New Shop Day

[atgcpaul]

When we first moved overseas, I grossly overestimated how much woodworking or even DIY I would be doing. Our apartment was small and any plans to build anything were quickly shot down. I managed to make a freestanding shelf for our storage closet from some scrounged scrap wood and some shelves for our laundry closet and a shelf for the entryway literally by face gluing two pieces of thin plywood together and then ripping the edges flush.

Our new digs are much more spacious and we have this huge parking area in the front that could easily fit 4 cars if you could Tetris them in. We have one car, though.

When the movers delivered our stuff last week, they left me 3 of the wooden crates. Each of them measures almost 4' wide, 7' deep, and 7' tall. There's a housekeeper's quarters to the right of the picture which we're using as a storage room since we only need a helper one day a week. Instead of cluttering up that room, my wife was easily convinced to use one of these crates for my "shop".

I've decided to use the particle board one since it's the largest and sturdiest--no bounce in the floor--and I'm going to disassemble the other crates for projects like a Tiki bar I want to build for the patio.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day pulling staples. I'm thinking of making a fold-down bench top for the back. The whole parking area is covered. Heavy rains will sneak through that gap, but there's a generous overhang that the crates are quite deep in and never get wet. I may leave the door facing out like this or turn it to the side. Not sure yet. I'm also thinking I might want to cut a door on the long side and use that for entry, but also not sure yet. Let me know if you've got any ideas. I probably have triple of what you see in this picture for tools, etc.

Paul

[jussi]

How do you like that Ridgid box set? I've been thinking of getting it while it's on sale.

[atgcpaul]

How do you like that Ridgid box set? I've been thinking of getting it while it's on sale.

I like it. They're solid and have survived two trans-Atlantic crossings while being fully loaded. I've unlatched and latched the totes from each other many, many times. Those still work great. The cases are very sturdy and are well made.

You do need to be mindful of how you organize it, though, because it is a pain when you realize you need something in the middle or bottom tote because then you have to unstack and restack it. If an equivalent system existed with drawers at the price I got it for during BF, I'd be all over that. As a job box where you want to easily bring a bunch of tools, keep them protected during the trip, keep them watertight, and then park it at the job site, it's great. If you're going to continually work out of it like you would a set of drawers in your workshop, it's going to be a challenge. They don't seem too big at first, but they easily swallowed up a ton of my tools like a Mary Poppins carpet bag.

I picked up some more tools when I was back in the US and bought another middle tote. Now I'm thinking about how to make the contents more easily accessible.

[atgcpaul]

That crate on the left came apart pretty easily. The lumber frame is light weight and the nails and staples pulled out pretty easily. The crate on the right, however, is stapled together and uses regular 2x4s which is holding on tight to those staples. If I try to force it, I'll end up damaging the plywood too much. I think I'll wait for my circular saw to arrive so I can cut the panels loose.

I've decided to build some desks for my kids but I need a workbench. The skid on the one crate already had a nice layout so I cut it down the middle to one side to give me a 2' x 7' surface. Then I glued in that center beam with my kids' school glue, and afterwards glued on a plywood top skin and nailed it to the beams below. Now I've got a pretty nice torsion box. Not dead flat but good enough.

[capncarl]

What room of your new house is this photo taken?

[atgcpaul]

What room of your new house is this photo taken?

This is the garage/carport. The crates are under the 45% covered by an actual roof, then there's another 45% covered by clear plastic corrugated roofing, and the last 10% is open to the sky.

[atgcpaul]

Slow going but some progress.

I did build a desk for each kid. They each had very specific requests but with my lack of imagination and no desire to buy materials, they got the same regular old desk. The apron and legs are ripped down 2x4s from the crate held together by dominos and the top is 2 layers of crate plywood face glued together. I made the wrong assumption of the white enamel paint I bought for the top thinking it would be water based. Nope. I also made the wrong assumption about the clear finish for the legs. That was water based but it turned out to be some kind of wood sealer.

[atgcpaul]

I've also been trying to organize my "shop". We have a housekeeper that comes once a week and sometimes I'll hear her sweeping out there even when I told her she didn't have to. My mess must be driving her crazy.

That crate bottom I was gluing up earlier is now attached to the outside of the crate with hinges and rests on two plastic sawhorses. It can fold up against the crate wall (assuming the bench top ever gets cleared off) so I can store things in that nook of the garage to allow the car to get in/out easier.

The crate walls are thin so I screwed a wood cleat onto the wall from the outside to mount all my clamps. I also fashioned some angle brackets from scrap crate lumber and then face glued some plywood for the shelves. I can buy metal shelf brackets relatively cheaply but waste not want not. The glue is cheap and plentiful here, too, and I've used up most of a 1 gallon bottle already. I think I will relocate the clamp rack as it takes up valuable wall space in the storage shop.



I still need to disassemble that other crate. So much plywood comes out of each crate that I don't know what I'll do with it all. I was thinking about remounting this crate's front panel with hinges for security. Yesterday, I didn't realize it but that bike got moved in front of the garage door sensor. The door still slid about 4' closed before it opened back up. Of course, when I drove off to go shopping, I only waited to see the door close about a 1' before leaving. It made for an embarrassing situation when we returned and the security guards had been sitting outside for who knows how long. In this neighborhood, though, it's probably the most excitement they've had all week. Still, I hate inconveniencing anyone especially when it's my fault.



Paul

[leehljp]

OH, those crates look sooo familiar! That specific size too.

I took one, when we moved to Japan ('86) and built a playhouse out of it for my 3 daughters aged 2, 8 & 12 at the time. I added a gabled roof to it with some overhang as an outdoor shaded porch.

Well, Japan tracks buildings from arial photos. It showed up in one of their "photos" and we got a visit from the police, tax assessors and immigration personnel all at the same time. They had VERY serious looks on their faces. I took them to the back yard, they took one look and realized it was a child's playhouse and began laughing. They told us they thought we had built a small "housing" unit which would be illegal. They let us keep it!