Going from shed to 'shop

Mid-weekend update:

I was able to get a truck this morning, so I decided to hit up the lumber yard for some supplies. I used my budget for the next two weeks and went ahead and bought a 1/2 sheet of birch for a bunch of holders. That didn't break the bank, but the two sheets of 3/4 shop birch did.

The 3/4 is going to be for my new main counter and miter saw station. I got all the sides, bottom, and miter shelf out of one sheet. The second sheet will make the top, and I'll have a bunch left over. Went ahead and ran the dados for assembly, and hopefully that will happen tomorrow.

The shop is an even bigger wreck as I've started to disassemble my UTS. Now I'm temporarily down to one surface, and it's full of junk. Fully disassembling the UTS and setting up the new cabinet tomorrow will really help.
 
Two pictures I took, not at all helpful.
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First Is setting up the guide for the initial cross cut, and the current state of the shop.
 
I got all the structural pieces done for the new cabinet. I ran dados for the drawers on the outside supports, and just need to run them on both sides of the center divider. Since the measurements weren't the same, I left it until later. Assembly may have to wait two weeks as I have some other responsibilities next weekend.

In an effort to help reduce some clutter until then, I roughed out a couple of tool holders for the cleats. The first is a simple shelf for squeeze clamps, two pieces of 1/2" ply joined at a right angle attached to a cleat. This holds 10-12 clamps of two sizes, I honestly don't remember which is the right number.

The second holder is for my ROS and a bit of paper. I had intended for four pull out shelves, but I made a bit of an error in measuring. So I have three pull shelves and one fixed, plus a spot for the ROS itself. Need to do a bit of sanding, put a back and cleat on, plus trim it out with a bit of edging. Not the prettiest thing, but it's three less things (sander and boxes) off the table.

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This last weekend and the coming one are frustrating for the other things I need to do and take time away from the shop. However, both weekends involve doing something for my daughters, so I can't be too upset about it. I'll be rewarded with smiles and hugs.

Next on the agenda - a cleat for my corded and cordless jigsaws and blades, a cleat for screwdrivers and to get all of this rusty nailed wood cut up and to the trash.

The jigsaw cleat and screwdriver cleat are already designed in my head. Also going to start thinking about ones for my spiral saw, MF tool and Dremel.
 
Got a bit of work done before the storms moved in last night.

I cleared off the UTS and set up my miter saw and cut up all the boards that came off the wall and got them to the trash, clearing a major safety hazard if my kids came out to the shop with me. No more rusty nails threatening to snag them. After that was done, the MS went away and the Ultimate Tool Stand became no more. It's mostly disassembled, with me trying to figure out how best to use the scrap. Perhaps they will become drawers.

Once that was done, I figured I had time to assemble the new cabinet/MS station. I cut the toe kick for the cabinet, and ran a couple more dados for assembly. Then I went back and cut a toe kick on one panel on the correct side. :eek: Assembly went together in the usual way, albeit I discovered when I guessed at the height for the center divider last week I guessed an inch in the wrong direction and will need a new one.

What's left is to cut the new center divider and bottom supports, and to brace up the back. I think I will use 1/2" ply, because I'm not so sure now I want to use hardwood sliders. I'll probably give it a try, but I'm not too confident in how they will turn out. That will make the interior of the cabinet look bad, but it'll be our little secret.

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I will also look into dust collection for the MS via a chute or flex tube to under the shelf and to whatever I end up using. I think for this purpose, some PVC with a connection on the side of the cabinet would do fairly well. Hard to describe, but I get it at least.
 
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I wanted to say to everyone who has enjoyed this thread, I'll be saving regular updates for my blog. For those of you who know about it, there shouldn't be much of a change. For everyone else, I'll be working on making it public again shortly. As long as people behave themselves, it will stay that way. I'm transitioning my shop, and I'll be transitioning to building stuff occasionally to hopefully sell at some point as my skills improve. As such, I need to create an identity online that helps serve that purpose. Thus, going back primarily to the blog and eventually I will be creating a website.

I'm a long way off from doing that, but this transition has been a couple of months in the making and I'm very excited about it.

If you'd like to subscribe before it is open to the public, just give me a message.
 
As promised, the blog is now open to all readers. To post comments though, you'll need to have a Google Account.
 
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