Killing time in a small "2 car" garage

[BoilermakerFan]

I just noticed my little rambling thread has past 181K views! Thanks for checking it out and following along. A lot more should be happening with the garage remodel later this fall and over winter. And I'll be getting back to to the motorcycle builds so those threads will also start being updated too.

Cheers!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Ugh...

So today I finally had a chance to mess with the Porter-Cable Dovetail / Box Joint jig.

I tried to route dovetails first.

This was the best result I got after fiddling with it for over an hour:

Notice they aren't attached together.

So I switched to the Box Joint... and the damn "half inch" router bit included only cuts about a 3/8" wide slot and the fingers are almost 5/8" wide. I tried using the much smaller guide bushing. That allowed them to interlock, but there was about a 1/16" gap between all the fingers. Tried to set it up one more time and confirmed the included bit is too narrow. So I went to Menards and bought a new 1/2" bit. Tomorrow I get to try again.

Here is the sum of my efforts today:

A big pile of fine shavings and garage filled with dust... again.


I did realize that the finger/box joint is the way to go for my bench though, that way I can permanently attach the trim on three sides, then on the right side, just have the board screw on but not glue the joints so I can remove it when I change the sub-tops in the t-track. This allows me to not have to machine the tops of the t-track for bolt head clearance to drop them in from above. i will simply slide them in from the side.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

HUGE progress on my mom's worktable and my workbench today!


My first test of the box/finger joint was really close:

After some tweaking of the P-C jig, the next test was just about on the money:

So it was GO TIME! Man, I triple checked everything and I pre-cut the sides of the short ends to prevent tearout since my bench is being trimmed in solid hickory and I experience splintering and tearout on my test piece...

The long boards for my trim are about 68" long, so I had to stack my WorkMate on my bench, then use it to lift and lower the whole rig down onto the long boards:

Then I used my step ladder so I could router the joints without catching all of the shavings and dust in the face:

My son would sweep off the ladder and floor after ever joint was cut so I wouldn't risk my feet slipping. We burned a little pile of the hickory shavings from the test pieces, then realized it was perfect tinder for camp fires so we collected it and put in in a bucket.

After the hickory for my bench was done, I ran a couple of test joints with the maple for my mom's table. I got it dialed in perfectly!

Here are the results after 7 hours of careful setup, testing, and final cuts:

I still need to clean up the fingers on the maple with my Xacto knife, but I only had one small tear out on the maple and it's on the back side so it won't be visible.

This week I'll get them fitted to their work surfaces, drill my holes for the screws, mount them, then carefully remove the sides so I can glue the fingers and then reassemble them. After the glue cures I'll be able to do my final sanding and final coats of Danish Oil.

Oh yeah... I still have to route the 4 channels in the top of my bench for the T-Track. That's going to ****. I'll probably get one done a day since it will take careful measuring and two straight edges to cut the grooves in 3 or 4 passes per groove.


And after the dust creation was done, I still had enough daylight left to install the second new motion light with LED bulbs above the garage door. I'm really happy with how they are working, but I need to adjust the angles of the second light a little after seeing the light patterns tonight.

As soon as the benches are finished, I'll be able to make progress on the remodel, the motorcycle work table, and my outboard engine stands.

 

[MacTexas]

I came to your thread from the workbench post. I like the fact that you have varied interests. My thought when I looked at pictures of your garage was the old saying "stuff expands to fit the space available".
Keep up the good work.

 

[cash68]

Nice work on the joinery. Kind of jealous. I spent 2-3 hours setting up a router table yesterday; can you do this with any router table or do you need some specific jig?

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I came to your thread from the workbench post. I like the fact that you have varied interests. My thought when I looked at pictures of your garage was the old saying "stuff expands to fit the space available".
Keep up the good work.

Thanks MacTexas. I think I've only mentioned about 10% of my interests in my thread. I really do have too many hobbies and I have had to really tap into my will power to not start any new hobbies until I at least purge the remains of a previous one. Fortunately the motorcycles are really a perfect hobby for me, encompassing everything I love to do in a smaller scale than a car, truck, old bus, or vintage fire engine.

When we had our house on the market we had a 10x20 storage unit... that I filled about 60% volumetrically. And the whole time I kept hearing George Carlin's voice monolog about stuff. Only 40% of the stuff in storage came back. My wife and I are constantly trying to simplify our stuff, she's a lot better t it than I am. But I'm almost 45 now and I think I've finally come to grips with it!

And after yesterday, I think I will go purge some more of the woodworking plans I've been hanging on too. The older I get, the less i like dust.

My wife came into the garage yesterday and was looking around. I asked what she was looking for and she said the other motorcycles. I did NOT tell her to look up.

Nice work on the joinery. Kind of jealous. I spent 2-3 hours setting up a router table yesterday; can you do this with any router table or do you need some specific jig?

cash,

Thank you, Saturday was a whole lot of frustration. Sunday was a great day.

