What did you do today?

[LCHIEN]

If you won the lottery you would not need all those car tools. just buy a new car or at the very least have your luxury car dealer come and pick up the car for its 5000 mile service.

[dbhost]

In 10 minute sprints here and there, I am actually making reasonable progress in the shop cleanup. It is still a mess, just a much smaller mess than before.

Got the shim for the mortiser done. Did not go through either top or bottom layer...

[dbhost]

WFH day today, and W is VERY slow, taking short breaks and doing shop cleanup. Good heavens I have a long way to go! Trying to clear space for the new toolbox. I think I wrote that the new Crafstman box is a 56, that is a typo, it is actually a 52".

Been looking at reviews of the various cabinets in this size class.Apparently Craftsman redesigned these about a year ago. The lower drawers seem to be at least on one of these cabinets, the lower drawers are too closely mounted and when laden with weight tend to flex and scrape passing the drawer below. HOWEVER it is considerably more weight than I would likely put in these drawers. Those drawers will be used to house bulky but not exactly heavy items like my vacuum pump, manifold gauges, cooling system testers etc...

FWIW, if I EVER won a big lottery, note to self buy ticket for tonight.... or ended up where I could just sell this house and buy one with land and no HOA, I would... have the garage as a car / car repair space, and build a dedicated woodworking shop. Probably smaller than most folks dreams but I am thinking 24x36 gambrel roof barn with a 2nd floor for office space / bathroom and separate HVAC / air supply...

[dbhost]

Simply put, over the decades, with growing from SAE only and a few metrics, to deep well, shallow well, 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2" drive sockets, ratchets, breaker bars, extensions yadda yadda yadda...

I needed way more mechanics tool storage than I have. Before I moved to Texas, I worked in my first career as a light line auto mechanic and manager at a Texaco station in Tucson Arizona. And being that I was a young idiot at the time, instead of the older idiot I am now, I wasn't thinking ahead, I was thinking what do I need NOW... And I went to Sears at the Tucson mall, and shopped their tool cabinets, as I already had a pretty nice Stanley Proto 6 drawer top chest that was part of the starter tool kit they issued us in trade school... Well that trip brought home jammed in the hatchback area of my 76 Toyota a Craftsman 8 drawer 27 inch roller cabinet, complete with slide out work tray and a flip up tray on one side.

After all of these years, I have the poor old thing so jam packed I can barely open and close the drawers, and when I do something always jumps out at me. And to make matters worse, I can't close the lid on the Proto because it is so full I have to take stuff out before I can put more in...

I have been considering options, and was SERIOUSLY considering a US General 56in set, but I kept looking, and looking. The US General was nice but it seemed a bit high priced for a Harbor Freight tool chest, and something bothered me about it. looked at Husky, and Kobalt, as well as Milwaukee (seriously overpriced for what you get at least for my uses IMHO) and after comparing prices, features, the fact I had a Lowes gift card that has been sitting around too long, and honestly prior experience with Craftsman tool storage, I ordered a new Craftsman 2000 Series 52 inch 10 drawer Cabinet and 8 drawer Chest.

What is funny is since my truck is dead, I had to get one with either free shipping, or factor shipping into the cost. After shipping the Craftsman came in at $1,122.55 (and then a chunk less due to the gift card.

Compared to the US General 56 in at $1,826.04

That is a difference of $703.49!

Now mind you, the US General MIGHT be heavier duty construction as it does at least cosmetically appear to be a direct knock off of the Snap On rigs I have seen, but given the usage I will put it to, this thing will live longer than I will...

I might just convert the old 27 inch to be my drill press cabinet. Needs a bath,, and a hardwood top... That will save me from having to separate myself from my old trusty cabinet and keep me from having to build a new box...

[Sam Conder]

Today I “maintained”. Nothing new, but no lost ground. Looking forward to the weekend… hoping to get a couple more shop projects done AND replace a 22 year old water heater.

[Sam Conder]

Very nice. I love the aesthetic.

[dbhost]

Went to work, shivered my kneecaps off, apparently the only know how to air condition my building not heat it.. There is still a swamp where my back yard once was, still need to cut all those limbs are but oh well.

[dbhost]

Good job. It pulls it all together nicely...

[Dedpedal]

Spending the day piddling around with a bunch of little things in between sanding and poly on some floating shelves I’m making for my wife’s Polish Pottery.

