Monthly Archives: August 2013

Wood

The wood jumble solved

4 Comments

I just discovered that it was about four years ago when I left you hanging.  Yeah, sorry about that.

Back in August of 2009, I wrote about my wood jumble. It was in an area of my shop where I stacked wood with little organization, which made finding a particular board for a project a nightmare.

The original wood jumble

Fortunately, my wood storage has evolved to a little better arrangement. I found an area that was between my band saw and the standing storage tower that was open and would serve as a great place for some vertical storage for my boards.

The lumber storage now

I spent this past weekend arranging the boards in my shop, creating this area to store all of my lumber. It was a pretty simple system, involving some Tapcon screws, a few 2 x 4 scraps that I picked up out of the scrap bin over at the local home improvement center and a few lengths of electric conduit.  All I did was bore some holes into the 2 x 4s to hold the conduit, and then mounted those 2 x 4 cleats into the wall.

The cleat arrangementI put three lengths of conduit into each of the cleats, using these as dividers to help control the stacks of wood so they don’t flop around. It’s not the most perfect arrangement – the boards seem as if they can push on the conduit, levering the cleats from the wall. I may have to go back to the drawing board on that one…

Anyway, i was able to get the boards in there.  Now, when I need to reach for a board, there’s no issue with finding my choice boards. I simply can look into there and find the rough or previously-milled pieces of wood to find the one I want for a new project.

A look down into the stackDang, I have a lot of boards in there… Maybe I should build a few new projects!

 

Quick Polls

Quick Poll

2 Comments

Woodworking has been practiced in one form or another for the past hundreds of thousands of years. Throughout the ages, there have been many important inventions and discoveries that have helped to make the craft what it is today.

I wonder what gadget I can invent today?

Lately, the pace of these inventions seems to be accelerating. In the secret testing rooms and laboratories, companies are inventing devices that can help you do everything from ensuring your bead of glue is laid dead center on a board you are working with to bench dogs with sophisticated pop-up mechanisms to innovative devices to lift your work off the surface of your bench while gripping it tightly.

In this week’s poll, let us know what you think about these devices. Must-have tools for your shop, or gadgets that leave you scratching your head wondering what they would be used for…


 

Link of the week

Link of the week

1 Comment

Rough Cut: Woodworking with Tommy Mac

A few years ago, shortly after Norm Abram hung up his tool belt from the New Yankee Workshop, a young woodworker with a distinct New England accent debuted a new woodworking show on PBS. It was Tommy MacDonald, and in the past three year, he has entertained and informed woodworkers with a variety of projects covering the basics all the way through more advanced techniques.

Tommy MacDonald from Rough Cut

This site features a listing of the projects he has tackled, some basic skill-building techniques, a peek behind the scenes of the productions and a whole lot more. If you are looking for a whole lot more background on the show, this is definitely the site to visit.