When people at work ask Randy what he is doing on a weekend his usual answer is “Shopping”. Knowing that he has a new house they initially asked “What for”. He then tells them “I will be in my workshop.” It can also include some stores like Lowes, Home Depot, Harbor Freight, and all of all places Michael’s Craft Store, but not the stores at the local mall.
When we were looking for a house in Yuma, Georgia had her requirements and Randy had his. Georgia’s ideas included a good kitchen, craft space, etc. Randy’s idea of the perfect house was a three car garage with an attached house. It could be amended to a shop with an attached house. We did not find what we wanted in an existing house. The inventory of existing homes had been depleted because of the tax credit that was expiring.
We then had our house built. It had a couple of features for us. Georgia got her “Loom Room” and Randy got his three car garage. The three car garage is a tandem which means that the garage only has two doors but one bay is twice as long.
Initially Randy was going to park his truck on the tandem side with Georgia’s Honda on the other side. Time proved that it was better to switch the sides with the vehicles. Georgia’s car is shorter than Randy’s truck. It made additional room for the shop for Georgia to park her car on that side. Randy mounted the bikes on a hoist system in the ceiling of the garage where two of them are stored. The third is his usual commuting bike, and fits in where it can.
After having boxed up and transported all of our books here to Yuma, we purchased two readers from Barnes and Nobel, called Nooks. We then decided to convert from regular books to electronic. We relented when we realized that we still needed our various craft books. We are not able to switch them to electronic versions yet. This means we need fewer bookshelves. However, Randy does plan to make a bookcase or two, once his shop is ready.
Georgia’s craft books were moved to the “Loom Room”. Randy’s were to remain in the shop. The science fiction collection for the most part will be given away, with only a few favorite volumes being kept. Other books will be in the house. All (with the exception of Georgia’s craft books) are now in boxes on shelves in the garage.
For protection and visibility, Randy found some legal sized clear plastic boxes that would contain his wood working book collection. He had to buy 6 of them. It does allow for a bit of expansion, but not much. They are located on a shelf in the workshop. This also means that only a select number of them can be in the house at a time. With his books taken care of, it was time to move to organizing other aspects of the workshop.
Randy never has had a dedicated workshop and probably never will. The advantage of having the tandem garage is the ability to roll the car out of the garage and use the additional space as needed. Randy normally builds small projects, but cutting of materials does need more space as does building larger projects.
It also means that almost all tools need to be on wheels. This includes the table saw, planer, jointer, drill press, sawdust collector, band saw and sanding equipment. The scroll saw and work bench are the exception and are permanently placed. However, they can be moved if necessary.
It also was time to evaluate said tools. Randy gave away the full sized lathe before we left Grants Pass. He has not used the band saw in some time and found that he can use the scroll saw instead for all wood less than 2 inches in thickness, including oak. He found a good home for the band saw at work along with the old scroll saw that he never used. When his co-worker came to pick it up, he also helped Randy put the planer back on its wheels. It requires heavy lifting which Georgia does not do well with it being such a large item.
The drill press was also put back on wheels with Georgia’s help. It was pushed into the area where the water softener will go. Randy left space underneath the shelves to roll around tools. He also found that he can hang tools there like the folding saw horses and clamps. You can never have enough clamps in various sizes and shapes. Unfortunately they become a jumbled mess very quickly if left on their own. They can be even worse than computer cables (if that is possible).
The next was the placement of the work bench. It was placed close an empty wall where the pegboard was to go. The pegboard is not used for everything, basically only for the oversized items so that they can be seen and also for some hand tools used all of the time.
Next was a place for wood storage. The lumber could go on the shelves. It was the plywood that was a problem. Randy built a rack to hold half sheets on the wall in front of the truck. The table saw was located between the shop and the car.
Suddenly the shop was usable. This was cause for a project. Randy stumbled onto a box of myrtle wood blanks that had come from Oregon and also some burl wood. The myrtle wood pieces are half rounds that Randy had purchased from a place going out of the business in Oregon. He had not figured out what do to with them.
The Nooks (electronic book readers, we each have our own) we have are wonderful. They sometimes get lost and they also have a screen saver on them that cannot be seen when they are lying flat on the counter or being charged. The myrtle wood blanks with a slot cut into them would be great Nook holder. He quickly made two of them to break in the shop. Each Nook can hold up to 1,500 books.
Randy organizes his shop in boxes. He has been doing it since we lived in Utah. As he lifted up the one with his sanding equipment in it, the bottom fell out. It is time for new boxes to replace the ones built more than 15 years ago. These will be a bit shorter in height and uniform in size (12 inches by 18 inches). This will allow for more shelves with tools being shifted to more boxes by use.
Guess what Randy worked on this weekend?
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