[dbhost]

Been working on my job work, removing what limbs I can from the Crepe myrtle I cut down over the weekend and getting them in the trash can for heavy trash day. It has been rainy and very swampy so that is a LOT harder than you would imagine with my feet sinking into the mud when I walk through the yard...

I need to dig out the stump / root.

Got in touch with the contractor, got an acceptable quote for a 10x12 with 7ft sidwalls and a 9ft peak so I maximize my interior volume and steer clear of HOA insanity.

Good price and the contractor seems to have a good reputation. However my luck with farming work out these days has been bad.

Can't wait till that is done so I can put my lawn and garden, as well as camping stuff out there, and have more space in my shop.

Spent a little bit, and I mean a very little bit of time in the shop sorting and cleaning. Honestly once that L&G corner gets gone, I have about 4 totes of misc crap that can go in the shed as well... I literally will free up 1/4 of the available space for my shop. Probably store pull off or pending car parts out there as well like the old brush guard / winch mount for the F150... The HD coil springs for same truck, the original air intake that for some reason I kept after upgrading to a CAI...

Adding the mini split and closing off the ports in between the garage doors, means drill press goes between doors, and sharpening station goes in the other corner, but will have to be rebuilt as a mobile cart to wheel it to where the work is.... A.K.A. to have it handy by the lathe...

I do not want to further extend the DC as I am trying to keep my runs as short as possible...

[dbhost]

Okay I was impatient, and I already had the method down. Got both infeed and outfeed tables on the new jointer dialed in. Waxed the table again. I was sweating all over it again and already started discoloring the cast iron. Can't win... Oh well..

All that is left is to adjust the outriggers / extended supports, and I am ready to mount it to a non existent flip top stand!. Not sure where I will store it until the stand is built. Will have to figure that one out.

The photo prints of my wife we had at her funeral didn't have any way to hang them. So I am setting up some hangers and putting her best pics up in the front hallway. I am at the point I can see her pictures and smile. I need that. A gentle reminder folks, if they are still with you, love on em while you got em! I found out the hard way...

[dbhost]

Today for my office is a holiday, so I slept in. Been under the weather and the rest did me a world of good... I did spend some time in the shop working on levelling the tables on the new jointer. Got the outfeed done and raised the infeed up to a zero cut, and it is proud of the cutter head and outfeed table right now. I can adjust that out. The question is. do I want to spend the time in there to do it today? It's in the mid 70s today With the sun hitting the wall, the doors closed and no air going through tere, it is over 80 deg F and muggy in the shop right now. Yes it is January, but it is coastal Texas after all...

Probably wait until after sun down, open the doors and turn the fan on to get comfortable...

Oh, and I got an S&D cap for a hunk of 4" S&D I am using as a dowel stock holder. Trying to make my space usage as efficient as possible, I am tucking this between the back of the air compressor and the miter station. There is a perfect size nook for it...

[dbhost]

Unboxed, assembled, cleaned off the shipping gack from the cast iron tables and adjusted the fence on my Wahuda 10" jointer. Still need to spend some quality time getting the infeed table adjusted. Feeling kind of lousy today so might be a bit of a challenge...

It took 3 shop rags in a box rags to remove the shipping goo plus a good amount of isppropyl alcohol. And only one to apply a good coating of Johnsons Paste Wax... The pic is the jointer assembled but still coated in that, stuff. Not sure what that stuff is. Looks like wheel bearing grease to me...

I didn't update here, and no pic yet because, well I am being lazy, but unboxed, assembled, and water soaked the stone on my Wen sharpnening system machine... Need to order the Grizzly gouge jig for this and I should be set. The idea is to use the Wolverine / 8 in grinder to get the shape, and this to get a fine slow edge on my tools... I might actually be close to done on my sharpneing setup!

[dbhost]

Polished and waxed my band saw table top. Finished swapping my type M plugs to high flow type V. Trying to give away the type M plugs and couplers...

[twistsol]

I'm not sure exactly what she is doing with them, some craft for a baby shower, but my wife requested I drill through about 50 scrabble tiles. On 7 of the tiles, the 1/8" bit wandered off the line and came out the front or back of the tile so I had to redo those. One tile got sucked up into the dust collector.



I then planed down about 60 board feet of poplar to 15mm or a little less than 19/32 inch to build 8 more drawers for my office.