Woodworking Monday

Talking with my co-workers this morning about what I did on the weekend, they declared that Monday’s were now “Woodworking Mondays”, as every Monday I would update them on what I did in my shop πŸ˜›

Well, I think you can guess what this post is about…

 

 

I decided that I’m going to begin selling some of my creations on the side once I finish up a couple things that are currently on my plate. With that in mind, I need to start stockpiling some inventory. This weekend I spent some time creating some blanks for various cutting & serving boards. They are still all at a rough finish, so I need still spend some time giving them a bit of TLC.

Workbench progress

Workbench progress

I’m back from vacation (I’ll post about that later) and headed straight to my workshop.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in order to make any further progress on my dinning room project – I would need to build a proper workbench.

Well, I’m almost there πŸ™‚ This weekend I finished the glue-up and planing of all the bench top sections.

Progress

Progress

Earlier this year, I started making a new dining room table from some old barn beams that were left on my property by the previous owners. I’ve planned to do a post about the (backbreaking) process, but that will have to come at a later point.

Here’s a little teaser. These are the beams that I am using to build the table. They have a lot of rot on the outside, but the inside of them is a nice hard Maple.

Last weekend I hit a roadblock on that project. I am now at the point where I need to join and finish all my planks to create the table top. In order to do that, I needed a nice workbench with a large, flat, and level top. My workshop is great and it’s one of my favourite things about our new house – however it’s alsoΒ 60 years old and very basic. Inside is a slowly rotting wood floor, raw studs, no insulation, and shoddy electrical wiring. Another thing that is missing, is a workbench!

My workshop still has a sound frame after 60 years, but that’s about all you can say for it.

When I starting designing my workbench, it quickly became apparent that once in place – I wouldn’t want to move it again. This meant that if I ever wanted to finish the inside of my shop, I’d have to do it now. So I paused making my workbench (which I had paused building the dining room table for), in order to finish the inside of the shed.

I spent the entire weekend working at it, and I’m happy to report there has been progress πŸ™‚

This weekend I accomplished the following:

  • Insulated all but 1 wall (need to buy more insulation to finish)
  • Half of the shop is strapped and drywalled (need to get more straping before continuing)
  • New subfloor is in
  • Electrical work is cleaned up with new lines run
  • New 250v electrical run, which now powers my….
  • Heater! I installed a 4500BTU electric forced air heater, which does a wonderful job of heating the shop

Even though the shops not totally finished, I’ve completed enough that it is now a workable space. In an effort to get back to my dining room project, I’m stopping here for now and beginning the work on my new Workbench πŸ™‚

Let the laminating begin! My workbench will be a butcher block style top, made from 2×4 pine that I had left from other projects.