The jig I used is a Porter-Cable deluxe jig that can do dovetails, box/finger joints, rabbits, miters, etc. A good friend let me borrow it to figure it out, it was NIB when I got it. He knew that if I lost patience with it, he would too. I had to buy the guide base for the router, but I'm tossing it in the box when I bring it back to him this week so it will stay with the jig. It's designed for a hand held router. I actually wish it was easier to adjust. If it had a micrometer of even fine threaded adjustments for the board spacer adjuster it would have made it much easier. I don't really like having to cut multiple test pieces... If it had a micrometer scale I could have easily measured my pieces and adjusted the guides accordingly. It's also limited to boards that are at least 8" long or so. I thought it would be cool to use the mini finger template and 1/4" bit to make the sides of my drawers for bench with some maple I had, but I want the drawers 4" wide. And TBH, I was tired of covering myself in shavings and dust. The Milwaukee router I'm using is nice, but it lacks a vacuum port.

I have seen indexing tables or guides for router tables so you could easily cut finger or box joints on a router table. The problem is that you would have to brace or support a 6' long piece vertically up in the air above your router table if you wanted to do longer pieces, but the box/finger joints just use a straight bit. IIRC, IncraJig has some really nice guides/fences for router tables that allow you to make all kinds of really cool joints.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

cash68,

Sorry about your wallet:

INCRA TOOLS I-BOX

 

[BoilermakerFan]

This evening I had a chance to clean up the joints on the maple trim for my mom's table and do a final test fit:

Seeing it all together made the work and hassle of the careful setup worth it!


Then I went to my work bench and test fit two of the hickory trim pieces. And again, they fit together really well and really tight. I'm not sure I'm even going to glue the fingers together since they will be screwed onto the frame. That will allow for a little more wood movement.

 

[-Brent-]

T

My wife came into the garage yesterday and was looking around. I asked what she was looking for and she said the other motorcycles. I did NOT tell her to look up.

Wait! I didn't see pics of this. Are you holding out? You must've freed up a bunch of room.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Wait! I didn't see pics of this. Are you holding out? You must've freed up a bunch of room.

No, not really. But she knows I had 8-11 motorcycles at one time... a couple weeks ago she asked me how many I planned to rebuild, then keep. I have 6 with titles. I plan to rebuild 6 or 7. I have scrapped the frames of the ones that did not have titles and had no plan to rebuild. Any parts I pulled off the donor bikes that I had no intention of using were brought back to my buddy's motorcycle shop/salvage yard. I've hauled 6 18gal totes of parts there so far and counting. No, I guess my wife was expecting to see motorcycles hanging on the wall or who knows what... she did notice all the open spaces on my shelves though, so that was nice.

I do have more floor space clear at the moment, but it's still packed. I have to cut 2x4s to cross brace my ceiling so I can hang my new fancy box light above the steel workbench. And I have to get all the wood cut to assemble my outboard engine stands. Once those are done, then a lot of floor space will open up. I'm planning to tackle the wood cutting today after work since my WorkMate can now be used for the chop saw out in the driveway. Then I have the two large 6' warehouse style shelving units to haul up to my buddy's place in trade for the beaded plywood paneling. Of course, that empties some space, but it will be more full on the return trip until I can get all the plywood up on the walls... but that is the plan after all.

Other than that, I'm slowly pluggin' along cleaning out totes and getting rid of dead weight.

Don't worry, I'll post pics.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I clamped the maple trim to my mom's worktable tonight to check the actual fit. I had intentionally cut the boards a hair long and kept the router bit depth very precise to the width of the joining board...

I'm going to have to trim the pockets a little deeper on three boards to pull it in snug against the table top. But it's easy to trim a little more off and you can't fix a cut that is too deep.

Then while I had the front trim clamped on I marked where I need to drill a recess for the adjusting crank handle to pull through the trim:

I'll use a 1-1/4" Forstner bit in my press to drill the hole slightly offset of the bottom edge to just notch the trim piece. Then after it's sanded, the trim will be ready to be attached to the top.


After that I went up in the storage to pull down the boxes of Cat5 cable I need to recycle. I went ahead and pulled the wire off the spools so I don't get dinged on the weight.

While up on the ladder in storage I noticed a few sets of 20" bicycle tires. Specifically five pairs. We don't own a 20" bicycle anymore. My son sold it to his cousin when he got his new bike. I kept one set of nice street tires for the bicycle trailer I still use occasionally and the other four sets are going to my nephew.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I trimmed the pockets of the finger grooves deeper on 3 boards this evening, but I forgot to take a pic... no matter.

Then tonight I dug out my Forstner bit which was actually a 35mm and not 1.25" and that worked out even better!

Put a sacrificial backer under the trim and cut the off center notch for the adjustment crank clearance:

Sanded it down and smoothed the edges to blend it better:

Then clamped the front trim on to test the new finger depth and centered the crank cutout... and it was perfect!

