2014 Shop Cleanup

Every year towards the end of the year, I change up the shop to make it more dust free, safer and more welcoming.  This year I wanted to put everything away in such a way that I could the leaf blower to blow out dust unabated.  Not the best neighbor, but oh well.  I did these pretty much all during christmas break.

Started with the outfeed table for the table saw.  The old one moved too much with moisture changes and caused the table saw blade to bind on the workpiece.  Made out of some really nice 1" thick appleply.  Torsion box-like design using clear cedar saved from the deck demo from "Epic 2"

Painted with a bunch of layers of finish to make to glass smooth

Also added a piece of flooring on the holtzapfel bench at an angle to help with supporting longer boards on the table saw.  The previous solution made out of softwood worked really well on ripping all the redwood for the pergola (epic 1).  This new one works even better. 

Decided to build a "roubo split-top assembly bench."  This was made out of the remainder of the clear cedar I saved from Epic 2.

Painted base, it's deeper than my main roubo at 32" vs. 24" and lower at 28" vs. 32".  This should make it easier to do glue ups which were kinda of a pain on the garage floor since I could never be certain the floor was flat.

The bench is a split roubo and is designed to be knocked down.  The center section is also where I plan to run the festool track saw.  I also plan on having some replace-able pieces cross wise (in dovetailed ways?) so I can cross cut using the saw when I'm traveling and need my tools.

 Got myself a refurbed Veritas shoot board plane and track system over cyber monday.  Used leftover plywood to make the board and designed it such that the oak fence can be adjusted and replenished as it's cut into.  So far, pretty nice.

Not enough drawer space caused me to leave things out which then got lost when running the leaf blower.  Instead, just cut up a bunch of left over plywood to create some drawer dividers (simple, detachable, disposable)

Clamps were falling everywhere, hung them up instead in the used spots of the shop.  Also, built a french cleat charging station.

Notice anything?  This style of tool rack when it's just a 1/2" wide slot allows all your screwdrivers to constantly fall over on each other and eventually out of the slot (when running the leaf blower).  Toe-nailed small pieces of wood (not shown) to hold them upright. 

Doesn't look like much, but this was a disaster before.  By getting rid of my tool cases, I freed up 50% more space.  There are a lot more hand power tools that I did this to (not shown). 

 Finally, a storage spot for my super expensive 9' long festool track.  It's simply too expensive for me to just lay around.  They say "Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten," I guess I'm still in the latter phase, I haven't forgotten about the price.