4th Annual WorkShed Clean-Up and Improvement "Week"

Frank Pellow

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2,332
Location
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
(part 1 of 4)

Every year since I built my woodworking shed/shop I have devoted a week in November to clean up, repairs and improvements. To read about the 2007 week, http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6656.
The week starting November 10th was supposed to be that week and I did get started on the task. But, there were so many non-shop tasks right now that I managed to devote fewer than 20 hours to it. So, I extended the week to a fortnight. That fortnight ended last Sunday.

The biggest task was to clean and to clear all the clutter, but I did get to build a few things.

In the first week, I only completed two jobs, one a repair job and one an improvement. The repair was the replacement of a broken wooden top section:
x Workmate Repair 1 -Broken part -small.JPG
on my about 30 year old Black and Decker Workmate. The first thing to do on this repair was to laminate a plywood part with the same dimensions as the broken section. I used two layers of 12mm Baltic Birch. The broken part was used as a template to mark the hole locations, then holes were drilled using my drill press:
x Workmate Repair 2 -Broken part is used as a template for hole locations -small.JPG x Workmate Repair 3 -Holes drilled on drill press -small.JPG

I put three coats of spar urethane on the new part then attached it. But, there was a problem. I thought that the holes would be ¾ inch, but it turns out that they are 2 centimetres. My Workmate was made in Canada about 30 years ago and I guess that they had converted to metric at the time. I wonder if the new ‘made in China’ Workmates have metric sized holes. 2 centimetres is only a little bit bigger than ¾ inch, so drilling the holes slightly larger was tricky: x Workmate Repair 4 -Increase hole size from .75 inch to 2 cm -small.JPG

After drilling, I smoothed the edges with a roundover bit: x Workmate Repair 5 -Roundover edges -small.JPG

Then, I applied a couple more coats of spar urethane all round and re-assembled it: x Workmate Repair 6 -Replacment part in place -small.JPG

There is a rather dramatic contrast between the surviving old section and the new section but everything lines up well.

The improvement was a place off the floor to store my small band saw. There is a section of wall at the north end of the west wall that has not been fully utilized:
x Some wallspace available -small.JPG
It is mostly used to hold the carrying box for my Festool rails but the rails now mostly reside in the garage and the box is has seldom been used during the last three years. I decided to put the box in the garage and to use the wall space for cabinets to hold the small band saw as well as some systainers. The portion of this that I completed was the place to hold the band saw:
x Rollers for small bandsaw platform -small.JPG x Bandsaw on platform on rollers -small.JPG
 
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(part 2 of 4)

In the second week, I found almost 30 hours to devote to the job, and got a lot more done.

I had a few systainers that had to sit on the floor due to insufficient drawers. My inventory is 19 systainers and there were only 14 drawers. One fits on the vacuum leaving 4 to kick about somewhere. I figured that there was room for at least 8 more shelves to the right of the space that I used to store the small bandsaw. In that these shelves will not be rolling around, I decided on a minimalist design, actually little more than a tray where the sliders form the sides of the tray. x Simple Systainer drawer 1 -bottom front and back glued and screwed together and pilot holes dr.JPG x Simple Systainer drawer 2 -drawer slides used as side lips -1 -small.JPG

I decided to pre-drill holes in the carcasses in order to accommodate different configurations of systainers. Here are three different ways that the shelves can be organized:

sys1-sys1-sys2-sys2-sys1: x Systainer cabinet configured for-sys1-sys1-sys2-sys2-sys1 -small.JPG

sys1-sys1-sys2-sys4: x Systainer cabinet configured for-sys1-sys1-sys2-sys4 -small.JPG

sys2-sys2-sys2-sys3: x Systainer cabinet configured for-sys2-sys2-sys2-sys3 -small.JPG

Here is the current set up of the drawers:
x Shop wallspace now utilized -top -small.JPG

I now have 4 shelves free for future purchases. I still have one systainer maxi living on the floor, but I guess that will be a challenge for next year’s Clean-Up and Improvement week.
 