And before I came in a held the side piece in place to see how it would look:

This weekend I will attach the trim with the bronze finished screws I have and just use a little glue in the finger joints so it doesn't squeeze out and affect the oil finish. After that's done it's just sanding and more Danish oil before I can finally haul it to my folks house for my mom... about a year later than planned.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

A couple guys asked me about the crank handle. It slides in and out. In my pics i just barely have it out to show clearance. It clears the trim when pulled out and goes in under the table when not needed:

Yesterday afternoon after work I drove up to West Lafayette to pick up my daughter and a her friend to bring them home for their Fall break and our West Side Nut Club Fall Festival.

While waiting on them to pack I stopped at the local ACE Hardware store up there and found this:

I shouldn't be as excited as I am to find a Freud bit, but I am. I can order them off Amazon, but I want to route the channels in my hickory bench top tomorrow in the garage while it's raining outside so I grabbed it. My other bit was the low end CMT bit since that was all Menards had in stock... and cutting the box joints in the hickory and maple had really dulled the CMT bit so I needed a new, better bit. I'm planning to order a couple more of these Freud bits from Amazon this weekend too.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Saturday was my son's 12th birthday so this morning we ordered a motorcycle helmet for him and then did other fun stuff most of the day.

This evening I had a chance to go out in the garage and get the mounting screw locations measured, marked, and drilled on the trim. I only bolted on the front and back sides today, but all four sides will have the same mounting screws. Because the trim is thicker than the actual table top the screws are offset towards the top of the trim boards to keep them in the 2x4 frame and not the 3/4" ply top or 1/2" ply bottom.

Then I had to take the pieces off so I could sand and oil the backs before installing them one last time. Once they're back on the table I'll use my belt sander to knock down the fingers that extend past the mating surface on each corner before finish sanding with the RO disc sander.

I don't need to pop the grain on the backsides so I just used natural Danish oil, but you can still see that a couple pieces have some cool figure.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Slow and steady progress... My mom's table is the priority. I need to get it finished so I can get my bench done, I need my mom's table out of the garage so I have room to pivot my bench 180 degrees in order to route the recessed grooves for the T-track on the top.

Tonight I went out in the garage and drilled counter-bore holes with a 3/4" Forstner bit to recess the big screws that hold on the trim. I reinstalled the front trim to see how it looked and it's a HUGE improvement. Plus it will make sanding in between final Danish oil coats much easier.

I've been keeping my buddy in the loop about my progress of the work table and work bench. The Porter-Cable dovetail/box joint jig I used is his. We trade with each other all the time and just give each other stuff a lot too. We have a few similar hobbies, but he rebuilds TJ Jeeps and I rebuild motorcycles. He's also a much more serious woodworker than I am. Tonight he offered me a couple sheets of Corian to use on an adjustable table like my mom's, but for my garage. Mine probably won't have fancy trim around it, but the top will have two t-tracks installed, then I'll fill the space between the tracks with the Corian. I won't build a massive frame for mine either. I'll probably just use 2 or 3 sheets of 3/4" plywood laminated together. I haven't decided on the dimensions for my top yet either. 24"x48" is a little big for my needs and floor space is at such a premium in my garage. I may drop it to 20" x 40" or 18"x36".

 

[BoilermakerFan]

The ugliest step in the finishing process of the trim for my mom's work table began tonight...

Popping the grain with dark walnut Danish oil. Tomorrow night it gets sanded off and medium walnut goes on... then it gets sanded off and I can start the finish layers of natural Danish oil. I hate the way the maple looks right now, but it really does make such a difference in popping the grain.

And for reference, I did the exact same process on the maple plywood top the trim is sitting on.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I thought I submitted my reply last night, but apparently I didn't...

I sanded off the dark walnut oil right after work yesterday, then last night I went out to put on the coat of medium walnut oil and more oil had come to the surface in 4 hours:

Sanded it again then oiled with the medium oil, ah, that's looking better now:

The trim needs to dry for a couple of days now to make sure everything is really soaked in and I keep buffing it a few times in the process. The figure in the grain is really starting to pop now.


It was still relatively early in the night when I had the trim done so I decided to layout all of the the drill locations for the hickory trim on my bench. The front and back pieces were pretty straight forward, only a few "No Fly Zones" where there would be interference with existing screws in the frame work.

But with the the two side pieces, that was an entirely different story. Lots of NFZs to work around. But I finally got the locations marked in a decent pattern so I can pilot drill them, then counter sink tonight.

Same parts, just two different edits to make the marks show up easier:

And I have another cool update to share this evening that is not work table / work bench related so...

Cheers!

- BMF

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Still, I urge you to find an old boat and restore it. 50s-60s fiberglass boats are EXTREMELY cheap, and they are very easy to restore. If you need to replace the wood core, you just cut along the edge, pull up the layer of glass, scrape it out, sand it, lay down some new resin, and put in new wood. Then seal with another layer of glass. Weekends worth of work, tops.

I've restored a few boats now, and this is a far more efficient use of your time than building from scratch, PLUS you get the added benefit of having a boat made with molds, so it will have features and curves you cannot get by doing it yourself.

Cash, guess what?

Look what is going to be following me home soon!

