Category: Workshop

Well, no, not really finished. I may want to lacquer the paint job. And I definitely want to incorporate hammer storage in there somewhere.

Plus there are one or two vacant slots for a couple more saws at the back. Will I make or buy saws for these? I do have the wherewithal to make my own, which could be both fun and edumacational?

Today and yesterday/last night, I painted the caddy with two coats of a rather pleasant pale blue. I let them dry overnight, and sanded/filed out some excess paint that got into the cavities this morning. I then chiselled out a recess for the tape-measure clip, at left.

I made a metal plate from a fence ‘clip’ (or bracket? Is that the right terminology?), by flattening it, using a vice and a bit of hammering. I then cut it to the right length or width, using my Makita angle-grinder. Next I filed the ragged edges, rounded the corners, and drilled four holes for screwing it over the recess.

Presto! A place to clip a tape-measure, over the left handle. And below the right handle I have the ‘lectric pencil sharpener. Maximising the use of space… Cool beans!

I started making a tool caddy today, along the lines of the Patrick Sullivan one I mentioned in another recent post. I actually tried before, earlier in the week. My first attempt was a disaster!

But I learned from my mistakes, and approached the task a little differently second time around. But before I get to that, pictured above are most of the tools I’m planning to accommodate in my tool caddy, laid out, so I can think and plan things.

After clearing the crap off my table saw, I checked it, to ensure both blade and fence are totally square. And they are! Cool. I also cleaned as much crud and sawdust from inside it as I could. And I dug out an old table-saw sled I made ages ago, for a different saw, which needed some adjusting to fit this more recently acquired Kity table saw.

I needed the table saw to cut the back block of wood in half, as trying to drill deep holes in the uncut block was where I went wrong before. Not having long enough drill bits, or drill press type tools that would reach deep enough, the first attempts at drilling holes for certain items went very badly.

With the back block cut in half, the wood was much more manageable, and I was able to drill the holes I wanted much more easily and neatly. Once holes were drilled – some of which had to be drilled from opposite ends – I also had to cut channels for rectangular recesses, to take certain other items.

Doing this with the table-saw sled was great. I felt like a proper YouTube type maker! Next I glued the upper and lower halves of the back block back together, having drilled some of the holes and recesses all the way through the second half of the block as well.

Step two will be putting a back on this first section, for stuff like the rulers, saws, and other taller and flatter bits and bats. I’m hoping I can do that tomorrow. But for now, I’m very happy to have got stage one done successfully.

Steps three and four will be adding similar but progressively shorter blocks, in front of this back block. But that’s for later this week…

Once again I’ve been trying to create some order in my tiny workshop.

I put up two marine ply shelves (very strong!), along the left hand wall, attached in part to the shed frame itself, at one end (and in the middle), and the shelving unit at the other. I’ve put my two drill presses on the lower shelf, and all my sundry electric tools, or near enough, on the upper shelf. They’ll need proper homes in the fullness of time. But at least they’re out of the way, for now.

Sundry other fixtures, hooks and little shelves and whatnot, have gone up as well, providing homes for various items. I’m also going to make a portable tool caddy in the style of one Patrick Sullivan shares on his YouTube channel. But that’s a project for later. (See YT Link at bottom)

But the major job I’ve done, yesterday and today, is to finally insert a basal shelf on my workbench. Again, I’m using some marine ply I got off a Cambridge area FreeCycler, many moons ago. Top quality lumber! Expensive stuff. Very glad I’ve got a stash of it for jobs like this.

I cut the channels in the legs using a skill saw or plunge saw, set to an one inch depth. Making a series of cuts, the outer and innermost first, and the clearing a bit more wood with more passes. Then I snapped of the ‘fins’, leaving behind a little wood that needed chiselling away to make a nice flat base.

Having got the first piece in, with some glue, and a soft rubber-headed mallet to encourage it into place. I started with the central plank, which goes all the way through to the outer edges of the legs. After that, I had to cut two pieces to bring the width, or perhaps rather the depth, to it’s proper size.

The central board reaches all the way across the bench to the outer edges of the legs. It required serious whacking with a mallet, and even a sledgehammer, to get the board fully in place. I suspect everything’s a tad off, as I generally busk this stuff. I do measure. But I’m not hyper accurate.

The final two boards span a shorter width, between the channels on the inner sides of the legs. The boards are all glued in place. Clamps and a ratchet strap are helping get everything sold and reasonably well aligned.

I’m thinking that I might add another similar board nearer the top, and put in two drawers. For the time being I’ll probably use the bottom shelf as a lumber storage and/or a place for one or two oddments, equipment wise.

The final pic, above, shows the whole thing, albeit a bit obscured by the open door. I removed the vice, as I wasn’t happy with how I had installed it. I’m going to re-fit it, probably at the left end of the bench. I also have another vice that I might add. But I’m not sure where? On the bench, or elsewhere in the shop?

I’m also planning to add dog/holdfast holes. Although I might install a hard-wood top to the bench. My laminated pine top is neither perfectly flat nor very resilient. It’s easily damaged.

The two lamps pictured above, and at the top of this post, were Amazon Vine freebies, for review. Quite nice, although not really to my tastes. But a strip light would ultimately be better (takes up less space!). Observant viewers may spot that I ran the power to the light up and out the front of the ply shelf, so as to avoid any tools damaging it.