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(part 3 of 4)

Another task involved a systainer. I have been storing a hammer drill in a Sys2 systainer for about three years, but I have simply been placing the drill and accessories in the systainer and letting them rattle around. Until yesterday, the hammer drill kept in my systainer was a DeWalt. But that drill has been problematic for some time. The problems have to do with loose wires and a faulty switch. I have (sort of) fixed it at least three times and had a certified repair centre fix it once. Yesterday, I gave up on the drill and it is now history.

For the last year or so, I have also owned a Milwaukee Hammer drill for use as backup. It has now been promoted. To celebrate the promotion, I decided to organize the systainer. I also spray painted the latches dark red as an assist to locating the correct systainer. Below are two pictures of the interior: x Systainer Organized for Milwaukee Hammer Drill -2 -small.JPG x Systainer Organized for Milwaukee Hammer Drill -3 -small.JPG

In September, some of the stuff used to cover end cuts of pressure treated wood spilled into one of my router bit drawers and dried there. Fortunately the bit holders are attached to a plywood insert. I cleaned all the bits to which the stuff had adhered, removed that plywood insert, and made a new one. x Router bit drawer damaged with preservative leak -small.JPG x Router bit drawer with new insert -small.JPG

For something completely different, I decided to make a collage of Lee Valley catalogue covers augmented with some cut-outs from their calendars.
x Lee Valley collage on shed wall -1 -smaller.JPG x Lee Valley collage on shed wall -3 -smaller.JPG

I had fun doing this and the wall looks very good!

As usual, there were a lot of trivial repairs that had to be made. For instance, the plastic surrounds on the fluorescent light fixtures are very flimsy and easily broken. I have not been able to find sturdy replacements and a couple of them have been knocked out and cracked. I made some wooden brackets to hold them in place. x Light surround support bracket -small.JPG
 
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Frank, it is always a pleasure to read your posts, great job this year, excellent use of space. Also great idea on use of the catalog covers; do send them a picture.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
 
Isn't it amazing how much more room there seems to be in a shop when it is all cleaned up & NO PROJECTS going on.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Looks Good, Frank.:thumb:

You mentioned enlarging the holes that were drilled too small, and it being a bit tricky, so I thought I'd mention a couple of methods I have used to make it easier to keep the alignment the same, just in case someone else might run into this situation. One method is to glue a dowel or plug in the hole then remark the center and drill out to the new size, but the method I have found the easiest, (and fastest), is to drill the proper size hole in a piece of scrap, (preferably with a forstner bit) and then visually center it over the smaller hole and clamp it in place and then use a forstner bit to drill the larger hole in the workpiece. The hole in the scrap acts as a guide for the forstner bit to get started and it works really well (and no tearout).
 
Isn't it amazing how much more room there seems to be in a shop when it is all cleaned up & NO PROJECTS going on.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Looks Good, Frank.:thumb:

You mentioned enlarging the holes that were drilled too small, and it being a bit tricky, so I thought I'd mention a couple of methods I have used to make it easier to keep the alignment the same, just in case someone else might run into this situation. One method is to glue a dowel or plug in the hole then remark the center and drill out to the new size, but the method I have found the easiest, (and fastest), is to drill the proper size hole in a piece of scrap, (preferably with a forstner bit) and then visually center it over the smaller hole and clamp it in place and then use a forstner bit to drill the larger hole in the workpiece. The hole in the scrap acts as a guide for the forstner bit to get started and it works really well (and no tearout).
Thanks for the tips Norman. I think that I prefer the second method and will try it the next time that I need to do something like this.

By the way there were three current projects underway when I took the shop hotos.
 
Uh Oh, I missed 'em completely,:eek: I guess you're just working Too Clean, Frank.:rofl::rofl::rofl:
They are easy to miss in the photos, but I just checked one of the "after" photos and found some part of 3 different ongoing projects. As to "too clean", I don't think that's true but I am attempting to work cleaner and to return most tools in their allocated home once I have used them. So far, so good, but I have only been working this way for a week.
 
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