mark-NJ
Well-known member
Here's the deal:
My wife and her 2 sisters have received ownership of the family summer cottage in Maine; it's been owned by her parents since the '60s. Adjacent to the cabin is a "Workshop" (at least that's what it's referred to as). It's a small (10' x 8') structure, but it's sealed up fairly well with a weather-tight door, roof & windows. It has a hideous little workbench with a drawer, made of firing strips & masonite; it's falling apart. The tools in the drawer are, frankly, not worth mentioning. Old, cheap, incomplete, broken, abused. There's also an old re-purposed bookshelf filled with....10% useful things and 90% ****. (coffee cans full of "saved" bent hinges, steel wool, rusty nails, etc.). The rest of the space is just crammed with "stuff", too varied & worthless to mention.
This "workshop" sufficed (for lack of a better term, I suppose) for decades for general use by my father-in-law. However, I'm the only real "tool guy" in the crowd, and I'm the only one who thinks a workshop needs to be functional and equipped with at least basic tools at the ready.
Here's the other side of the coin:
- I live in NJ and, at this time, only spend a few weeks per year at the cabin. I say "at this time" because I intend to retire to Maine in the next 3 or 4 years and will be spending a lot more time at the camp. But for now I'm ******* 2, fully-packed toolboxes whenever I go. I'm tired of that.
- Let there be no misunderstanding about who owns this camp: the mice do. You cannot keep them out, and everything in the workshop is subject to pee & poop. That's a constant, not a variable.
I have been given a green light to "do whatever needs to be done", with the knowledge that when things at the cottage break, it's likely that I'll be doing the fixing...and even the non-tool people in the family recognize that having what's needed is required. Here's what I'm thinking:
- Build a decent 3' deep x 10' long bench with 2x10s that will span along one wall. I can weld up some bracket supports so as to minimize the need for legs.
- Get a (approx) 32" high roll-around "bottom" with about 7 drawers for under the bench. It needs to be a well-sealed box to keep the mice out. Sloppy drawers with gaps need not apply.
- Go to Horrible Freight with a budget of about $150-200 (this application does not need Snap-On, Mac, etc.) and stock up on the basics: combo wrenches (imperial & metric), 6-pt socket sets (imp & metric), screw drivers, pliers, cutters, files, hammers, crescent wrenches, channel-locks, etc.
- Find a decent vise on CL; the one that's there is little more than a toy.
Am I aiming in the right direction?
Here's the other thought: Battery drills. I really need something so that I needn't bring mine from home every trip north, but I am not sure how LiIon lasts when not in constant use. I know that NiCads sitting for long dormant periods go bad, but do LiIons? I also know that LiIon doesn't work will when it's very cold out...but does the cold actually hurt the battery? I figured I'd just get a Ryobi or 2, but will they be OK with so much dormancy? Should the battery sit in the charger all that time or not? My LiIon tools at home get used constantly, so I really don't know how they last when rarely used.
This project is *NOT* a candidate for the "shop of the year" trophy, so please don't suggest things that are needlessly expensive or overly complex. And space is limited. That said, I'm open to ideas & suggestions that I may not be considering. So have at it! Am I barking up the right tree, or would you do things differently? Tools you think are a "must have"?
Thanks!
My wife and her 2 sisters have received ownership of the family summer cottage in Maine; it's been owned by her parents since the '60s. Adjacent to the cabin is a "Workshop" (at least that's what it's referred to as). It's a small (10' x 8') structure, but it's sealed up fairly well with a weather-tight door, roof & windows. It has a hideous little workbench with a drawer, made of firing strips & masonite; it's falling apart. The tools in the drawer are, frankly, not worth mentioning. Old, cheap, incomplete, broken, abused. There's also an old re-purposed bookshelf filled with....10% useful things and 90% ****. (coffee cans full of "saved" bent hinges, steel wool, rusty nails, etc.). The rest of the space is just crammed with "stuff", too varied & worthless to mention.
This "workshop" sufficed (for lack of a better term, I suppose) for decades for general use by my father-in-law. However, I'm the only real "tool guy" in the crowd, and I'm the only one who thinks a workshop needs to be functional and equipped with at least basic tools at the ready.
Here's the other side of the coin:
- I live in NJ and, at this time, only spend a few weeks per year at the cabin. I say "at this time" because I intend to retire to Maine in the next 3 or 4 years and will be spending a lot more time at the camp. But for now I'm ******* 2, fully-packed toolboxes whenever I go. I'm tired of that.
- Let there be no misunderstanding about who owns this camp: the mice do. You cannot keep them out, and everything in the workshop is subject to pee & poop. That's a constant, not a variable.
I have been given a green light to "do whatever needs to be done", with the knowledge that when things at the cottage break, it's likely that I'll be doing the fixing...and even the non-tool people in the family recognize that having what's needed is required. Here's what I'm thinking:
- Build a decent 3' deep x 10' long bench with 2x10s that will span along one wall. I can weld up some bracket supports so as to minimize the need for legs.
- Get a (approx) 32" high roll-around "bottom" with about 7 drawers for under the bench. It needs to be a well-sealed box to keep the mice out. Sloppy drawers with gaps need not apply.
- Go to Horrible Freight with a budget of about $150-200 (this application does not need Snap-On, Mac, etc.) and stock up on the basics: combo wrenches (imperial & metric), 6-pt socket sets (imp & metric), screw drivers, pliers, cutters, files, hammers, crescent wrenches, channel-locks, etc.
- Find a decent vise on CL; the one that's there is little more than a toy.
Am I aiming in the right direction?
Here's the other thought: Battery drills. I really need something so that I needn't bring mine from home every trip north, but I am not sure how LiIon lasts when not in constant use. I know that NiCads sitting for long dormant periods go bad, but do LiIons? I also know that LiIon doesn't work will when it's very cold out...but does the cold actually hurt the battery? I figured I'd just get a Ryobi or 2, but will they be OK with so much dormancy? Should the battery sit in the charger all that time or not? My LiIon tools at home get used constantly, so I really don't know how they last when rarely used.
This project is *NOT* a candidate for the "shop of the year" trophy, so please don't suggest things that are needlessly expensive or overly complex. And space is limited. That said, I'm open to ideas & suggestions that I may not be considering. So have at it! Am I barking up the right tree, or would you do things differently? Tools you think are a "must have"?
Thanks!
Wow, well good luck with that strategy.
