End of Week 17: Thanksgiving

Being as it was Thanksgiving week there weren't as much progress this week. It was also cold and wet outside so I didn't bother to take any new pictures of the rough electrical that was put in. Fortunately, since we passed inspection last week, the roof is now covered so that winter weather won't be stopping the interior work that will be started on next week.

I have been thinking and researching what I'd like to do with the garage. Since I started woodworking, I have a greater interest in the garage and setting it up as workshop in addition to using it as a storage space and parking the car. The new garage will offer a lot more wall space then what I have now so I want to take advantage of it and the high ceiling will allow me to utilize some of the overhead hanging shelves for even more storage space.

I would also like to have something besides the cold concrete flooring that is typical of garages. The hard floor is not friendly to the feet and the tools and also tends to get ugly over time as oil spills on it and cracking occurs so garage floor tiles might be an option. It seems like it is also something that I can install myself before anything is put into the garage.

End of Week 16: Electrical and Plumbing

The plumber and electrician continues to work on the rough plumbing and electrical while the roofing is being completed. We've walked through the house with the electrician to verify the placement of the various electrical outlets as well as going through the shop drawings for the kitchen cabinets.

A lot of details with the house are starting to become more apparent especially with lighting.

Before the skylight openings:



Garage:



Plumbing:

End of Week 15: "It's starting to look like a house!"

The pace of things have picked up significantly since the arrival of the roof trusses and a lot of activity can be found at the site as well as the ringing of the cash register draining more funds. ^^;

With the trusses up, the crew have started to put up the wall sheathing and roofing. The electrician has been on-site to plan out the rough electrical and soon the plumber will also be out to prepare to do the rough plumbing.

I've been ordering the networking stuff in preparation for running the data/telephone/video wiring which will happen once the electrician and plumber is done and before we put up the drywall.

Week 14: Roof Trusses!!!

Roof trusses arrived and the roof is going up. Should have the trusses and the plywood sheathing on the wall this week.

Mobile Tool Tote

I decided to leverage my newly built workbench and build something to organize my tools. I have a small Craftsman tool bag that I was using to hold all my tools, drill bits, etc. but it was becoming too small. Small parts would sink to the bottom where I'd have to dig around to find what I needed. Overall, things were getting pretty disorganized.

• Mobility: I wanted more then a simple toolbox, but still mobile and portable. The wheels allows me to easily tilt the tote and roll it around the room and even up stairs if I needed to.


• Step-stool: My workbench is also too high for my son so I wanted a step for him to be able to stand on.


• Accessibility: One problem with organization storage is that they also required you to be organized and I'm not always organized. So I wanted things open that I can throw my stuff in when I'm in a hurry.I can easily reach in and grab the tools I need and just as easily put them back by just tossing them back in. The less used tool goes into the bottom shelf.


• Portability: The back contains a compartment for holding the extension cord which I'll connect an outlet strip to so I can easily get access to some power.

So here is what I built:







I'm planning to make some holders for the sides for things like the drill bits, rulers, etc.

This project was inspired by an article I read on-line.

End of Week 13: Delayed by the Roof

Work this week was blocked by the delay in the roof trusses arriving. It's scheduled for Monday, but until then nothing can be done. Hopefully the trusses will go up quickly and we can make up some time. We still need to finalize a few details on colors and I need to get the home network planned out to order all the cabling.

End of Week 12:

This end of the week brought rain so I didn't take any pictures. We're still waiting for the roof trusses to arrive, so the major work completed with the installation of the new few fence along with some of the plywood sheath walls.

End of Week 11: Waiting for Trusses

It was hard to capture in pictures what was done this week which was more details in the framing. The garage, for example, got the parameter support beams and the interior walls were put in. However, the delay came from the trusses which is taking long to arrive so we'll have to work on other parts such as the fence while we wait on those.

Ryoba Japanese hand saw

I'm still eyeing the Festool TS55 plunge circular saw, but $500 is nothing to sneeze at so I'm not rushing into it. I do need something so I can at least do some basic cuts myself so I decided to buy a Ryoba-type saw. Japanese saws are different from their western counterparts in that they cut on the pull action which is said to make cleaner cuts and easier. Although this is still in dispute, the thinness of the blade definitely isn't.

I decided to get a Ryoba saw because it has teeth on both sides with one size for rip cuts and one side for cross cuts. When I did my first cut with this saw I was I shocked as how easily it went through the wood. Cutting oak took almost nothing as the saw just went right though it!



For $30 plus a $7 cutting jig, I'm now able to make straight or miter cuts that are finish quality (no circular cut lines from a power saw that requires sanding to smooth out).

Bench dog holes.

Continuing the evolution of my workbench, I drilled 3/4" bench dog holes aligned to the bench dog that is built into the vise. To drill the holes, I used a forstner bit on my power drill but did not drill all the way through the table. It's common to drill all the way through so dust, wood, etc. don't accumulate on the bottom of the hole requiring annoying clean ups, but that means the bench dogs would need something that prevents them from falling through the holes. What I did was to drill a smaller hole at the bottom that does go all the way through so that things can fall through but the dogs are still held up.



Next, I made myself some bench dogs by cutting a 3/4" dowel rod to size. Buying bench dogs can cost $50 for a pair, a dowel rod costs $2 and I can probably get 20 to 30 out of it.





Finally, I drilled two holes through a board that I can use with the dogs as stops in two directions.





Showing how I can use the bench dog with the vise to hold the wood in place: