I’ve not had a lot of shop time this year. Part of that is from spending most of the year so far in Ghana, Saudi and Ivory Coast.
Finally, I got home and coerced Margo into helping to make the shop workable. The garage was a storage area for the moving process. So we boxed and sorted and moved to the attic stuff for long term storage. We consolidated chemicals, got clear storage bins from Ikea to put in existing shelving units. And that led to the shop being workable.
It still has latticework were I want there to be walls, no climate control, lights or electricity… but it is moving slowly.
Part of the process of getting there is getting stands and carts for my tools so I’m not lifting them on and off of the Workmate as I need them.
So the first thing I built was a stand for my Jointer/Planer.
When you make furniture, you want the wood to be square, flat and to the proper thickness. That is what the Jointer and planer are for. In a small shop like mine, it is easier and cheaper to buy a multifunction tool that does both. The top part joints the board and makes one side flat. After that, I send it through the bottom of the machine that makes the opposite side coplanar.
I want to put shelves in the unit. I just haven’t gotten that far yet.
After that, I found some plans on the internet and made a stand for my scroll saw.
The scroll saw is for cutting intricate curves. It is sturdy and the carpet should cut down on the vibrations. It is made from 2×4 and 4×4 material.
Which brings me to my first project in the completed shop.
We used to use a cardboard box to hold kitchen supplies like Ziplocs:
Which looked bad, never worked right and mostly was a pain. So Margo got out a lengthometer and drew up a quick plan for me.
I got some 1/4″ and 1/2″ birch plywood from Lowes and some edge veneer to hide the plywood edges. And finished my day with this:
