The Morning Woodworker

Woodworking Workbench Construction Pt. 1

In earlier posts I had talked about getting the “Bench Horse” from Blum Tool Co. I also considered the “X-Bench” from Skil as suggested by my Dad. While both would have served my purpose in the apartment, I decided to build my own. I have to say, however, that I was ready to buy the “Bench Horse” because that I thought that it would handle hand tool work better than the X-Bench and that I would be able to use it when I go back home. But… being that I am a “woodworker” and I should be able to build a workbench instead of taking the easy way out and buying one, I decided to build one.

After making a rough plan of the kind of bench that I wanted I went to Lowes and purchased 6 2×10x120 in. Southern Yellow Pine boards and had the guys at Lowes cut them in half so that it would be easier for me to load and carry them through the stair cases at the apartment. They were still “wet” of coarse so I bought some furring strips to use as sticker boards to dry the pine out. Once I loaded them into my bedroom I got started cutting the furring strips to length. I used a Japanese pull saw to cut the strips into 10 in. length. This was my first time using this saw and I have to say that it worked quite well. I half-assed cut them and they came out square. Nice!

I had to turn the ceiling fan off so that I didn’t get sawdust everywhere and I promptly vacuumed up the sawdust after cutting the furring strips. After cutting the furring strips I stacked the board up to dry.

I haven’t quit made up my mind as to what style of bench I am going to make but it will be very simple. I don’t even know if I am going to install a vise on it. I may just use a couple of Bessy’s to clamp any work to the bench. So whatever style of bench I choose to make, it will be very “clamp-able”.

I don’t know how long it is going to take for the boards to dry but I sure wish they “wood” hurry up. I need to get this bench built so I can do other stuff. While I am waiting though, I will be surfing the web deciding on what kind of hand tools I should get. That should keep me busy.

Posted in Projects, Shop | 9 Comments »

Pocket Hole Joinery by Kreg

In January I bought the Pocket Hole Master Kit by Kreg. I never used it until I started on the wooden platform in my bedroom, where the new”shop” is going to be.

I was trying to decide on how to attach all of the pieces to the grid work that would support the platform.

Should it be angle braces? Way too expensive.

Deck screws? Probably split the wood.

Nails? Hell no!

Then I remembered that for some reason I grabbed the Kreg Pocket Hole Master Kit from home on my way to South Carolina. Why not?

So I went to Lowes to grab some pocket hole screws. The longest ones they had were 2 1/2 in. blue ones, about $5. The instructions don’t cover how to join anything thicker than 1 1/2 in. so I had to play around with the settings. After a couple of practice pieces, I found the perfect setting for what I was going to do, then went to town on joining the pieces of the grid work  together.

I am not going to go into detail on the specifics of using this system. You basically clamp the hole drilling jig to the piece that you want to join and use the included “special” drill bit to drill the pilot hole into the workpiece. There three different hole spacing setups to chose from. I just chose the one that best fit the piece.

After that you put the two pieces of wood that you want to join together and use a modified “vise grip” clamp (included in master kit) to hold the two pieces together in perfect alignment. There is no need to drill a hole into the mating piece.

After that you simply drive the screw into the two pieces. The screw will draw the two pieces together like a clamp so if you want to further strengthen the joint you can apply glue before screwing together. I chose not to glue because I will eventually be tearing this setup down and probably be throwing it all away. After screwing together, remove the vise grip and you are done. It could not be simpler.

You could get away with just buying the Mini Kreg Jig® Kit and do everything I did with the Kreg Jig® K3 Master System but I think that if you plan on doing any amount of work with this system, go ahead and get the Master System. The Benchtop and Portable Bases along with the Dust Collection attachment are well worth the investment. I used the benchtop base without attaching to any sort of panel for support and it worked flawlessly. It held up a 6 ft. 2×2 firring strip vertically without tipping over, and that was on top of a carpet floor. The benchtop base also sped up the time in making the joints tremendously. I had to make 32 joints in all and it only took about 30 minutes, and that included screwing them all together. The dust collection attachment worked great as well. the only thing that came out was a few chips of wood that fell out of the flutes of the drill bit.

So while I don’t think that I would use the Pocket Hole System for any “fine” woodworking, I do know that it will find a place for any utility  furniture that I need in a hurry.  And, if you place your joints (hole) in an inconspicuous location, nobody would ever know that you used it. I will be definitely be using this while I set up my shop for making  utility  shelves and tables.

