DIY Woodworking, Home Improvement, and Art Projects

Thanks to the mountain of spam comments that have been flowing in here in recent weeks, I have disabled the commenting option on this blog.  Now, I know what you’re thinking…there weren’t too many ‘real’ comments to begin with!  That’s partially true, but I did appreciate the few comments that there were, and I wanted this thing to continue to grow.  Until I find a suitable way to get rid of all the spam from those assfaces who pummel the DIY Blog everyday, without spending a ton of time manually removing it all, then it will go on sans comments.

Sorry about that folks, spammers ruin another good thing, once more, and all we can do is take it on the chin.

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Sorry I don’t have any pictures yet, but I wanted to get out a quick update of the weekend progress.  I actually got quite a bit done on Saturday.  I moved everything around in the garage, swept out all of the dingy corners, cleaned the cobwebs, and re-organized all of the boxes and stuff that was still going to be stored out there…and that was all before lunch.

At noon I made myself some scrambled eggs and coffee, and then headed back out to begin the shop setup process.  At that point most of the area was clear where I wanted to assemble my router table and table saw.  There is this massive, metal cabinet that was left behind by the previous owners, so I used that to house most of my smaller tools.  That was nice because I don’t have my own workbench yet, and I definitely had a lot of tools to store away.

The next thing was to assemble my router table which took awhile, probably about two hours from start to finish.  There were a lot of nuts and bolts to this thing, and the router base plate had to be drilled and countersunk to accomodate my Bosch router.  I was very careful to take my time with this step to make sure I got it right the first time.  I got the table kit from this awesome hardware and homewares store not far from the house called Hartville Hardware.  They have an online store, but there’s nothing like going there in person and talking with their staff, and browsing the aisles full of great items.  So if you’re around Hartville, Ohio check ‘em out!

I took the saw and all of its components out of the box and laid them out so I could get rid of the massive box.  That thing is heavy!  The cast iron top is heavy, the motor is heavy, the main assembly is heavy…well, you get the idea.  That’s against the back wall too now, so it is ready to be assembled to work on our first major project of the spring–putting in the new stairs!

I’ll update this thread with some pictures soon, but not until I get a new CF card reader.  My Rebel XT doesn’t have a driver available that works with Windows Vista yet, so I can’t just plugin and download directly to the computer.  Well, check back soon for those pics and the next phase of the woodshop setup process.  Cheers!

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Setting Up Shop - part 1
March 6, 2007

This coming weekend I am going to begin setting up my own woodworking shop finally. Well, truthfully, it’s more like a corner of the garage with a bunch of tools stuffed in there, but hey, I can call it whatever I want, right?!

The main thing I think is to start with a clean space. Then you can adequately plan for where you want the biggest pieces of equipment to go, and so on. I intend to use the back wall of the garage to setup my tools, build my new bench, and add lighting and extra outlets. Once the area is clean, I will measure out what I have to work with, and I will be able to see where I can attach lights, run cords, and store my other tools and wood supplies.

The garage is a double, and I love parking my car in there in the winter, but I may have to sacrifice my space so I can have enough room for my shop. Ideally you wouldn’t want your shop in the garage for several reasons; it’s hard to regulate the temperature, so any wood stock you may have can expand and contract more than if it was in a stable environment; in the middle of the winter in Ohio it can get really cold, and spending a long time on a project in a cold garage is the surest way to be uncomfortable and to start resenting the whole thing; garages are best for storing cars, not heaps of power tools.

Ultimately I will have a contractor-grade table saw, a router table, a large, functional homemade workbench, shelves, cabinets, lighting, and wood storage, all in one main area.  I already have the table saw, the router table kit, some cabinets, a portable work light, and most of the tools for the shop.  One can always add more tools to their arsenal, but I am starting small and planning to add only when I need things to complete a project.

That’s it for part 1, check back next week for part 2 which will hopefully cover the beginnings of the new shop itself. 

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Turns out, I didn’t know the best way to replace my toilet after I had finished the tile. I didn’t tile close enough around the gasket set into the floor. I also put both sets of washers for the bolts that attach the toilet to the gasket, underneath the toilet, instead of one set below, and one set above. I also didn’t put the wax ring in properly, and it would have leaked had we fully re-connected the water supply and filled the basin again.

So here are a few tips when getting ready to reinstall a toilet:

• Make sure as you’re laying out your floor–if you’re using tile–so that you get as close as possible to the gasket. Basically tile within an inch of it if you can, by making pieces that are triangular or otherwise, so that you get a close fit. If you don’t you’ll have untiled surface poking out from under the porcelain base of the toilet.
• Fully remove the old wax ring before you place the new ring down. It’s easy to overlook this step, but if you don’t do it, you won’t get a solid connection between the toilet and the gasket and you’ll have leaks, and you don’t want those kinds of leaks, trust me.
• When putting in the bolts that come with the wax ring kit, make sure that you only put the plastic guide washers in underneath. Then use the metal washers after you replace the toilet. This way the nut will squeeze the washer down and create a solid hold on the toilet, preventing it from shifting later on. So do it in this order - bolts, plastic washers, toilet, metal washers, nut, plastic caps to conceal the hardware.
• Those bolts, especially if they’re brass, can have very sharp threads.  I found this out the hard way, and now have a series of cuts that match up perfectly with the width of the bolt, and they are deep.  So please be careful when handling these bolts, and consider wearing gloves–even the thin plastic gloves may help protect your hands.

I am sure that there are other things to watch out for when putting your toilet back in, but these are things that I have personally done wrong and need to warn you about. I will post pictures of the wrong way to do it, and then pictures of the right way to do it once we add the required tile pieces, and fix the other stuff.

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