A 1960 15' Lone Star Flamingo. And from what I could find in their old sales brochures, 1960 was the first year it was offered and the interiors were spec'ed by the buyers, so there were several seat layouts and level of trim available in this boat.

The guy who has it is giving it to me. The boat and trailer are free!

The boat was converted to a fishing boat so it has rod holders all over it, but it's sound. I'll sand off the incorrect blue paint, fill all the holes, replace the floor and transom wood, then repaint it the correct factory blue. I need to chase down the original bow handle, bow light, and horn, then work on either finding factory original sport seats and rear bench, or recreate them.

But you are correct, with this boat I'm miles ahead in the game to getting my first boat on the water. Plus I just love the lines of the boat and windshield.

And he has a 1957 Feathercraft he is restoring that came from the factory with a 1957 Mark55E motor... and who just happens to have a complete one? He had been searching over 3 years for a complete motor.

So he's trading me even for a 1963 Mercury 500. I gain 10HP and through prop exhaust in the deal!

The boat is in Michigan and fortunately, a good friend lives 15 minutes from him so he is picking up the boat this weekend. Then I'll get up as soon as I can to bring the Mk55 to the guy to complete our trade, then haul both home.

I'll still build my other boats, but now I can get the family out on the water next summer.

Oh, and it's lightweight. Factory brochures said the hull weighs 400-500 pounds. The trailer is pretty lightweight too so with the Merc 500, boat and trailer it should 1300-1500 pounds so even my Forester could tow it if necessary, but the Honda Pilot won't even know it's there.

 

[Squashfest81]

I can so be into that style boat. Love the size. It would never fly for my boating needs, but you sound excited. I'm excited for you.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Thanks! It is small, only 15', but with the 50HP it should run 30mph with the family on board. It's rated up to 70HP, but the 50 will do just fine. AND... this boat will actually fit in my garage!

Plus I love the fact that I have a period correct motor for it with through prop exhaust. My Mk55 was a smoke screen generator.

The Blue Jacket will be 26' plus the 2' extension on the transom. That will suit my main goals better, but for small lakes, the Flamingo will be a hoot!

Long, long term goal is to restore a 38'-46' cabin cruiser for the Great Lakes or ICW, but baby steps for now.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

And now back to the never ending work table / work bench builds...

Thursday night my son helped me drill the 70+ pilot holes and counter sinks in the hickory trim for my work bench:

After my son went to bed I headed back out to sand the boards:

And then I had to put a coat of oil on it to see how the figure and colors would come out...

I love it!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

We had nice weather Saturday even if it was a little hot.

I decided Saturday was "Eradicate the dust in the garage day" so I moved all of the motorcycles, bicycles, lawn mower and other large items out of the garage and onto the driveway. Then I started blasting out the dust with my extended blow gun.

If you go back a couple pages, I had a gallon jug of used motor oil rupture in the corner near my garage door where I had stacked left over 2x4s and plywood cutoffs. Well that stack did nothing but trap dust, shavings, and chips when I had bee blowing out the garage before today. So I tossed everything that was oil soaked or oil stained. Out of the pile only two 2x4 pieces were worth keeping.

My wife wants me to trim or holly bushes in the front again (they grow like weeds and I have always used loppers) on Sunday. I said sure, but I'm buying a corded hedge trimmer this time. I was also out of 120 and 180 grit sanding discs. Menards sells Norton brand that last a lot longer than any others I have tried, so my son and I headed to Menards after a late lunch. Restocked my sanding disc supply, grabbed a couple other little things I needed and we headed to the L&G section. They had the 22" Earthworks hedge trimmer on sale for $40. Perfect. Then my son reminded me that we currently don't own a leaf blower and fall is coming. He fell in love with a Worx Turbine leaf blower. I jumped on Amazon and the reviews for it were glowing, 4.8/5 stars and Menards was $3 cheaper. My son said that if I didn't buy it, he would use his birthday money to buy it. I laughed and put it in the cart. We got home and pulled the Worx out of the box and fired it up. Wow, it was SO quiet. My son wanted to run it. Worked for me!

Then I grabbed it and blew more dust out of the garage. Daddy likes the new toy, I mean tool, too.

After the corner of wood **** was cleared out, I remembered I had a couple of larger screw eyes so I mounted one to a stud at each end of the garage door for my padlocks. Our garage door opener crapped out a few years ago and since we don't actually park running cars in the garage, I just padlock the rails so the door can't be opened. But the padlocks always fall or get temporarily misplaced. Now I have a spot at each end in the same location for my locks. Man, it is nice to have a fixed location to hang my locks when the door is open. And having this corner of my garage clean felt great.

The dust in the garage has finally pushed me to the point where I am now ready to finally build the shop air filter from the plans I have been sitting on for over 20 years. I've had the Grainger squirrel cage fan for over 22 years... I bought it when I worked in the warehouse one summer in college. I have moved the blower from southern IN, to Purdue, to Milwaukee, to Boston, to Minneapolis, and back to southern IN. It's time to finally build the damn thing. I also decided that it is time to find a reasonably priced whole house fan that I can run off a 1/2HP motor and VFD I've had for oh, 17 years now... I have declared the war on dust in the garage. Even using the shop vac with the RO sander, I still end up with a lot of fine dust in the air. The air filter and large exhaust fan should really help get rid of the dust in the future.

