reorganization in progress

Just a small use of wood but a major organizational aid. I laminated some leftover pieces of plywood and made a small clamp rack for my 36" bar clamps on the half wall behind my jointer / drillpress workstation. I bought my way up to 8 such clamps while working on my paperback organizer (still in progress) and now have room for one more.

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Larry, four of those clamps had been sitting in a pile on my worktable (the combination workbench / router table / lathe stand) and were in the way. Not only that, but seeing them piled up without a home had a negative morale effect. I started this mini-project and the battery box at the same time. Just the simple task of making a home for my clamps and getting them out of the way had a tremendous morale improvement effect in addition to freeing up some of the very limited horizontal space in my shop.

I also learned something while making this clamp rack. One of those things that is painfully obvious after you figure it out. I used the router table to make a dado in the laminated plywood that got attached to the wall for a little extra support for the lamination that the clamps actually rest in. It seems that said piece wasn't perfectly parellel before I made my two passes with the 3/4" bit to make 1 1/2" dado and on side of the dado was wider than the other. What I did to fix this was to take a smidge more off with the router table on the one side of the dado and then take a smidge off the other side, but using the same edge. Since I was now cutting on the opposite side of the router bit as usual, I needed to feed the piece "backwards" (left-to-right) to prevent a climb cut.

That operation isn't something I want to do regularly, so I'm going to scrape up the cash to buy the materials I need to rebuild my RAS table and also make a sliding rip sled for it - analogous to a crosscut sled for the tablesaw.

My idea for this is to start with a quarter sheet of melamine. Make a reference trim with the EZ Smart and then rout two 1/4" deep by 3/4" wide dadoes relative to this reference cut. One will be on the bottom of the sled maybe a third from the rear - this will be the guide slot - I'll make a short fence for use with the sled. The second dado will then be on the top very close to the rear for the installation of a fence on the sled to support the workpiece. I might well also make 2 - 4 T - slots from front to back for use as sliding clamp holders. I could then tap a couple 1/4"-20 holes near the front of the sled and scavenge the handles from my angle grinders to keep my hands well away from the blade.

If I do decide to use T-slots, maybe I should laminate a couple quarter sheets of melamine together, or even one melamine for the bottom and MDF on top.
 
a new drawer is built - the second one!

In post 35 of this thread you'll observe a gaping hole underneath the grinder. This gaping hole is very soon (tomorrow morning) to be filled.

Did I make a drawer? Why yes, I did. In fact, I even used some fancy wood for the face - my very first fanciness for my shop furniture. I had purchased some walnut from Larry when he swung by earlier, and I was surprised to see him pull out half again my order saying, "This is the free stuff." My hope for the weekend (which, thankfully, is not over yet) is to make a modest laptop table (said table will receive it's own thread). However, my horizontal spaces are out of control, and I decided that the table would go smoother if I finally got off my patoot and got this drawer built.

I was planning to use my dovetail jig to make this drawer, but I ended up going with screwed and glued butt joints in the interests of time. I decided to make the face from walnut for a little bit of fanciness. Still, I didn't go nuts with fanciness - the walnut appeared to be rough planed and reasonably straight and flat (much, much better than the usual pretzelwood from the Borgs after picking through the piles), so all I did was joint one edge for a reference, cut it to size, and then used the random orbital sander at 100 grit (only) to smooth as much down as I could before tossing the towel in.

The below pictures were taken with the Bush Oil finish still a bit wet. I probably should have waited to install the handle, but I just couldn't. I had scooted over to Lowes a half hour before they closed and picked up the handle - on the way over, I figured that the bright gold color would go good with the dark walnut. Not exactly the size (on my hand this is going to be a three finger pull - I had wanted a four finger pull) or style I wanted (don't ask what style I did want, just that this wasn't the one I knew by looking at it) but it is the right color and was on sale for $1.50, so good enough for a first fancy-ish shop furniture.

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This drawer is located across from the router table, so I'll be moving much of my router stuff to this drawer. Also, except for the rails and square, the planer stand also house my EZ Smart accessories, so some of those will be in the drawer as well as my two 90 degree corner clamps (Bessey), which were used in the construction of the drawer.

I assembled the sides and back, then misread the scale on my bandsaw fence and promptly cut the bottom not deep enough. I had enough offcut walnut left from the front to rip down to size an stick between the front and the bottom proper. It's a feature - of course I wanted a little bit of walnut on the bottom too! :doh: When assembling the walnut front to the sides, the front didn't quite lay properly.

After trying to figure out a way to remedy the situation - mostly wondering if my RAS raised up high enough to trim the front ends of the side as assembled - I decided to just use some trim head screws (I call these #1 square drive finishing screws, which doesn't usually help when I'm looking for them in the big shelf at the store).

Anyhows, this is what I did today - and boy do I feel good, even for such a simple piece of shop furniture!
 
That dark wood isbad for you mark. I can come up and get ride of it for you.:) Looks really good. Hey when are planning your next trip to the sticks?
 
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