If anyone has anything else to add about this system I would love to hear about it, especially if you have made any furniture with it . So just leave a comment and say what you have to say about it.

Eric

Posted in Tool Review, Tools | 1 Comment »

Apartment Workshop has begun

Today I started on my new home away from home workshop. The new shop will be in my bedroom of the apartment that I will be staying in for the next year or so. The reason the new shop is in my bedroom is because I will be sharing the apartment with a coworker and his family. A challenge to say the least.

What I have decided to do is use the space right next to my bed. It has a large window so light will not be an issue. I did hang a warehouse type light right over where my workbench will be in case I do any work at night. You never know when that late night craving for wood might strike you. There is a good possibility that I will be on night shift in the near future as well.

There are several challenges that face my in this situation. The big one of coarse is dust. Seeing that my bed is right next to the shop and my computer and entertainment system is just feet away, there just isn’t any room for dust. Because of that I have decided to make this a handtool only shop. I figure that this is the only logical choice because of the dust, noise, and cleanup issues.

Since trying to clean up wood shavings would be a real pain in the butt, I decided to make a wooden platform where the bench will be so that all I have to do is sweep up the shavings. To build the platform I chose to make a grid work sub floor using 2×2 furring strips. Because the wood is still “bleeding” I stapled a sheet of plastic sheeting so that the sap would not stain the carpet underneath. Next I simply cut two pieces of plywood used for flooring and screwed those to the frame underneath. I was wanting to use something nicer than plain plywood, maybe birch or oak but at $50 a sheet I just could see it happening. Not for a temporary shop anyway.

I haven’t decided on what kind of finish I want to put on the floor. It is still kind of “wet” and sticky so I think I will wait a week or so to put a finish on. I don’t know if I want to paint it or just put a clear coat on. Whatever it is, it will be water based as I don’t want to deal with the fumes.

So what do think? Do-able or  just plain crazy?

Posted in Projects, Shop | 6 Comments »

The Space I Have

Haven’t posted in what seems like an eternity. I have been caught up in the new job, finding a place to live, moving into that place, figuring out all of the stuff that I forgot to bring with from home and then making multiple trips to the store to get those “necessities”.  I never realized how much crap I needed for just a minimal existence. I mean, all I do is go to work, come home, eat, then sleep. When you fail to bring things like pots, pans, dishes, eating utensils, soap, laundry stuff (oh how I miss having a washer and dryer), ect. it gets kind of annoying. I did, however, bring the important stuff like: computers, speakers, xbox, bass guitar and an audio mixing board. Hell Yeah!!!

I do miss my woodworking tools and the smell of all that woodworking goodness that comes with it. I was so close to getting my shop complete in Alabama and ready to get building stuff, it was getting exciting. Then BAM! I was pulled away to this job in South Carolina. I have to say though, it is really nice here. The weather is great and the area is beautiful. Wish I could enjoy more of it.

But anyway,

Back to the point of the post.

Here is the place where I am thinking of placing my future workbench.

As you can see there is not much room. Also, I have the carpet issue. I can’t put the bench anywhere else in the apartment as I am sharing it with my coworker who is bringing his family here to live. I was thinking of laying a wooden platform so that there would be a place for the wood shavings/chips to fall, that could easily be swept up.  I am not sure how well this would be for any kind of sawing.  I do have a screened in porch if I needed to do any sawdust intensive work.

I have replaced the air mattress, on the floor, with a real twin bed so I did gain a little more room from what you see in the picture.

The window is huge so lighting is great.

What do you guys think?  Should I just wait until I get back home or should I go for it and piss off the neighbors with a couple of late night mortise and tenon sessions?

Eric

Posted in Shop | 6 Comments »

Home Sweet (Temporary) Home

Here is my new home for the next year. I will be sharing it with a coworker and his family. I have the master bedroom so I can have some privacy and they can have theirs. My room is average size so I should be able to set up a workbench of some sort to get my wood on. The only problem I see is that we are on the second floor so me pounding away on some chisels might not be welcome. I will have to plan accordingly or just learn to keep the chisels really sharp and press down on them really hard.

There is a detached garage that is available for a pretty hefty monthly fee so there is always that option.  I will probably get that anyway when I go back to AL. to get my motorcycle and tools.

