Bike Rack

I've always used hooks to store bikes in the garage before. But recently I had the idea for putting the bikes on the ground like in a bike shop. You'd think that I'd lose a ton of floor space, but actually the bikes only stick out 10 inches more than before, and this way I have wall space. Maybe I'll install some used kitchen cabinets above the bikes?

I used scrap plywood I had and also used my new radial arm saw to cut the 45 degree cuts for the pieces that hold the rear wheel. Tacked together with my pneumatic nailer and glue then reinforced with screws. Only two screws holding the rack to the wall because there really isnt that much force on it.

My "new" radial arm saw

Saw this DeWalt radial arm saw (model# 1400) on Craigslist yesterday, emailed the seller and it was still available, so went with my parents and picked it up last night. The old man who owned it said he had it for about 35 years and he still had all of the paperwork to go with it. Including a price list of DeWalt items dated 1964, the saw was priced at $279 and the cabinet at $39. I went to dollartimes.com to check what $318 was worth in today's dollars: $1,971.90! This was an expensive saw!

via vintage Popular Mechanics found online from 1964:

Dust Separation

So the more I've been working with wood, the more of an issue dust has been; it's messy. I've decided to use my ShopVac more and create attachments on all of my tools to plug the ShopVac into to collect the dust at the source.

Researching online, I came across these dust separators guys have built. The idea is that you collect the dust before it gets to the ShopVac so that the vaccuum's filter never gets dirty/clogged.

So I built one myself:

 

 

Dream Garage

This guy lives in a LA as a screenwriter and has what is probably my dream garage including a Porsche!

source: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=55006

a birdhouse!

Rachel's dad made us this and gave it to Rachel for her birthday. Maybe more of a bird mansion than just a house! Conveniently, we already had the stand in the garden.

Built a miter saw fence

What I've learned so far about making square boxes (like for the built in bookshelf cabinet doors) is that all of the sides need to be cut perfect. 1/8" off is horrendous. For the cabinet doors, the sides are longer than the tops. Which means the sides need to be identical. The electric miter saw helps greatly with this: a cut can be made at 45 degrees in a few seconds. However, ensuring that each board is identical length takes a lot of work. Cutting too long and then trimming down slightly works just okay.

Miter table benches/fences can be bought, but I figured I could get a lot of the functionality of a miter fence by making one and save some money. So I did out of some scrap MDF I had from a previous project..

Now, all I need to do is get one board cut to the exact size I want it. Then, I adjust the little block on the left side and can then cut identical length pieces over and over again without ever measuring or remeasuring.

So now, what I'm going to do is cut all of the vertical pieces of wood for the cabinet doors with the block set at 30". Then, I'll move the block to cut at 16.75" and cut all of the tops and bottoms. Then assemble.

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New sconce shades

So we hated these country-esque glass shades on our wall sconces in the front room. Upon further research they aren't the standard 3.5" size but rather 2.25". Searching online provided few solutions.

So just change the sconces altogether? Well, the switch for these lights are at the sconce themself -- there is no wall switch that controls both. And finding newer sconces with switches on the sconce itself is difficult (either expensive or the options are uglier). Also we like how the older brass relates to the antiqued gold mirrors. What to do?

We gave up on it.

Until I spotted a glass shade at OSH this weekend that had the narrower base and in a more modern and simple shade. We were looking to spend $50 a sconce to replace them, but ended up paying $5.68 each for these shades! Score.

Weekly bookcase progress update

Another Sunday night and another update on the progress made to the bookshelf. Basically just did a bunch of priming this weekend. Getting close to applying the final color (semi gloss white).

Finally: Card Catalog

We've been looking for a card catalog cabinet for a long time. The hunt is over!

I saw this on Craigslist this morning while Rachel was trying on clothes in a store's dressing room. 6 hours later it's in Rachel's office. So excited. Oh yeah and it was $50!

 

For anyone not yet feeling it, here's some inspiration: 

 source: http://www.dreambookdesign.com/2010/06/turning-old-junk-to-beauty.html