Inspired to make room

[Rennie Heuer]

In my never-ending quest to reach Glennvana I took the opportunity to make a couple of minor changes while I was waiting for my planer parts to come in back around Christmas. This 'flip stand', based on a plan published in Wood Magazine about 20 years ago or more, has held two planers and my mortiser for most of its life. When I moved the planer to its own stand last year I put my belt/disc sander on. One thing that always bothered me was that every time I needed to use my OSS I had to lift it out of a base cabinet and set it on the bench. Didn't seem very efficient.

So, remembering how Norm mounted his mortiser (again over 20 years ago) I decided that I would like to have a sanding station and move the mortiser to a higher mounting place (easier to use) and a little out of the way as it is one of the lesser used tools. So not the old flip has a new purpose - again. Since these pics were taken I've also relocated the clamp rack so there is no necessity to move it when drilling mortises. Oh, and as bad luck would have it, nearly none of the holes in the platform were reusable.

As it was

As it is





Relocated.

 

[Toni Ciuraneta]

In my never-ending quest to reach Glennvana...

Well... two things, I wonder if Glenn is concious how is he affecting ( for good) some members of the family, specially me as far as tidyness ( and not only) is concerned. For some strange reason I am becoming tidier almost without realising it. So Thanks Glenn for your persistent, gentle and absolutely unnoticed influence.

The other thing is that now that I have a spindle sander I want to make a similar arrangement with my router table, but I want also to improve the lifting mechanism of it, as the one it has sucks. It is going to be complex project so stay tuned as I will be asking many things.
Great job Rennie, refurbishing or reusing that tilting platform has proven that some things deserve another chance.

 

[glenn bradley]

You guys are too funny. The flip top stand was one of the "significant leap" moments in my shop outfitting. It served me well for CMS, planer, sanders, etc. I made mine with one side of the top removable so I could change the t-nut layouts when I changed tools. Space constraints made me send it to dad's shop when I got a floor model planer and spindle sander. Now it's back and still going strong in my temporary space.

I would like to claim to have a vision and an ethic that drives me to better organization or more efficient workflows. I must confess that it is a rather random sequence of events. Something will be usable but sub-optimal for quite a while. At some point I hit a screeching halt and just can't stand to do it "that way" any more. What follows is an attempt to make whatever "it" is, better. Sometimes other things get pulled along in the flow and improved by association.

I am not a neat freak. Instead I am driven by the desire to have my shop time be the most efficient and enjoyable that it can be. If my arguably pathological condition helps others, that makes me happy and helps me feel a little less weird.