I will post more info and pictures as they become available. Right now I am still in the hotel and will continue to be here until this weekend. I can’t wait to move. Hotels suck.

Posted in General | 10 Comments »

Portable Bench… An answer to my prayers?

With my recent job change I have been forced out of my new workshop (or new workshop in progress) due to relocating. That really bummed me out a bit as it was getting close to completion, or at least usable, and I was really looking forward to getting some serious shop time in. On my way out the door, to my new job, I grabbed some hand tools in hopes of continuing my woodworking addiction. The biggest problem that I was facing is where in the hell am I going to set up shop. I know that there are those of you who work out of the tailgate of your truck, on the porch, in the closet, in the yard, ect.

One of the reasons that I have spent so much time and expense converting my garage into a workshop is: I want to be comfortable, damn it! I’ve got AC in there! My wife called me the other day and told me the garage (I call it the shop) is colder than the house! Hell yeah! That’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s where I want to be. But anyway…

In my hopes of finding a bench to work on I came across this little gem by Blum Tool Company, called the “Bench Horse”. Now when I first saw this thing I thought that there was no way that it could work with those folding legs. It’s got to be too flimsy to do any real work on it. But after watching the video, I am staring to change my mind. The guy is planing on the thing!

I would have liked to seen him do some hand sawing and some chisel work on it but so far it looks pretty good. I am going to write him and see what he has to say about it.

Anyone ever worked with one of these? Please let me know.

Posted in Shop | 1 Comment »

More travel time

I am done with the 2 week training coarse in Tulsa, OK. After a very brief stay in Mobile, just to pick up some stuff and kiss the wife, I am back on the road to Charleston, SC.

I grabbed a very modest selection of hand tools. Hopefully I can continue my woodworking. If not I guess I will have to create a new blog.

I know the blog entries have been very weak. Sorry for that. Been extremely busy. Things should start to settle down in a couple of weeks. By then I hope to have a semi-permanent place to live.

Until then,

Eric

Posted in General | 4 Comments »

Living on Tulsa Time

It’s day 4 of 10 for my training in Tulsa, OK. So far it has been pretty basic stuff. Not to say that it isn’t intense at times because it is. Wiring up a brand new aircraft is done with much more precision than what I was used to working in a repair facility. Everything is done to tolerance of the width of a fingernail. Takes a long time, and I guess that is the biggest hurdle for me, slowing down and doing the job with much more precision. I will get used to it.

My future as far as woodworking is still up in the air. Many of you have expressed interest in me setting up a shop in an apartment. The more I think of it, the more I like the idea. To show that you don’t need a big shop to do woodworking. I am still trying to locate a place to live but it is hard to do since I am still about 1300 miles away from my final destination.

Please keep sending comments or suggestion as to what kind of projects I could do, tools to get or anything. I’m far from home… I’m lonely.

Eric

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Let the training begin!

Sunday 08/15/08 6:27 p.m.

We finally arrived at the hotel in Claremore, OK. and grabbed some grub at a local Mexican restaurant. That was a long 12 1/2 hours. Not the way I wanted to spend Father’s Day. At least I had some company along the way. One of my former co-workers got the same job as I did and rode with me, so that makes it pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to show because I forgot to bring the cable to the camera to upload to computer. (I also forgot to take any pictures)

Have a group meeting in about 2 hours (8:00). Guess I will meet the rest of the gang. I believe there 15 of us total. Hope there aren’t any moody bitches with issues.

Until next time,

Eric

Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Closing up shop. Temporarily.

In case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t posted anything on woodworking or the building of my shop. It’s not because I have lost interest. That is the furthest from the truth. The truth is, as anyone who has been following me on Twitter would know, I have been trying to get a new job. Well, I just found out yesterday that I got the job (yipee!). The bad news is that it will require me to relocate. This job is not permanent so I will be gone for 6 months to possibly a year and a half, or however long I can milk it out. Why take a temp job? Damn good money, baby! This will give me a chance to set up shop the way I want to when I get back as well.

I would like to continue the blog but without a shop I’m not sure what to do. I thought of just setting up a small area in the new place (apartment) and just using hand tools to make boxes or something. You know to keep the skills building.

What do you guys think? I would really appreciate your input or suggestions on this matter.

Posted in General | 8 Comments »