Maybe I Start From The Wrong End...

[MsNomer]

This all sounds perfectly normal to me. It's why I have a blank stare when asked, "What do you make?"

[BrokenOlMarine]

I know the rules, lol.
I took some last night. Let me get some coffee, and i'll try and get them up this morning.
Seriously... need fuel.
The shop is a blessing. Plenty of room, the chair had allowed me to be mobile, but taken pressure off that thigh, the knees, and back; so I can stay out there longer. The climate control is dead on and the first electric bill came in and there was barely a change from last year's bill. I am very happy with the shop and the set up so far... but of course, still tweeking, fine tuning the set up.

[Steve N]

Awesome Jim it looked like a nice set up, glad to hear you can be out there and be comfortable. Basic fact in life, if "it" hurts, you won't do whatever "it" is.

Lemme know when you get finished tweaking, I have never gotten to that point in a number of shops, over a number of years.

[BrokenOlMarine]

Steve... I've never gotten to that point either.  The original shop was more than twenty years old when we moved it off to the side, and it became Tina's hobby shop, and IT was never "just right."  I was always finding new ways to improve it. 


So, here are some pics to go with this post.
First and foremost, what makes the shop so much nicer for me post fall/accident last September?  One word? Mobility.

There is room for me to "Glide" from one place in the shop to the next, greatly extending my time in the shop.  Since I can stand for a bit here and there, I do have an advantage over someone "confined" for which I am extremely grateful.  This will most likely NOT always be the case, as they have told me my conditions are permanent and degenerative.  But I'll take what I can get. 


There is another important chair in the shop.  I wasn't kidding about that.  It's my planning chair.  I really do sit in the chair while the Classic Rock Radio plays in the background, or the Country CDs.  I Rock, literally, and decide where to go with the projects.  Or, I leave them on the bench and come back later.  No rush.  It's what retirement is all about. 


Yes, as a matter of fact, that IS a Cracker Barrel Rocker.  The wife found it for me on Craig's List.  We had always talked about buying one, but we were always on the way to somewhere and no room in the truck.  She found this one for $20 locally, and we went and picked it up.

Cubbies, and the old boathouse.  There are about four or five cubbies in the new shop where I have tucked away choice pieces of wood that I knew would end up as boxes, or small projects.  That is the first place I start looking when I want to start a new one.  There is usually something that jumps out at me, before I have to head out to the boathouse.  That is where the big stuff, slabs of walnut, long boards and the chunks are.

Yup, that's Curly Cherry, ready to go on the top.  What's the rule, "prep more than you need for the project at hand when you are prepping?"  That's a leftover from a previous completed project.  You might also see several spalted maple slabs, birch, cherry, black walnut, walnut, and some I have no idea what they are.  The 20+ surgeries have fried my memory. 
  Some of the wood I just like the looks and use it.  Someone will ask what the wood is, and I'll have to get the guide out of the bookcase and look it up again. 


Yeah, Yeah, you've all been waiting for the "Top" that started it all.  You want to see the burled maple piece.
Wait no longer.  It's here, look down.

Now I just find the top, in the wood.  We have been discussing this and I think I know where it's hiding.  Square up the right edge to the left of the missing gouge.  Square up the left edge to the right of the saw kerf left from the previous project.  Then square up the top and bottom to form the rectangular top.  I'm still considering.  We haven't made a final decision.  I may do a wedge shape and inlay that in the box top.

I went back to the cubby last night and poked around, and almost went with cherry, I had a nice piece, then the grain in the end of this walnut called out.  I think I might go with this.  We'll see what it looks like coming off the bandsaw.  There should be plenty in these two pieces to provide four sides, framing for the top and perhaps shaped some trim for the bottom of the box.


I'll keep you posted.  Amazing what you can pull from wood that most would burn.

[BrokenOlMarine]

Spent a couple hours in the shop with the old walnut I pulled from the cubby.  I think it will turn out fine and do the job.

I'll choose the best pattern for the front of the box, and the back of the box and use the rest for the sides.  The thicker wood will be used to make the top and the base.  I won't use the edges with the sap wood unless I use it to make contrasting keys... to add highlights that will make the top, pop. 
  I think if I use Dark Walnut Stain on the walnut and a Colonial Maple or a Light Walnut on the Burled Maple to make the grain pop, there won't be a need for anything else to add pop, the grain will take care of that.

Here is a look at the shop, a long view taken standing just inside the man door.

That poly cart the wife caught on sale at Northern Tool, and I use it a lot in the shop. It serves to move supplies from here to there, as a rolling work platform, and as you can see, holds certain supplies that I use on the workbench, on the tool bench, and to keep things handy.  She also uses it to roll groceries up the wheelchair ramp into the house from the carport. 

[TomFromStLouis]

I play this game too.  One risk I recently discovered is letting the top get ahead of the box. I will no longer cut the top anywhere close to size until the box is built. 

I just tackled my Selected Shorts bin and finally got them sorted (which means "off the floor"). Here is the lower portion "sorted":



I ended up with 8 or 9 pieces all talking to me at once:



I have already moved the pile around the shop a couple times. In spite of that constant inconvenience, this is a fun way to work wood.

[BrokenOlMarine]

Something to do.
Rather than mark and cut early, I decided to try and patch that right hand gouge to see if I could add another inch to the width of the top.
I squared up the gouge with a sharp chisel and smoothed out the bottom. Then, cutting a couple small adequate blocks from the waste end, I attempted to cut a matching patch.
Hey, if it doesn't work, all it costs me is time in the shop, and I enjoy the challenge.
The small thin patches broke on the first couple tries, but the third time looks to be a charm. Cut oversized, and sanded to fit on a scrap of sandpaper, it's glued, clamped, and drying.
It was cut proud and will have to be trimmed flush once the glue dries... carefully trimmed. We will see if the effort pays off.

[Steve N]

Embarrassed to show pics of my "offcuts piles" some would call me a hoarder (My Wife). You guys all organized and stuff...........

[BrokenOlMarine]

Yeah, all organized and stuff. I have a couple five gallon buckets of stuff the LOML tells me I have to throw out. Inlays I tell her. She didn't believe me until I did three boxes with really nice inlays as accents.
I did concede and toss a bunch of stuff that really was just trash... but exotic trash.. cocobolo, purple heart, curly cherry, ebony, lacewood... sigh... still trash.

[Arlin Eastman]

Jim

At the VA there is a "Special padded room" that has wood in it which talks to people.  You might ask them if you can use it.






I guess I have never had a talk with wood or "had it talk to me" I had a need and looked around to see what fit the bill I wanted and made it.  However, I am not a deep person either.
I can only wish I had a shop like yours and we would have enough room to store projects or have more people in it at once.