I really got waylaid on the way to 2025. Mrs M went bionic this year, and got 2x new knees. We bought our new forever home in February while she was still fresh from surgery # 1 … and sold the home where we raised our family in May, right before surgery # 2. We stayed in the Santa Clarita Valley, but we moved about 8 miles to the wilds of Castaic.
This was a big idea … before we could move we needed to process the 37 years of, uh, accumulation that didn’t have to go to Castaic, but could not stay in Valencia. In addition, we decided to do an extensive remodel to our new home … and I acted as project manager. And with the shop in Valencia closing as we moved, I stopped making until I could get the shop back up.
And, tic toc. What is only the second event I am doing this year is coming at me like a freight train. This event is the ONLY event that I have done every year since Mr M’s Woodshop began in 2012. I couldn’t miss supporting this neighborhood scholarship fundraiser, so it was time to get on with the making. Or else there would be a fairly empty booth at the Saugus High Boutique Fantastique, and that was just not OK.
Here then, are pictures of 13x cutting boards that are the first made with my new table saw in my new shop. See them – and more! – this weekend, Saturday & Sunday 10a – 4p in the Centurion gymnasium. You’ll find me at the end aisle booth I’m always at: #222.
All of these cutting boards are made from hardwoods, both domestic and exotic. Those exotic woods come from Central & South America as well as Africa, and include Purpleheart, Zebrawood, Iroko, Brazilian Cherry and more.
First up, eye candy for you. The big end grain boards. All are approximately 16×22″, give or take an inch. Thickness is 1-5/8″. All come with 3/4″ wide juice grooves, non-skid rubber feet, weight as much as 15 pounds and are made for robust use.
Next up are 2 smaller, simpler cutting boards. These edge grain boards, perfect for smaller kitchens are 13×17″ and 16×19″.
Finally, I have eight new “Juicy Boards” which are perfect small cutting boards, or perhaps the best way to serve that steak Mrs M is promising me. These are all 11-1/2″ square and 7/8″ thick. I make them in pairs, but you can buy just one! That’s good, because one of the “brown blend” boards, the 3rd picture, is already sold.
It is GREAT to be back in the shop. I will be making new stuff all through November, including special orders … so for everyone I have disappointed this year because I was not available, now is the time to tell me what you want!
If only I had any storage. But the shop, for the first time, is basically functional.
February 19: We bought the house.
May 16: I moved in with Walter the cat. Mrs M followed a couple of weeks later.
October 19: Dust collection & floor tools were all up & running.
Yup, it took 8 months. But I can turn on any tool in the shop, and it has dust collection connected. Here’s what it looks like:
The ceiling is where I started … with 6″ ducting running to the 3x major distribution points in the shop. From there, the detail work got … harder.
This wall mount joint serving suction to the miter saw and the router table was the first one I put up … and ironically, the last one to be fully functional. Part of that had to do with the death of the router lift mechanism, with meant I had to buy another tool. Thank God Mrs M got her dream kitchen, so I have leverage for at least a few more days.
This funky joint in the center will not survive long. It serves suction to the new table saw & the planer, and does OK … but I used 4″ pipe and adjustable 90* elbows to get around the garage door when it is open, and those adjustable elbows – Home Depot specials – have, uh, adjusted. When the table saw gets the custom outfeed table (build in progress, but on hold due to other projects), then that table will provide superior anchor points to support the pipe as it descends from the ceiling & works around the moving garage door.
The “outfeed table” is currently a folding table and 2 large pieces of plywood stacked onto smaller pieces of plywood to give me the illusion of having an outfeed system. It is still my only assembly table in the shop.
This funny looking bunch of flexible hose actually feeds 4x blast gates for 4x different tools: my CNC, a floor sweep, the drum sander, and a bench feed for my oscillating spindle sander (perfect for concave curve smoothing).
The CNC also required some special design to deliver suction to the machine while avoiding the garage doors. The hose feeding the moving CNC router head needs cantilevered support, provided by the red painted pieces of plywood which are now standard throughout the shop for support tasks.
Beside the CNC, and between those garage doors, is a custom battery charging center for all of my Milwaukee tools. One place to go for all of the batteries. Finally. Kudos to my electrician, Ben of Precision Electric, that suggested this location because he was installing my “center stack” of outlets just below:
Tucked behind the CNC, and between the 2x garage doors, are individual circuits for each of the tools in the middle of the shop and in the tool line between the garage doors. 3x of these circuits are 220v, for the saw, planer & CNC router. 3x other circuits are regular 110v, for the drum sander, CNC computer and the, uh, refrigerator/freezer that Mrs M will not let me get rid of yet. Maybe someday it will leave the shop and give me more room for … well, my stuff in my shop.
I am an optimist, you see.
The biggest problem with the shop NOW is that I have virtually no storage … my old workbench has 4x drawers. Other than that, I have floor space, wall space and corners I can’t get into because of all of the stuff that is laying around waiting on me to build custom shop cabinets to hold everything.
