So What Have I Been Doing- the workshop conundrum

  So what have I been doing, that's the conundrum.  It seems nothing, there is no new furniture,  barely a visible project, yet... Over the past couple of weeks I have spent some time working on something in my shop nearly everyday.  I have no photos to share and seemly nothing to show for my effort.  However, all the things where possible because I have a workshop full of tools and a separate place in which to work. 

  Summertime is bicycle riding time for us and this year I bought an e-bike, a Giant LaFree. It was the best money I've spent on a recreational luxury in ages. A new bike involves fiddling, fussing and adjusting, mirrors, racks, water bottles etc. etc.  All of those adjustment require hex keys of various shapes and sizes. 

   Since I live in Canada it means that I have to have full sets of hex keys in both metric and imperial.  I also have a set of specialised driver bits to work on security fasteners as well.  Since I have a shop and have collected those various tools over the years I was able to adapt a handle bar mirror, remount a bike computer and fit and adjust my grandson's bike too.  Were I cynical I would think that manufacturers want you buy something new rather than adjust/modify your existing products. There sure is a broad selection of fasteners out there for which I have the right tools.

  Summertime is also gardening time.  Each year I spend several hours sanding rusty garden tools and treating handles with tung oil.  I have sanders, grinders, wire brush attachments, all of which makes for easy care and maintenance of our  garden tools.  Not interesting, not blog worthy but, a use of time and shop space.  

  What else has been going on...sharpening. I have sharpened kitchen knives, garden tools, shop tools and pocket knives.  I know that blades should be constantly maintained, but...it turns out that a couple of times a year I spend a few hours cleaning up my work space, setting up my sharpening jigs and honing things to a fine edge.  At this time things are sharp.

  The last thing I've done in my shop lately is paint.  I hate painting.  I am not very good at it.  I am not neat enough or comfortably organised enough to be a good painter, nor patient enough. Having a shop space enables me to spread the tools out and contain the mess while doing the job, therefore making the job slightly less onerous.  

  Today's shop time was spent touching up the missed spots on the stairs, and making a new towel rack.  I didn't know we needed a new towel rack until it touched up the drying rack in our bathroom, you know how one job leads to another.

   

cheers, ianw