woodshop – Hatchomatic

January 16, 2023February 22, 2023

Tray, Take 2

A few months ago, I built and wrote about a cantilevered tray a colleague of mine asked me to make for his apartment balcony. I was really pleased with how it turned out, but the practicality of it ended up being less than ideal. It was too heavy, my friend said, and because the legs had to be inserted from under the tray, it would be too easy to drop a leg or the entire tray from his 13th-floor balcony to the ground — a mistake that could be quite deadly.

I felt bad that they tray wasn’t working for him; I wanted to make sure he had a something that would do the job. We discussed changes to the one I made — hollowing it out to reduce weight; changing how the legs would be inserted — but I didn’t love any of the options. Better, I thought, to just make a new one using a different design.

January 9, 2023December 29, 2022

Shop Furniture

I know my shop is pretty big compared to most hobby shops, but somehow I always seem to feel cramped. That’s probably at least partially to do with not having places for some of my tools. My workbench planer, for example, sat on the ground and always seemed to be in the way — and at the same time, never convenient for use. My oscillating sander was taking up valuable space on a shop table. My miter saw, which sat on this metal sawhorse, seemed to take up more space than it made use of. The net effect left me feeling annoyed with a shop I otherwise loved being in.

So when I came upon some shop furniture plans from Fix This, Build That, I was interested. More than interested — I was excited to see if they’d help me make better use of my space and my tools.

December 26, 2022May 29, 2023

Mudroom, Chapter 1: Big Boxes

As much as I enjoy working on projects in the shop, there’s one thing I enjoy much more: working on projects in the shop wth friends. So I was delighted when one of my long-time friends texted me to see if I’d help him build a set of built-in cabinetry for his mudroom.

“Absolutely,” I wrote back. “It’s not something I’ve done much of, but I’m sure we can figure it out,” I added. If he was game, I was game. And to my joy, he was game.

December 12, 2022December 6, 2022

Benched

It’s both rewarding — and a little daunting — when people ask me to build them something. I’m quite honored and touched that they would ask and that they entrust me to deliver something that they’d want and would meet their standards. But it’s also a little daunting because now there are expectations I have to meet.

It’s also fun, because often what is being requested is not something I would have thought or planned to make. Such was the case when a friend asked me to make her a long bench for her indoor plants. She has more than 100, she said, and needs a place for them in the winter where they can sit under a wide array of windows.

“Send me the dimensions,” I told her, “and examples of what you like.”

December 5, 2022December 4, 2022

Addition by Division

Looking at this past year of woodworking projects (and some more coming up), I think they can be divided into three categories:

Outdoor furniture, which focuses more on build quality than on the finish work.
Indoor pieces, which demands a high-quality fit and finish.
Quick solutions that aren’t meant to meet high standards, but get the job done.

Adirondack chairs and planters, for example, certainly fall into the first category. Cutting boards and trays, shelves, boxes, and a walnut bench (coming soon) clearly fall into the second. And the third category includes projects like the dog feeder stand, Jenga blocks, garden boxes, and this week’s project: the cutlery dividers. Oooh, ahhh.

October 29, 2022October 10, 2022

Custom Project: Balcony Tray

Not too long ago, I got a cryptic email from a work colleague. It read in part, “Take a look at this amateur drawing I did in 2 min. What do you think?”

The drawing was in an attached PowerPoint file. For a moment I wondered if I was being subject to a phishing scam. Or maybe this was a test of my email security practices? But after a thorough forensic analysis, I concluded the email was legit and opened the file. In it was an illustration of a tray with two sets of legs sticking down from it. My friend, it seemed, was asking me to make him a custom dining tray. I agreed and it turned out to be an engineering puzzle that was fun to solve.

October 22, 2022October 22, 2022

Shelves, Made to Order

It’s been hard to find much time in the shop this summer thanks to other chores and projects that have commanded my attention. But when a friend asked if I could make him some shelves to order, I was eager to oblige.

October 1, 2022October 10, 2022

Full of Compressed Air

Question: What do you feel when you come across a piece of machinery that no longer works? Do you feel sadness that it’s not able to fulfill its potential? Confusion as to why it isn’t working as it should? Anger that some kind of engineering injustice is being inflicted upon you, it, and the world? Joy that this is proof that machines will not rise up and challenge humanity for supremacy? Or nothing? Maybe you feel nothing because it’s just a machine and this is kind of stupid and there are more important things in the world.

I think most people probably go with “nothing,” because they are normal, well-adjusted people with better things to spend their time thinking about. Not me, though. I feel compelled. Compelled to see the machine returned back to its rightful working state.

And that’s why I spent too much time and too much money resurrecting an old air compressor.

September 26, 2022October 10, 2022

Duct, Duct, Goose

As I’ve been working on more and more projects in my shop, I’ve become increasingly annoyed by the mess — not to mention the health hazards — caused by sawdust. It’s not like I’ve been letting machines just spew out dust willy nilly; I’ve been following the well-worn path of cheapniks everywhere by connecting a shop vacuum to my machines. But, shop vacuums really aren’t made for this purpose and it’s annoying (not to mention a tripping hazard) to move the vacuum to each machine as I work around the shop.

I guess you could say I had approached another one of those lines between adolescence and adulthood, like drinking amber liquids from cut-crystal glasses; hiring professional movers instead of begging friends for help; making beds after sleeping in them; preparing entire meals instead of opening a can of smoked oysters and a box of crackers. It was time, in other words, to be a man and install a central dust collection machine and permanent ductwork in my shop.

August 15, 2022September 6, 2022

Cornhole in One

A few months ago, I decided to make some outdoor games for when friends come over. I started with a simple oversized Jenga set using leftover 2x4s from the dog kennel demolition. And while folks do seem to love Jenga — especially when a falling tower has the potential to break a toe — I decided I needed to add a less destructive game to the mix. Cornhole to the rescue.