After dinner my son wanted to tear apart the pump on the pressure washer so we can fix it. It's not going to high pressure, I have to crack it open and regrease everything. If that doesn't fix it, I'll just buy a new pump.

Instead I had him help me reinstall the trim on my mom's work table. I glued the box joints so that the pieces I have to trim off are more supported when I cut them off.

The glue needs to cure for 24 hours so Sunday night I can trim the extra material sticking past the joints and get back to sanding everything in prep for the final cotes of natural Danish oil. It should be finished by next weekend and out of the garage forever.

Sunday I have some Rose of Sharon plants to move from beds near the house to their new location along the driveway in the back yard. After those are done I'll shear down the holly bushes in front. Then my son and I can get the wood cut for the outboard engine stands so he can help me build them.

 

[Grumblebum]

Great thread BMF, made my way here from SF's thread.

The dovetails came out great. I'm about to make another batch of draws, this time for my dad, but I might investigate a dovetail jig first (last time I just **** joined-glued-screwed).

You have lots on the go similar to myself. Like the evolving boat story.

Cheers GB

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Great thread BMF, made my way here from SF's thread.

The dovetails came out great. I'm about to make another batch of draws, this time for my dad, but I might investigate a dovetail jig first (last time I just **** joined-glued-screwed).

You have lots on the go similar to myself. Like the evolving boat story.

Cheers GB

Thanks GB!

The actual dovetails frustrated me to no end. I didn't have the time, patience, or wood to spare to dial in the setup. So I switched to the box joint. I was surprised how strong and easy to align the box joint.

I have pics from my work in the garage and the landscaping I finished today, but I'm too tired to edit the pics and get them uploaded. I'll do that tomorrow morning or at lunch time.

 

[cash68]

Cash, guess what?

Look what is going to be following me home soon!

A 1960 15' Lone Star Flamingo. And from what I could find in their old sales brochures, 1960 was the first year it was offered and the interiors were spec'ed by the buyers, so there were several seat layouts and level of trim available in this boat.

The guy who has it is giving it to me. The boat and trailer are free!

The boat was converted to a fishing boat so it has rod holders all over it, but it's sound. I'll sand off the incorrect blue paint, fill all the holes, replace the floor and transom wood, then repaint it the correct factory blue. I need to chase down the original bow handle, bow light, and horn, then work on either finding factory original sport seats and rear bench, or recreate them.

But you are correct, with this boat I'm miles ahead in the game to getting my first boat on the water. Plus I just love the lines of the boat and windshield.

And he has a 1957 Feathercraft he is restoring that came from the factory with a 1957 Mark55E motor... and who just happens to have a complete one? He had been searching over 3 years for a complete motor.

So he's trading me even for a 1963 Mercury 500. I gain 10HP and through prop exhaust in the deal!

The boat is in Michigan and fortunately, a good friend lives 15 minutes from him so he is picking up the boat this weekend. Then I'll get up as soon as I can to bring the Mk55 to the guy to complete our trade, then haul both home.

I'll still build my other boats, but now I can get the family out on the water next summer.

Oh, and it's lightweight. Factory brochures said the hull weighs 400-500 pounds. The trailer is pretty lightweight too so with the Merc 500, boat and trailer it should 1300-1500 pounds so even my Forester could tow it if necessary, but the Honda Pilot won't even know it's there.

Ha! Nice! Please check out, if you haven't already, the website called Fiberglassics. Tons of useful info for boats of that vintage. Floor transom work isn't hard, but it is messy and time consuming. One thing I will mention: This isn't a crazy desirable hull. Don't go too crazy; you will never see a return so it's all sort of throwing money down the toilet. Just do it 'good enough' and it'll be worth it. I guess I'm just emphasizing that finding original trim/lights/cleats would be overkill; I'd just use whatever looks appropriate.

Nice trade on the Merc too; but that isn't a dockbuster is it? Does it have fwd/rev gears? For a little while it stopped the engine then ran it backwards... occasionally... which meant when it didn't, people would ram docks with a lot of power as they tried to slow down.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Ha! Nice! Please check out, if you haven't already, the website called Fiberglassics. Tons of useful info for boats of that vintage. Floor transom work isn't hard, but it is messy and time consuming. One thing I will mention: This isn't a crazy desirable hull. Don't go too crazy; you will never see a return so it's all sort of throwing money down the toilet. Just do it 'good enough' and it'll be worth it. I guess I'm just emphasizing that finding original trim/lights/cleats would be overkill; I'd just use whatever looks appropriate.

Nice trade on the Merc too; but that isn't a dockbuster is it? Does it have fwd/rev gears? For a little while it stopped the engine then ran it backwards... occasionally... which meant when it didn't, people would ram docks with a lot of power as they tried to slow down.

