Andrew's View of the Week

Wednesday Woodworking – The Shop Reorg Begins

Posted on 01/11/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

My shop is small. There are two shop areas each about 12 by 10 feet. One is my “inside” shop that is just off the laundry room. This space is well-lit and has a heater. This is where I do my marquetry and scroll saw work. The other is my “outside” shop which is a fenced off area inside the carport. It’s open air and where I do most of my heavier and dustier work on the table saw, chop saw or sanding. I can use it most of the year, but when the temp is below 60 I can’t do things like glue ups or painting as both require minimum temps.

I have one really bad habit that I need to change, the tendency to have too many projects going at once and leaving bits of these all over the place. Frankly, the shop has become something of a dump and it’s getting useable.

So I’ve created a new design for the shop that hopefully will remove many of the spaces that collect crap and make the over all space more efficient for the way I really work. This starts is a major clean up and demo of a couple of problem fixtures.

Here are some pictures of the work:

The outside shop – so packed I couldn’t find a good place to take a picture.

Overflowing – haven’t been able to get to the clamp rack in weeks.

While I am taking some things out, I am putting in one new piece, an old kitchen cabinet. This is a unit salvaged from our remodel two years ago. Heather had it in her art room for a while, but it didn’t really work for her. I could use the drawers and storage space so it’s on the move from the art room to the shop:

Stack-o-drawers waiting for their home.

First base unit in its new clean corner.

It’s going to take a few weeks, but when done I’ll have a better, cleaner space and less room for projects in process. Hopefully that will force me to finish stuff I start.

If you need me – look for the guy with the broom,

Andrew

Posted in woodworking | Tagged shop clean up, shop project, wednesday wood working | 26 Comments

2017

Posted on 01/08/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

I thought about doing a review of my goals for last year along with a list of my goals for the new-year.

I did find one post from last year with a list of goals, but I can’t believe I said I was going to do that stuff. Really, I was planning all that? Well, it didn’t take long for me to forget those were my goals, so we’ll just skip that part of the exercise.

Some nice things did happen last year. On the blogging front I’ve managed to grow my followers from about 800 to just over 1,500. My thanks to all who follow my posts and a big thanks to everyone who takes time to write a comment.

I did get a nice trip to England this year. It was great to see places and people I don’t get to see often. I’ve been mostly healthy all year, except for starting out the year with having to get a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea. I was able to get a lot of stuff done in the workshop this year – even though little of it was planned at the start of the year.

On the writing front, I finished editing my poetry book and started serious work on my novel. I’ve managed to keep my regular posting schedule on my blog, with only a few misses.

Sadly there was the election, which I found disturbing.

I do have things in mind that I’d like to do in the coming year. I’ll list them, but they’re more hopes than actual goals.

Self publish my cancer poetry book.
Finish writing my novel.
Start a new poetry collection and actually submit some to literary magazines.
Keep doing stuff in the workshop. First project is a total shop reorg.
Build a new ladder for the kitties (poor dears only have one).
Exercise more and keep my FitBit happy.
Participate in a protest march or two.
Write my elected leaders on a regular basis.
ROAD TRIP!!!
Keep this list someplace where I can find it next year.
Attend a writer’s workshop/conference (do tell if you know of a good one on the west coast).
Don’t adopt any more cats – the house is full.

That’s a long enough list of things. I will admit to love writing lists – Actually doing the thing on the list, not so much…

Till next week,
Andrew

Posted in General | Tagged 2016, new year's goals, year in review | 34 Comments

Friday Wisdom – Work?

Posted on 01/06/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

If work is so terrific,
how come they have to pay you to do it?

Wednesday Woodworking – No Pictures

Posted on 01/04/2017 by Andrew Reynolds

I have been in the shop, mostly cleaning and getting ready to do a major shop reorg. I did build a couple of more planter boxes. There are no pictures of this. It’s pain to upload pictures without my main computer.

That and I forgot to take any. You see, it’s been cold, raining, and my back hurts so the effort of lifting my cellphone and pressing the button has just been too much. Maybe next week I can muster the strength to lift my camera high enough to get a good picture.

I did manage to get my computer repaired yesterday. Last week I made an appointment at the Apple store to get it looked it. Yesterday I took it in and the tech agreed with me that the hard drive failed. He told me it would be 3-5 days to repair. Then said, “That’s standard and what we’re told to tell everybody, but sometimes it’s only a couple of days.”

That was at 11:30 am. At 2:30 pm they called saying the repair was done and I could pick it up anytime. I was thrilled, until I looked out the window and realized that it was now raining heavily and likely I’d be carrying my repaired, heavy iMac two blocks through the rain.

Well, that part was so bad as it was only one and half blocks through the rain.

So now I have a repaired computer and need to restore all my files.

There’s a fun job for tonight.

If you need me – I’ll be in the office stressing over a computer,
Andrew