In the Shop Today- Oct. 2019

  Today I planned to spend more time in my shop. I am returning to my 'work 30 minutes, stretch out 60 minutes-repeat often as possible' schedule.  I have things I want/need to do and I really don't want back pain to stop me. 

  First thing I did was sharpen one of my wife's fine serrated blade kitchen knives.  To touch up the fine serrations I needed my triangle needle file and my magnifying headset .

this is another of those tools that I only use a few times per year,
but would be stuck without.

  After I sharpened the knife I set to work to up grade my bathroom caddy. 

  I had up cycled as orange crate and have been using it since December  2016. Over time I got tired of bottles and stuff falling over and getting trapped underneath the handle. The caddy needed a couple of internal dividers added to the design.

  To make the dividers I used my rip saw, planes, drills, dowels and bench top planning jig.

The wood began with a piece of reclaimed lumber from a skid.  First I ripped the board it to width with a hand saw, holding it on the new raised bench top.  Now that is much easier and at a better height.

  After I used a hand saw to  rip the wood  to width I hand planed the board holding it with my planing jig. I used my mitre saw to cut the wood length, hand tools are nice, power tools are quick. 

  I glued and pinned the dividers in place with 1/8 inch bamboo skewers cut to one inch dowels.  Dowels are used because I don't want rust stains from screws in the caddy/tote  which will get damp in the bathroom.  I have made several projects with the 1/8 bamboo pins, the pins really are just for alignment 'til the glue dries, but they are cheap and available. 

    The caddy was painted bronze last time, purple this time.  When I am out and about I pick up cheap cans of spray paint for jobs were the colour  doesn't matter, currently I have purple.  I added the two internal dividers to keep things from falling over while I move the caddy around.

  The planing jig is something I made in May 2017 and used on my lower work table, but really like on the raised work surface.  

I added a couple of semi-permanent dogs
 to the end of the jig. 

  Just for an update:

planter with foam box insert
back on my Mom's patio.

  The cheap paring knives that I sharpened can be replace for a couple of bucks, the planter uses a discarded foam packing box and the bathroom tote thing is an up cycled orange crate and skid lumber.  I like to be able to repair and remake things to keep materials out of the land fill sites as much as possible.  

  I have a couple more knives to sharpen and a small box I am gathering nice wood for to keep me occupied for the next few 30 working-60 stretching days.  The larger raised work surface seems as though it will make a big difference in the long run.

cheers ianw

Tool Tote, long awaited. Fooled You..

This is the glue up of my latest tool tote.

  The tote filled with tools.

   Fooled you.  This is a tool tote, but not The tool tote.  As I was working away on my work bench tool tote, I got thinking about the mess on my side of the bathroom counter.

  I seemed to have stuff spread all over the counter top and that just didn't seem necessary.  My solution was to get a piece of 2 by 6 and cut it to 11 inches long, drill some holes and glue a bottom on it.

  Cutting the holes was easy, I used various sized forstner bits. And made the cut out for the talc shaker with the band saw.

  Something I did do extra and would recommend was I put four little dowel feet on the tote to hold it up off the counter. This is in case water gets splashed about, this way the wood will not be sitting in the damp getting nasty.

  It is nice having all that morning gear organized and at hand.

 Have a good day, start with an organized morning.

cheers, ianw