I've been on Fiberglassics a little, but I haven't registered.

Thanks for the tips/suggestions. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't more popular.
It was one of the first boats Lone Star offered the customized interior option on. I like the lines, but it is small. All the rest of the metal trim is there, just missing the bow handle , light, and horn. But I'm sure I can find similar lights with the little mast for the pennant. And I was planning to do everything as budget friendly as I can or else my wife would kill me or leave me. I was planning to raise the fenders on the trailer and run 12" wheels with the 4on4 pattern instead of the 8".

When I finally get it home, I'll dig into it to see how much work it needs. If it's too much, I'll salvage the windscreen and anything else that would be of value to me for a home built boat like the Rifleman or other small runabout; then I would literally just chop it up and toss the rest. If it only needs new floor boards and paint, I'll keep it. The guy I got it from said the transom is solid, but he always rebuilds the transoms just to be safe when he's replacing the floor in any of his builds.

The Merc 500 is a four cylinder. It has a true F-N-R transmission. It is an evolution of my Mark55, but the big win to me is the through prop exhaust. I have no plans to put a race pipe on any outboard, so having less exhaust smoke blowing into my boat is a huge plus. And the Merc 500 doesn't have all the graphic decals on the powerhead like the Mark55E does so it's much easier for me to refinish it.

 

[cash68]

When I finally get it home, I'll dig into it to see how much work it needs. If it's too much, I'll salvage the windscreen and anything else that would be of value to me for a home built boat like the Rifleman or other small runabout; then I would literally just chop it up and toss the rest. If it only needs new floor boards and paint, I'll keep it. The guy I got it from said the transom is solid, but he always rebuilds the transoms just to be safe when he's replacing the floor in any of his builds.

The Merc 500 is a four cylinder. It has a true F-N-R transmission. It is an evolution of my Mark55, but the big win to me is the through prop exhaust. I have no plans to put a race pipe on any outboard, so having less exhaust smoke blowing into my boat is a huge plus. And the Merc 500 doesn't have all the graphic decals on the powerhead like the Mark55E does so it's much easier for me to refinish it.

Nice. Hopefully the transom is solid; they're a bigger pain in the *** to fix than the floor. If it does need it, you can chop off the top of the transom, pour in an anti stump disintegrator compound, scoop out all the wood, then pour in a 'liquid transom'. This saves time since you don't need to refiberglass the inside of it. As for the floor; really anything will do. No need to stick to factory balsa construction; I have used scraps, foam, anything really. They also make foam that is adhered to a fiberglass screen, but cut up into little squares. This allows it to flex/conform to the hull shape really quickly, but it's more expensive.

Love the older Mercs!!!!!!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Alrighty... it's really late but I can't sleep so I'll post my updates.

Sunday it was colder and raining in the morning, but not pouring, just a light rain. I like doing yard work in that kind of rain... I don't get hot and the sun isn't out. So I dug up five Rose of Sharon plants and transplanted them along the driveway that goes to the garage. We're putting a fence right up to the front corner of the garage, so these plants will be like a hedge in front of it as they grow. 8 or 9 years ago we started with two Rose of Sharon plants, one white flowered, one purple flowered. I think we have kept a total of 24 on the property. Hummingbirds LOVE the purple RoS plants, but they feed on all of them.

After I was done with that I took my son to HD and Menards. He decided to use his b-day money to buy a cordless drill/driver of his own. He did his research online and read reviews. The Milwaukee 12V were a little more than he wanted to spend and HD didn't have any more of the $99 Makita 18V 3/8" drill/drivers in stock, so at Menards he bought the Worx 20V model. Lucky kid, it was on sale for $70 plus 11% rebate so after tax and the rebate it cost him $68. He has enough money left over now to buy a nice 63pc Kobalt socket set after school on Wednesday.

He was chomping at the bit to use his new tool Sunday night, but we had to charge the battery.

Sunday Night I applied the first finish coat of oil to my mom's work table:

Monday night my son and I worked on the trim for my workbench. I needed his help to get the long side trim pieces clamped on so we could drill the pilot holes for the connecting screws I'm using to hold it on. My son's Worx drill is in the first pic:

And my workbench top viewed from above:

I had selected the best pieces out of my bulk bundle of unfinished hickory T&G flooring for their color and grain figure, then oiled them to see what it would really look like so I could lay out the pattern on the top. I have to oil the back sides of the trim, then it will be reattached to the bench top for final sanding to get everything flush. After that, I have to route the 4 slots in the top to one side for my 48" long pieces of T-Track. Then I get to reinstall the trim again and start the process of popping the grain, building up with medium walnut Danish oil until I get the overall color I want, and finally 3 final coats of natural Danish oil to lock it all in.

When my bench is done, it gets put to work immediately building bookcase shelves for the finished part of our basement.

After those shelves are done, I get to remove the legs from the bench and bribe 3 friends with pizza and beer to help me carry the beast down to my basement hobby shop, put the legs back on, and put it in position in it's new home.

