I set aside an hour of time today (after delivering all of our Fair entries) and I built a storage/travel box for all of my wood splitting gear so as to no longer have individual missiles strewn across the back of the van each morning when I head to and from the farm. I now have both mauls, my mallet, two wedges and the hookaroon safely encased in a skip planed Walnut open top box. It has room for my gloves, metal files, a third axe that isn’t a maul, and whatever else I might like, maybe ear plugs and safety goggles? Seems like a solid bet to me.
It isn’t fancy, and I didn’t spend too much time on it. A few rounded edges, and some broken corners should stop me from cutting myself on it. Now it’s all located in one spot and I can hook it to a belt loop in the back of the van. No more loose tools as bludgeoning impacts during an emergency stop. Makes us all a little safer.
Now I can take everything in and out of the garage in one go, or leave the box tied in indefinitely. I’m not sure yet. I like having the option to remove it when grocery shopping because with the extra chair always up I’m growing shy on available space. I have all of the extra stuff out of my wife’s old car in the van too. That should either go in her new car, or get filed away in the garage. I don’t need random things I don’t use strewn across the back of the van. I just spent a few hours two Sundays ago cleaning it up, so I want to keep it tidy. I found juice boxes and wrappers back by the kids seats and need to throw that out as well. Sloppy children.
No matter. The AxeBox is done, and I can strike it off my list of things to build. If I had scheduled my time better I could have put a whole day into it and made it something really nice, but I’ll settle for utilitarian and more importantly, done. Not held up in production hell because I can’t decide on a design feature or joinery aesthetic. Done is better than perfect!
Also I desperately underestimated the lengths of rope needed for the side handles. I should have gone in with double the amount I had set aside. Live and learn. I can always go back to make changes later. We have the technology. I can freely admit when I’ve cocked something up. I’m a grown man, I’ll survive the embarrassment.
Once the weather crisps up a little more and I’m no longer having as much fun with wood splitting I will return to the front entrance storage unit. Stay tuned for that.
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