Where Hobbies Come Together

There's a downside of working in/with technology..... No this isn't my office, but it does often takes on a similar look. When a machine goes down and/or is simply replaced, that doesn't mean that it isn't of use. There are many parts that can be quite valuable. Just last month, I took a screen out of a broken laptop to fix another, and a small plastic lever out of a printer to repair another. However, this stuff takes up room. Even keeping something temporarily before I get rid of it requires space. Even though, I have the office inside the house, it can't look like a warehouse! It's also the guest bedroom, so theirs a bed AND it's in the house and needs to look presentable..... I am married! So, how does this have to do with my "other" hobby? 

You might remember, about a month ago, I picked up this Delta table saw, the 36-725. A fairly heavy duty 10" "hybrid" saw. This is the agent of change. With a fence accurate enough so that I can set a width on the scale and it'll cut to that measurement over and over again. It's also powerful enough to take my dado stack and therefore giving me the ability to do joinery. This is the "game-changer" in my garage. Over the holiday break, I made a couple of smaller, but important projects.

I started smallest, with a cabinet similar to this one, that holds my collection of cordless tools. This took care of two things. One; it helped me organize these important and often-used tools in a location for quick access. Two; it cleared space on the peg-board above and off the top of my workbench. It also offered me the opportunity to practice making joints. This is a skill that only comes through a lot of practice. It was also great because it only costs a couple of cans of spray paint since I had enough scrap wood to get it done.

Then I built something akin to this. If you'll imagine just the top part without the clamps below and mounted where the upper 12" of the pegboard above my workbench used to be. This came about because I realized that I couldn't reach anything on the last foot of my pegboard so there was nothing there but wasted space. However, I figured that if the tools up there were big and protruded, I could get them down. This plus the space on top of it cleared off two shelves of wire-shelf stack I have...... which brings me full-circle back to the computer parts that I need to keep, but also need to get out of my office.... TA-DA!!!

 

Of course, that's by no means the end of it. Two other necessities that will happen also is a "lumber cart" for the wood that taking up half the other wall in the garage and a cabinet that I can use to hold smaller "bench-top" tools for which I don't have a bench where they can permanently live!

But, very likely the next item to be built with be a small, but important addition to my office. These are variously called "tech-benches" or "test-benches", but are simply open-air test-beds that provide easy access for testing computer components. This will make my life lots easier in the office!