April and May 2013 Archives

New and Improved???

May 4, 2013 A weird thing happened in my work shop a couple of weeks ago. I saw water on floor - coming, apparently, from under the paneled wall. This couldn't be what I thought it was, I tried to convince myself. Of course, it was. My stomach dropped and a few beads of sweat popped up on my forehead.

My brother and I ended up pulling off two sections of paneling trying to locate the leak. Doing it was no easy task! The house was built in 1968 and the original owner was nothing short of a perfectionist. There were nails every few inches along all of the studs.

To make it worse, the paneling went up above the dropped ceiling and was perfectly cut around the water pipe that traveled from the ceiling, through the wall and to the floor.

We pulled and preyed all the nails we could and broke out the reciprocating saw and eventually found a crack in the foundation wall that was wet.

Thanks to my brother's expert-like know-how, he had the crack patched and water tight in no time. 

Then my focus turned to my injured work shop. Sure I could hammer the panels back up, but the scars from the reciprocating saw would still show, not to mention some of the damage caused by nails we couldn't get out.

I was thinking how this would eat away at me every time I was in the shop when my brother said something very interesting.

He said maybe I should think about using the space differently now.

Excitement began to build.

This unfortunate and unexpected problem may lead to a new and improved shop. I am going to take some time and think this through. I am going to re-imagine my shop, not just the one corner that was affected, but maybe the whole thing.

Thanks Mark!!!

If you ever experienced something like this in your shop, let us know what you did and how it turned out better in the end. Feel free to share some before and after pics if you'd like too!

I will update you down the road on what I end up doing - maybe I will get some inspiration from your story.

Either way, next time you face a problem, after the initial shock,  think about how it will improve things for you in the end!

take care

Al

What's your method?

Over the years we learn, experiment and perfect our own way of doing things in the work shop. We come to love our tools and the techniques we use; almost as if they are children.

If you spend any time reading some of the wood working forums, you have probably witnessed something very similar to proud parents - of course I am talking about the arguments over whose tools are better.

Much like life though, there are no winners in these type of arguments. It's all just a matter of opinion.

This leads me to the point of today's blog:

What is your preferred way of cutting miter joints? 

When I'm making my picture frames, I use a system that involves a miter saw, clamps and stop blocks, which I outlined on the miter joints page of this site. I know there are many ways to do it and many sleds, jigs and methods. For me, though, this method works every time. My picture frames have tight corners and very rarely cause me grief.

It would take a lot for me to try something else. 

take care

Al

April 4, 2013