I’m a Fan of Workshop Cabinets

I got even more stuff done yesterday. The good Lord is still with me.

Because my woodworking tools were all over the place, I decided to get a cabinet to hold them. If you want to be cool, you’re supposed to build a cabinet from wood, using your woodworking tools. Luckily for me, I don’t want to be cool. Metal cabinets come prefabricated, and they work just fine. I bought one at Home Depot.

The cabinet I bought is 6 feet tall. Including the bottom, it has 4 shelves, each of which holds 150 pounds. The doors have pegboard, and each board holds 15 pounds. Each shelf has a cord hole so I can put battery chargers in the cabinet if I want. The cabinet fits plate casters, and a set just arrived on my doorstep. What’s not to love?

Here’s a photo. Isn’t she beautiful?

It was about 100 degrees in some parts of the county yesterday. It hit 95 in the shade in my workshop. How was I supposed to build a cabinet under those circumstances? Obviously, I was not. I bought myself a big fan.

I wasn’t sure what to get. There are some truly huge floor fans out there, but they can’t be tilted vertically. If horizontal isn’t the direction you want, you’re stuck. That wasn’t for me. I decided to get a fan on a pedestal. The one I bought moves 8400 CFM, and it oscillates over maybe 135 degrees.

I was disappointed to see that it didn’t have wheels or feet (China), but I can fix that easily enough.

I noticed something disturbing about it. When you work directly in front of a fan in hot weather, and then you walk outside of the air’s path, you feel very hot immediately. I guess that means I’ll have to stay in the air’s path at all times, which is what I planned to do anyway.

I disabled the oscillating feature. I don’t move much.

Once the fan was put together, it was time for the cabinet. I guess it took an hour. The folks at Husky were very thoughtful; they buried the manual and assembly instructions about 2/3 of the way down in the box, under a bunch of steel panels. They need to work on that.

Now I need a beverage fridge. I have a little Rockstar fridge, but it ices up because it’s a cheap design. I’m over it. I need something better. Sadly, beverage fridges are short, and I don’t want to bend over. Ever. I’m thinking I need to build a cart for one. I can put a couple of shelves in it (or drawers), and it will increase my storage capacity.

On a related note, I’ve come to believe that short tools don’t really save space, compared to floor tools. Say you buy a bench drill press. Are you going to use it on the floor? No. You’ll have to put something under it. You still lose floor space. I’m not sure anyone should ever buy a bench drill press, unless the plan is to put it on a cabinet and get shelf space. When you have short tools, you might as well put storage cabinets or carts under them.

Today I should be able to put wheels on the cabinet, position it where I want it, and anchor it to a wall. Not sure what I’ll put in it yet. I’ll put something heavy in the bottom to promote stability.

In other news, I am now a leatherworker. I have a couple of very nice sheath knives, but the sheaths don’t work with suspenders, and I don’t want to add a belt. I want to make pocket sheaths. I went on Youtube and saw people making sheaths. It’s very simple, and the tools are cheap. A company called Tandy Leather sells tools people trust, so I ordered from them. I got leather through Amazon. Of course.

I look forward to having decent sheaths I didn’t have to pay much for.

Leatherworking is not complicated. My friend Mike has a sister, and when she was young, she had a leather shop. It failed, so the tools were moved to her dad’s garage. Mike and I used to play with them, and we were perfectly capable of making simple things like keychains. Stitching is a hurdle you have to overcome, but it’s not hard. For $115, you can get a hand-cranked sewing machine that will do it, but you can also do it by hand. You buy little punches that look like forks. They put evenly spaced holes in the leather, and you put the thread in.

I am a bit tired of folding knives. Take it out. Open it. Use it. Close it. Put it away. Open it. Use it. Close it. Too many steps, and folders are not as strong as sheath knives. They’re also dirtier because they’re hard to clean. In Florida, I can legally carry a sheath knife (or a sword) in the open, so I see no reason not to do it.

In Florida, a concealed knife with a blade over 4″ in length is considered a concealed weapon, and you need a permit for it, but you can walk right into a bar with a samurai sword (or a 9″ switchblade) on your hip. Open carry can keep you out of trouble and give you more options, in addition to providing better ergonomics and a conversation piece.

I plan to make sheaths that are wide so they are held in my pockets by friction. I also plan to install clips on them to add more security. I could just cut bands from innertubes and put them around the sheaths. That would increase the friction. It works for gun holsters.

Making knife sheaths may sound like a wild excursion, but it’s just like buying a tool cabinet or fan. I need the cabinet and fan to make my existing tools work, and I need sheaths to make my knives work. It’s all about tying up loose ends.

Aside from that, it will prepare me for future problems that require leatherwork. I don’t want to pay someone every time I need something.

It will be nice to have functioning tools again.

Now I have to get to work on the oven. I used the self-clean cycle, and now it’s dead. I’ve already discovered the reason. It has a thermal breaker on the back, and sometimes they pop during cleaning. Of course, they put the breaker where I have to pull the 100+-pound oven out of the wall.

If only I could get the tractor into the kitchen.