Make room, make room!

Things are quiet now – holiday weekend, between assignments, shop’s empty with no intention of working out there a few days – but all heck is about to break loose, shop-wise.

I often do a full shop cleaning between assignments and projects, but the timing has worked out nicely to get that done and enjoy a holiday weekend without shirking work. Several deadlines met and I delivered a book last month, and as Labor Day weekend settles in I took some time yesterday to do a thorough shop cleaning before the next wave. And it’s going to be a tsunami.

I just got an extensive tool-based assignment that will involve an article per month for the next four months, with each one centered on a particular tool. All are currently being shipped to me, and part of my cleaning yesterday was just making room for them all. Only one is bench-oriented, so finding a spot for it won’t be an issue. But the other three are all large stationary machines, meaning my available shop space is about to plummet.

My space is adequate for what I normally do, but as a former two-car garage it’s not what you’d call a roomy shop by any means. It’s about to become a lot less roomy. On the plus side, it’s going to be tool heaven out there for a while. One the down side, I’ve got a lot of heavy assembly to do in the weeks ahead, and when all the machines are put together there simply will be no room to move. Fortunately, I have no other woodworking projects on my plate for a while, so I can devote my time those machines. If another project assignment comes along… well, I’ll worry about that enticing conundrum when it occurs.

A daunting situation, but an exciting one. Tool articles are among my favorite writing assignments, and I can look forward to not one but four in a row. And who wouldn’t want to head out to the shop in the morning, coffee in hand, and be surrounded by all that iron?

This is going to be fun.

Till next time,

A.J.