you've never worked with it before.

I'll start shifting my tools out of the old steel cases on my workbench later this morning, right after a second cup of coffee.

The chest is not screwed direct to the brick wall, but has a 2×4 hanger fixed to the back with the inside face cut away at a 45 degree angle, and a matching angle cut onto the 2×4 secured into the mortar between the brick. About 12" below that there is a second 2×4 for the lower back of the tool chest to rest upon.










The two shelves sticking out are sliders running on 1×2s secured to the inside walls. I used a bit of carnuba was to slick things up so they slide easy. Slick as a baby's butt, in fact.










One door is fitted out with a middle shelf and I added a bit of thin scrap to keep the smaller bits of stuff from falling out. The other door will be fitted with hangers for squares, compasses and bevel/marking guages, and so on.

The top storage area will hold hammers, wrenches and other large stuff.










I'm not all that happy having it hanging on a wall, mostly because my workbench is across the floor, instead of against the wall beside the tool chest. So I think my next project is to build a base cabinet for the tool chest, and put it on wheels…


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## nailbanger2 (Oct 17, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Tool Chest completed*
> 
> Remember, this is a scrap wood project. It's just a tool chest tool hang on a wall and hold my more important hand tools and measuring tools. It was never meant to be anything fancy, or the tool chest to end all tool chests. It's scrap wood, for crying out loud; 5/8" exterior ply, some old 1/4" ply and a bit of pine for the doors.
> 
> ...


Very nice chest, you should get many years of enjoyment out of that. Incidentally, the hanger system you used is called a french cleat. It works great, I have a few shelves and shop storage cabs hung using that method.


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## bshourd (Apr 20, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Tool Chest completed*
> 
> Remember, this is a scrap wood project. It's just a tool chest tool hang on a wall and hold my more important hand tools and measuring tools. It was never meant to be anything fancy, or the tool chest to end all tool chests. It's scrap wood, for crying out loud; 5/8" exterior ply, some old 1/4" ply and a bit of pine for the doors.
> 
> ...


Very nice tool chest, it does not look bad at all. We are our own worst critics - I would be happy to have that chest hanging in my shop.

I hear you on the cutting up felt, my friend. If you find that you are doing it a lot, I suggest getting a rotary cutter. You can find them at craft stores, or even in the craft section at the big box stores. Using one of these with a straight edge on a piece of scrap ply will give you perfect results. My wife, who likes to sew, introduced me to these things and I've never looked back.

Thanks for sharing.


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## garyjs (Aug 9, 2011)

garyjs said:


> *Tool Chest completed*
> 
> Remember, this is a scrap wood project. It's just a tool chest tool hang on a wall and hold my more important hand tools and measuring tools. It was never meant to be anything fancy, or the tool chest to end all tool chests. It's scrap wood, for crying out loud; 5/8" exterior ply, some old 1/4" ply and a bit of pine for the doors.
> 
> ...


Thanks for that tip, Brian. I will look into that tool. Never hav enough tools - or clamps, for that matter.


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## mafe (Dec 10, 2009)

garyjs said:


> *Tool Chest completed*
> 
> Remember, this is a scrap wood project. It's just a tool chest tool hang on a wall and hold my more important hand tools and measuring tools. It was never meant to be anything fancy, or the tool chest to end all tool chests. It's scrap wood, for crying out loud; 5/8" exterior ply, some old 1/4" ply and a bit of pine for the doors.
> 
> ...


Really fine, I love that top opening. really creative.
Best thoughts,
Mads


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