I bought my Father’s Day gift for myself a few months ago, probably closer to six weeks, but that is neither here nor there. A set of master craft tool boxes went on sale at 60% off, so I bought a 41″ wide tool chest, and upper cabinet with hutch, so that I could put all of my hand tools together, and out of the dusty open spaces of my garage. That purchase meant I could tear down this awful cart that I had build from an old changing table, and it allowed me to disassemble my first tool bench ever, and give myself more open space to work in. It meant one less flat work surface, but more room to manoeuvre in. A perfectly cromulent trade if you ask me. It pairs well with the Husky rolling tool cart, and the large 90″ by 90″ rack I bought for my birthday. So now my shop space is about as optimized as it will ever be without a huge overhaul that would require construction crews and like $60K worth of work. No thanks, I’m good.
But to make my kids have something to hand me I bought two 9 mm Gear wrench brand wrenches for myself for an additional $30. They were happy, and I am happy. I bought one static wrench, and one ratcheting. I had 8 mm, and 10 mm, but no 9 mm. And when I spent 30 odd minutes drilling through my garden forks to fix the loose tines recently I discovered I didn’t have the nines I would need to tighten down the bolts I was using. I did have one 9 mm socket, and with a set of pliers I could sort of tighten things down enough to suit my immediate needs. Now I can really bear down on it. Great!
Sometimes I still toy with the idea of getting a bandsaw, but the upgraded air compressor, Mitre saw and tool storage solution has been the far superior choice, this far. I used my visa card points for the compressor, and the Mitre saw was on sale. It was still pricey, but it’s of quality make, and design, and it also takes the place of the radial arm saw I once had, but donated to my wife’s school. Their wood working course would benefit from it more so than I. My new Bosch sliding double compound saw is the Tits! It’s fantastic. 10 out of 10. Do recommend.
I don’t think much about getting a dust extractor any more. Too loud, and too cumbersome. I will stick with my shop vac. My only wish was that the central collection tub be bigger by about 20 to 30 liters. That would really help me out a whole bunch. But, eh! I can do with what I’ve got.
I also finally managed to get all of my waste wood to the burn pile at the farm, and then move my furniture grade wood into a single sorted pile in the far corner beside my Mitre saw station. Things are all coming together! It really is fantastic.
Riding that high of cleaning up, and sorting things out lead me to finally tossing 95% of all the crap in the garage. I do have some old tech I need to get rid of, but that will require a trip to an appropriate dump, or collection centre for old monitors, and an old desk top of tower from 20 plus years ago. I bought that tower in 2002. Yikes. It’s older than the majority of my neighbours kids.
How did I get from 9 mm wrenches to my neighbours kids? Train of thought I suppose. Funny how that works. Take your hat as you never know where you will end up! Happy Tuesday.
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