I figure that it will be close to 18 months after I officially started building my bench by the time it's actually down in my basement. And I haven't even started building the little drawer cabinet that will be mounted underneath it on the LH side of the bench. That cabinet will be built and finished in the garage, then screwed to the bottom of the work bench into the 2x4 internal framework so it won't fall off. I haven't decided how many drawers I'll make the cabinet. Either 3 drawers in staggered height or 5 shorter, shallower ones.

 

[Strouty]

Those benches look great, I bet you will be glad when they are done and you can reclaim some space too! The boat looks like it will be fun, that engine is a trip, polished up it will be pimp.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Those benches look great, I bet you will be glad when they are done and you can reclaim some space too! The boat looks like it will be fun, that engine is a trip, polished up it will be pimp.

Thanks Strouty! Yes, I can't wait to get them finished and out of the garage. They take up about a 1/4-1/3 of my available floor space. Plus I want my bench down in my basement shop so I can work on other projects when things are at standstills in the garage projects.

My plan is to restore the Merc 500. It will definitely be polished and I plan to use a ceramic KG Coating instead of paint on the lower, but it will be color matched to the correct Mercury white. Last piece will be a polished SS prop if I can find the correct one.

The boat... well, we'll see what happens with it. If it's too far gone for me it will be scrapped. My wife isn't happy about it anyway. She wanted a pontoon boat so we can take all of our friends out at once instead of just two at a time.

My focus right now is getting the benches done, at least the main sections. I'll build my hanging drawer cabinet for my work bench later. Then I have some bookcase shelves to make before I can FINALLY get back to my GL1100, CX500, and KZ650 builds.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Tonight I headed out to the garage to sand and put another coat of oil on my mom's work table. It was looking really good, but the end grain on the box joints was still a little dry so I sanded everything down and applied another coat of oil. I kept it wet as long as I could and after 10 minutes the box joints were not taking on any more oil!

So hopefully tonight's coat was the FINAL coat of oil on it. I'll buff it again tomorrow morning and at lunch time to pick off any oil that seeps back out of the grain. Hopefully Sunday afternoon it will be completely dry so I can take it over to my folks house. The very last thing I have to do is put my Scurvy Tick Customs decal on the bottom of the table.

This pic is a better representation of what the finish looks like over all. It's much lighter in person than in the first pic.

While the oil was soaking in on my mom's table, I went ahead and oiled the back sides of my hickory trim boards and applied another coat of oil to the sides of the workbench itself since I noticed that it had really soaked in the oil over the last 6 months. It would probably be just fine, but since I already had the cup and brush, it made sense to go over it again too. I used Dark Walnut Danish oil for this part because it will be hidden and I will be using a lot more of the medium oil for finishing the entire table.

Earlier this evening I was working on the basement, putting stuff away and getting rid of stuff. I have (3) sets of Carrera slot car track and probably 15-20 cars that needed a better home than being dumped in one of four boxes. I had several empty totes from my previous progress of purging stuff. Almost all of the track fit into a long, heavy duty 35 gallon tote and the cars fit in an 18 gallon tote. We'll set the track up again once the basement is finished and everything else is put away where it should be. Then I put more stuff away where it should be stored... all of my fishing tackle and tackle boxes were still out in the finished part of the basement. I got most of it back where it belongs in the storage area. And finally, I broke down six large boxes and took those out to the recycling bin with a 20gal tote filled with more recycling. I also have a pretty good sized stack of Goodwill donations started and I plan to make that stack grow even more.

 

[cash68]

My focus right now is getting the benches done, at least the main sections. I'll build my hanging drawer cabinet for my work bench later. Then I have some bookcase shelves to make before I can FINALLY get back to my GL1100, CX500, and KZ650 builds.

I know the feels. My drawers are turning out to be a total PITA. One of my main cars is down right now, and I'm not tearing into it until the bench is done. Ugh. Plus winter is coming!

 

[BoilermakerFan]

I know the feels. My drawers are turning out to be a total PITA. One of my main cars is down right now, and I'm not tearing into it until the bench is done. Ugh. Plus winter is coming!

Yeah, what's the hold up on your drawers?

The box joints on the Porter-Cable Deluxe Dovetail Jig really work well. That will you give you a good, square joint between the back and sides of the drawer. Then you could plunge route the groove for the sides to fit into the drawer fronts so there is no visible slot showing top or bottom. Just cut the sides to the angle you need and use your Kreg to screw on the drawer fronts. Or, just make the drawers normal rectangles, then make an adapter piece to tilt the fronts... It will make the drawers smaller though.


Friday we headed to Cincinnati to see the Foo Fighters in concert again. The first time we saw them live was in 2003 at SummerFest in Milwaukee. Then two more times in Nashville, and yesterday in Cincy. Today we hit IKEA and The Cincinnati Zoo before driving home.

I checked my mom's table top Friday morning. Almost no weeping oil. Buffed it off. Friday at lunchtime it was still dry. I turned on the heat in the garage and left, so tomorrow I'll double check it before final buff, wax, and buff. But, I'm calling it done as far the oil coats go. I don't think it needs any more.

