I finally bought a house in Cave Country! W00T!!!

[The Chairman]

A few more images as the boss does her inspection...

This was one of four jigs I used to hold the ridge boards while we attached the trusses.

Ma~ aka the "Boss" begins her inspection.

Nothing escapes her attention.

The Supreme Empress of all that she sees, surveys her domain.

I wish I could walk there like that.​

 

[Blueringocto_73]

That was quick! Looks like home.

 

[tbone1004]

that escalated quickly!

 

[ofg-1]

Glad to see that your construction received a proper cat scan.

 

[Kay Dee]

VERY nice work!

 

[WarrenZ]

Looks good Pete.

 

[The Chairman]

Switching gears: two weekends ago, I went to Florida City and finally picked up my tools. Many, many thanks to @tbone1004, @Moose, my daughter and my next door neighbor for their help! It's been so frustrating not having them here, but right now it's incredibly hard to get to them because of all the boxes. I was in the middle of my newest project "No dust in the wind" when Dan and I went. I have been using a shop vac whenever I use a shop tool, but boy is that noisy and I don't always have the adapter I need! Saws and routers are loud on their own, but they aren't incessant. The 2HP dust collector I got has 6 inch intake, but I'm running 4" pipe through out with three main draws, four if you count the router table that's a part of the table saw circuit. I am also using gate valves, and will be epoxying reed switches to them, so when I open one, the dust collector outside will turn on. I have the relay, the voltage reducer (I'll be running the switches on 12V) and the switches came in just last night. I am going to add a concrete pad outside of my workshop and cover it with left over tin from my workshop. I'll be installing not only the dust collector, but also my shop compressor. I'll even have enough room for a scuba compressor, should one show up on my doorstep! Here are some pics...

 

[The Chairman]

Speaking of side projects, I've been having a hard time keeping tape measures and pencils at the various stations. No, not all of them need it, but it's frustrating to figure out where I put them last. The biggest issue with pencil holders is that they often are too stiff and end up breaking the pencil if bumped. I have looked all through Home Depot, Lowes, online vendors and simply did not see anything I liked. Then, as I was going through Home Depot, I saw a spring. Damn. I have springs in the shop that aren't doing a thing except holding down drawer bottoms. Here's what I came up with.

I cut off the ends so I only have coils.

I drilled a blind hole, 3/8" deep just a smidge smaller than the spring and stuffed styrofoam in the bottom to protect the lead and glued the spring into it.

A piece of melamine for the tape measure, the pencil holder screwed to the other side and the brush hanging there as well.

The table saw solution.

The band saw solution.
​

I also have an issue with my miter saw not having a right side out table, so I built one and added a safe shelf for my phone!

All nice and level!

My phone will be safe and out of the way!​

 

[The Chairman]

Not shown, but I went and added a shelf to my out table after that picture was taken. I want to add another shelf for hand tools, and I'll be installing some tool boxes on the wall as well. I'll take a picture of it all when it's finally done. Right now, you can barely see it because of all the boxes!. However, I have decided that if I have to move a box, I deal with it. It gets unpacked and tools sorted to their "forever spot" right then. It makes the going very slow, if not glacial, but the shop is about a third clear so far. There's a lot of junk out on the lawn that is slowly getting picked up. Some things are going out to the ag shed, like all battery chargers and testers, as well as an abundance of garden sprayers. I've even tried to give some away, but no luck yet.

 

[The Chairman]

I finished the piping for my "No Dust in the Wind" project and even used it today. So far, I've piped to both doors and the miter saw, but only the table and miter saws have been fully connected.

​

In an earlier post I mentioned that I've been inundated with boxes. Oodles and oodles of boxes. It's making working in the shop incredibly hard, and I figured if I put a shelf really high, I can store most of the small plastic boxes up there. I'll be using the table and miter saws a lot on this, so I'm glad I have the dust collector functional. Yes, I still have to pour a slab and build an enclosure, but it works! Woot! Here's a pic of the boxes cluttering my shop.