Goings on in the shop

Things have quieted down a little this week. With two chairs drying after being varnished I stepped out of the shop for a day. No point creating more dust in the air. Instead I came in and wrapped up posting pictures on this blog taken when I built the new Shaker Work Bench several years ago. You are in luck, no more pictures of a partially completed bench. Tomarrow I drive down to Concord, MA to meet and deliver the chairs I just finished. Then on to the next order.

Back in January when I built the long-bed lathe I quickly realized that I needed a new home for my lathe tools. The new lathe sat further away from the wall. My lathe tool rack on the window ledge was harder to reach. And, with a longer lathe, the trip back and forth to the tool rack to grab a new tool became quite a hike. I needed a new way to store the lathe tools, and it would be really great if I could move the cabinet and keep it beside me as I turned. Nice looking, mobile, cheap, did I mention cheap, and oh by the way I was really supposed to be working on paying work.

For the rolling base I decided to make a smaller version of the outfeed table I built to use with the jointer. I liked the outfeed table's turned column legs, and the trestle construction. Considering how fast I throw that project together, the results appealed to me. I wanted a cabinet large enough to hold all the lathe tools and other accessories. On the other hand, I  didn't want the cabinet to be too deep. The cabinet also had to have doors. I like to close the doors and hide the mess. The cabinet had to look nice but not cost an arm and leg. I laid out the lathe tools and took some quick measures. Then I kept the project in the back of my mind as I worked on the important stuff. Here and there over the months since January I built the mobile base, cabinet carcass, spent the odd evening in the shop fitting molding to dress the plain box up, finally building the doors. Today I mounted the doors. There is still stuff to do. I plan on storing items like the lathe tool rests, drive and tail centers, when not in current use, and other tools like a dead-blow mallet and my calipers in the new cabinet. In other words, all the things I reach for when working at the lathe.

The cabinet body was built of 1x6 pine, using what we call here Finish Native, a cheaper grade of pine. As much as possible I used left over material from other jobs. This is readily apparent when you look at the door stiles and rails. There isn't a grain match to be found.