3.31.2019

Jim worked in the woodshop today - he first drilled countersunk screw holes in the workbench so that when he uses flathead screws to attach the spars, everything will be flat.  If you look closely on the bottom piece, you can see a screw in place.

Then he brought over the newly-painted side of the bench and put it in place!  Looks so good!

He tested out a spar piece on top - fit perfectly and will be totally flat for the bench top.

Then we started loading up the wood rack!  If you look closely at the top of the above picture, you can see a little bit of the big stack of wood that has been taking up a big corner of the shop space.  Most of this wood made the trip from Ohio with us.

Jim sorted it out as I would bring pieces over, marking the type of wood on some for easier reference.

Continuing to load it up...

All done - looks like we have our own Home Depot lumber aisle!

With the wood off the floor and the floor swept, Jim was able to start putting some of his tools over in that area...  The shop looks amazing!

Jim got all the countersunk holes put in the other side...

The last job of the day was cleaning and painting all the spar pieces...

All the work leading up to today sure allowed for a big change in the woodshop!  It's starting to become more and more functional and organized.

High 52/Low 26

3.30.2019

This morning, Jim flipped over the side piece of the work bench and proceeded to paint it...

All painted!  The front/outside of these pieces looks really nice - Jim did a great job with all the welding and design.

Then it was back down in the metal shop for lots of grinding work as he continues to make the spar pieces...

Then it was on to welding...

He somehow managed to get all the spars done, cleaned and even the first side painted before he had to come home and get ready for church!

High 59/Low 45

3.29.2019

Jim wanted to bring up the other side of the workbench today to get it painted, so that meant he needed to make room for it.  So he started assembling the workbench!  Feet are now on the end pieces...

Once that was done, Jim was able to attach the side to the ends...

Jim's two new pieces of shop furniture are really coming to life!  

Then we carried the other side up through the stairwell and into the shop...

Starting the not-so-fun cleaning part...

Painting time...

The first side is painted...

Jim continued working on the spars for the workbench.  Here he's got the coupler pieces attached to two of the spars...

Four of them are now done.  This is very tedious work because Jim has to make sure he gets all the measurements correct but then he has to grind the top edges of the coupler piece so that it mates perfectly with the spar.  He has the coupler pieces tack-welded right now.

High 50/Low 34

3.28.2019

Jim turned the workbench side piece over and painted what will be the outside.  It looks great!

Then he was back down in the metal shop doing some fabrication on the spars that will go both across the top of the workbench for support for the top and across the middle section - Jim plans to store plywood in the middle (a smart usage of space!).  There are a total of 6 spars so he got all those cut.  Then he made this coupler-type pieces that he will use when connecting the spars to the table - this way, the spar will be on the same plane as the table so that the tabletop will lay perfectly flat.

There's a lot of work in this step though - as you can see from this picture, the spar is made from angle which has a slight curve on the inside corner.  Jim has to grind the top of the coupler piece so that it will fit tightly into the angle piece.

Cutting the coupler pieces...

Pieces are cut and drilled - just the top pieces are ground to fit inside the angle.  That will be tomorrow's job to finish the rest.

Jim also worked on installing the new regulator - wow - looks so good!  And this is going to let Jim be so efficient with using the compressor.  He'll be able to take the hose line into the wood shop plus connect to his hose reel, as well as have capability for two more lines if he needs them.  There were a lot of connections - and they are all stainless steel which has given Jim trouble in the past - but he has them all tight with no leaks.  He did have a few issues mounting the regulator - it came with a mounting bracket but the regulator didn't quite fit in the bracket - crazy!  Jim had to grind the bracket down a bit in order to mate up with the regulator.

High 51/Low 38

3.27.2019

Jim painted the back of one of the side pieces of the workbench today - it came out really nice.

After cleaning up from that, time to put together the truss pieces on the other side piece.  Here it's all aligned and clamped and ready to be welded...

All welded!  Jim will just keep this side down in the metal shop until the other piece is all painted.  This is solvent-based Rustoleum Professional paint so it takes time to set up and extra time to cure.

He attached the front angle piece to the wood rack today.  This will help keep the rack stable as well as provide a stop for the wood.

His next project is to work on the air compressor and hose line plumbing.  He got the parts he needed for the manifolds so he worked on getting those put together.

Back up on the ceiling - Jim has a plug in this manifold now until he decides on the hose line he wants to use here.

This hose drop will be over the work bench - Jim wanted to try this one out.  Very fun!

 Jim's new regulator came in as well so he started taking the old one apart and started working on installing the new one.

High 44/Low 23

3.26.2019

Jim worked on building the truss frame for the sides of the workbench today.  He got all the parts cut and is laying them out...

That process required figuring out all the angles necessary - here he's doing a sample cut of the angle.

Whoa!  It's all together and welded!  Looks awesome!

Of course, next we had to take this big piece upstairs into the wood shop.  Jim carried most of the weight so we got it up around all the bends in the stairwell with no issues...

High 39/Low 11

3.25.2019

Jim was back at work in the metal shop on the work bench, now concentrating on the long side frames.  Drilling the holes room the attachment angles that will attach to the legs of the bench...

Holes drilled...

Gotta love a man who cleans up!  All the grinding makes a lot of metal dust - combined with bucketsful of metal shavings from the drilling process.

Putting the side pieces together...

Making sure everything is square before welding...

Beautiful welds!

First side frame is all welded!

Then a repeat of all that to make the other side.  This frame is all welded together and Jim is starting to lay out the truss members that will go inside the frame.

High 40/Low 14