Sunday I'm planning to set up the box joint jig again to cut box joints into the top and sides of all the bookcase shelves I'm making for the basement. The rest of the shelves and supports will be doweled and glued.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

While in Cincy today we headed to IKEA. We didn't do specifically looking for anything, but we found a perfect small drop leaf table for our kitchen that will give us a lot more surface space when we host family meals...

And I had been looking for nice under cabinet lighting for the wall cabinets. Everything local just looked cheap and wasn't what we wanted. But at IKEA I found the perfect solultion:

Two 18" wide diffused strip lights, the power supply with wireless dimmer receiver, the wireless dimmer switch, and the power cord. One will go under the wall cabinet on each side of the range. We have a microwave above the stove and a cabinet above that where I will tuck the power supply and plug it in. I'm actually really excited about installing these lights because if they work well for the kitchen, I will be buying more for other projects in the basement and eventually in the garage.

IKEA had a really industrial looking curio or display cabinet that I'm planning to go back for:

We'll put it in the basement once it's done. The bottom metal shelf will be used to display my vintage and custom headphones while keeping them mostly free of dust. My wife can display whatever she wants on the two glass shelves... part of me is tempted to replace the glass shelves with aluminum sheet shelves so I could put a couple amps in there too, might need two of those cabinets.

I usually just kind of wander through IKEA until something catches my eye that I could use or repurpose. I found these great little flex neck LED desk lights that I have bought several of to mount on my reloading press and another is going out in the garage just to use as a portable work light.

Well today I saw a few lights that just caught my eye, very industrial looking:

And this light... This light was HUGE. If you have been to an IKEA you know the size of their price tags... the tag is hanging from the light for comparison. And in addition to this ceiling light, they had it as a boom floor lamp! The floor lamp was also available in matte black. Wifey said no to the floor lamp...

However, when we go back for a few pieces of furniture with a trailer, I think a few of these are coming home with me for the garage:

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Here is a pic of the box from the little flex neck LED desk lights that I love from IKEA. $10ea.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

My mom's adjustable height work table is OFFICIALLY FINISHED!

My Scurvy Tick Customs decal was applied this morning:

Then my wife helped me load it in my Subaru Forester to haul it out to my folks:

And she helped me unload it at my folks and carry it up to the bonus room where my mom builds her miniature house models. My wife was really impressed with the table. She loved the design and the finish. I'm happy it's done and out of the garage.


My next quick project before I tackle the bookcase shelves is to scuff and paint the IKEA GAMLEBY table and chairs we bought yesterday to match the kitchen cabinets.

Fortunately it's easy enough to just use a 3M green scuff pad to get the wood prepped since we use the good Behr Paint & Primer paint.

 

[Squashfest81]

Bench is killer. Even from underneath!

 

[Mavawreck]

IKEA had a really industrial looking curio or display cabinet that I'm planning to go back for:

We bought two, have assembled one for my antique toy collection. Great cabinet, door lineup is a little wonky.

 

[BoilermakerFan]

Bench is killer. Even from underneath!

Thanks Squash. The bottom ply on my mom's table is just a piece of 1/2" "hobby ply" so it's not even birch. It took the dark oil in really weird ways, but yes, even the bottom is finished in Danish oil.

I almost removed the crank, cut the drive rod shorter, and reinstalled it so the handle could fully tuck behind the trim, but I didn't. I know my mom will just leave the handle straight down anyway. She won't be adjusting the height very often during the builds, basically only when she adds a floor or moves between finishing them.

And it ended up being a helluva lot heavier than I anticipated it to be. Which is good for supporting my mom's projects, but bad if they need to actually lift it up. It is easy to move with the little casters at the back though. You just lift the front edge and slide it where you need it.

I called my dad today and told him not to tell mom it's at their house already. I put a bow on the card I put on top of it. There was no way I was going to stick a bow to the top... I want to see how long it takes before my mom goes upstairs after they get home tomorrow to see it. She knows she's getting it and she has seen it when it was in progress, but she doesn't know it's actually done and in her house now.

We bought two, have assembled one for my antique toy collection. Great cabinet, door lineup is a little wonky.

Cool. I just loved the navy blue color and the industrial style of the cabinet. I don't really have any collections to display, I've purged most of that kind of stuff except for some R/C vehicles, but they are way too heavy and big for that cabinet. My headphones are pretty nice and a couple are very unique looking in a great way, so they will look good in the cabinet. My amps are going into repurposed old Hallicrafter radio chassises, but again, they're heavy. They'll go on the open bookcase shelves under the TV in the basement until I build a little cabinet for them to put over by one of Poang chairs we have from IKEA for a dedicated headphone listening area. I may just build a little rolling table stand to hold one amp, my USB DAC, and my Mac. Then I'll just swap out the amps for the different headphones they run.

 

[bj383ss]

The table you made for your mom turned out great. Let us know how those under cabinet lights work I need to get some for my kitchen.

Bret