This past Sunday I had a great time working in the shop (aka garage) with The Doctor. He supervised me while I used some big scary saws for the very first time. The first task of the morning was for The Doctor to install a shiny new outlet for me to plug my machines up INSIDE the closet! No need for cumbersome and unsightly extension cords stretching out of the closet like tentacles. I got exactly 0 pictures of the install process.
I always think outlets look like little faces. These two look a little shocked that they're in a closet. haaaaaahaha! Get it? Shocked. Electrical outlet. I crack myself up sometimes.
The outlet is about 32 or so inches from the floor so it'll be above the table. It'll be more convenient for plugging everything in rather than reaching down and bumping my head on the underside of the desk. Don't even try to pretend you're not clumsy like that.
Once that got installed I was able to take my measurements of the closet and cut my bracing pieces. The Doctor had planned on me using 2x4's because he had some in the shop. I decided I didn't want the bracing to be that tall so I ripped the plank in half using the table saw. I wish I had pictures of that, but The Doctor was too busy supervising to make sure I didn't break or cut anything I wasn't supposed to. I was scared. We have a fancy pants saw with a super awesome braking mechanism that's supposed to prevent a person from cutting off their fingers or arms. But it's still scary! The wood could catch, yank and then go flying across the room. It wasn't at all how I imagined. For some reason I thought it would be like a sewing machine - where it feeds the wood through and you're there to make sure it feeds it through correctly. Nope. You gotta push that plank through the blade because the blade wants to shove the wood back at you. Once I got the board ripped I made my measurements and cut the pieces with a miter saw. That was fun. I've used a miter saw a hundred, ok, several, ok, once before. Easy peasy.
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I kind of wish I had washed my hair before all of this. My mom would have been ashamed. Always fix your hair and put on makeup.
After I got all the cuts made, marked where the studs would line up and predrilled my holes, I attached the bracing to the wall in the closet.
The piece of molding is clamped there to provide a straight edge, or a guide, for the saw to get a clean cut. Because I chickened out on the long cut and realized I need to get over my fear, I made the short cut on the end to make it the width of the closet. Again, no pictures because The Doctor was closely supervising. I also didn't do the next part because I was a chicken and also because I've never used a jigsaw and we needed to get the cut right.
The closet has molding around the doors and since it would look odd to have a small gap between the table top and molding, The Doctor cut two 45-degree angles and an inset in the middle where the doors to the closet will be.
This will also provide some extra room for the drop leaf/extension table and anything I may want to hang on the back of the door, like the ironing board.
The other item I built on Sunday was the pegboard frame.
I used 1x2 cedar (because The Doctor had scraps and wasn't going to use it for anything else) to frame the back. This is to allow room between the pegboard and wall for the hooks.
I attached it with wood glue and brads. I got to use the nail gun! Again, scary at first, but kind of fun.
Back framing is all attached and ready to go! And that's about all the progress I made for last week. I intended to get some painting done, but didn't. That turned into a good thing because The Doctor gave me some direction that changed the order in which I'm doing a couple of things.
Stay tuned for next Sunday! There will be pictures of the installed, painted table top & pegboard. We'll see what else I'm able to get to.
XOXO from the sleepy puppy
I always think outlets look like little faces. These two look a little shocked that they're in a closet. haaaaaahaha! Get it? Shocked. Electrical outlet. I crack myself up sometimes.
The outlet is about 32 or so inches from the floor so it'll be above the table. It'll be more convenient for plugging everything in rather than reaching down and bumping my head on the underside of the desk. Don't even try to pretend you're not clumsy like that.
Once that got installed I was able to take my measurements of the closet and cut my bracing pieces. The Doctor had planned on me using 2x4's because he had some in the shop. I decided I didn't want the bracing to be that tall so I ripped the plank in half using the table saw. I wish I had pictures of that, but The Doctor was too busy supervising to make sure I didn't break or cut anything I wasn't supposed to. I was scared. We have a fancy pants saw with a super awesome braking mechanism that's supposed to prevent a person from cutting off their fingers or arms. But it's still scary! The wood could catch, yank and then go flying across the room. It wasn't at all how I imagined. For some reason I thought it would be like a sewing machine - where it feeds the wood through and you're there to make sure it feeds it through correctly. Nope. You gotta push that plank through the blade because the blade wants to shove the wood back at you. Once I got the board ripped I made my measurements and cut the pieces with a miter saw. That was fun. I've used a miter saw a hundred, ok, several, ok, once before. Easy peasy.
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| Measuring and marking |
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| Making sure my mark lined up with the blade |
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Making the cut! Fingers are safely out of the way.
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I kind of wish I had washed my hair before all of this. My mom would have been ashamed. Always fix your hair and put on makeup.
After I got all the cuts made, marked where the studs would line up and predrilled my holes, I attached the bracing to the wall in the closet.
You see those two slanted holes in the corner on the left? Those are pocket holes. Because of how the studs lined up, I had to attach the short piece to the corner of the longer piece, otherwise it would have one solitary screw holding it up. Not very sturdy because it can twist all over the place. I had to use those in three corners. I felt like Ana White putting those pocket holes in. Later in the day, after we had cut out the table top and did a rough fitting I remembered that the original measurements were based on the full 2x4 width and I didn't adjust the bracing down to compensate for that. The table top came to my nose it was so high. Okay, not really, but it was uncomfortably high. So I took ALL of the bracing down, moved my wall markings down and put it all back up. And then I realized I measured from the wrong spot so I had to take it all down. Again. This time I made The Doctor come back there and tell me what I did wrong. He was kind enough to stay while I put it back up to make sure it was correct. I really didn't want to take it down a third time. My lovely painted closet has so many holes in it now. I'm not going to bother patching them because the table top will cover everything.
Speaking of the table top. That was also cut out Sunday. I'm using 3/4" plywood because I don't want to worry about the table sagging in the middle under the weight of my sewing machine. 1/2" might have been fine. The Doctor helped me out quite a bit with this one. He didn't recommend using the table saw because moving the full sheet of plywood would have been incredibly difficult. So we used a circular saw.
For some reason that tool really intimidated me. I think it seems menacing because it's heavy and hand held. The Doctor ended up making the long cut for me.
The piece of molding is clamped there to provide a straight edge, or a guide, for the saw to get a clean cut. Because I chickened out on the long cut and realized I need to get over my fear, I made the short cut on the end to make it the width of the closet. Again, no pictures because The Doctor was closely supervising. I also didn't do the next part because I was a chicken and also because I've never used a jigsaw and we needed to get the cut right.
The closet has molding around the doors and since it would look odd to have a small gap between the table top and molding, The Doctor cut two 45-degree angles and an inset in the middle where the doors to the closet will be.
This will also provide some extra room for the drop leaf/extension table and anything I may want to hang on the back of the door, like the ironing board.
The other item I built on Sunday was the pegboard frame.
I used 1x2 cedar (because The Doctor had scraps and wasn't going to use it for anything else) to frame the back. This is to allow room between the pegboard and wall for the hooks.
I attached it with wood glue and brads. I got to use the nail gun! Again, scary at first, but kind of fun.
Back framing is all attached and ready to go! And that's about all the progress I made for last week. I intended to get some painting done, but didn't. That turned into a good thing because The Doctor gave me some direction that changed the order in which I'm doing a couple of things.
Stay tuned for next Sunday! There will be pictures of the installed, painted table top & pegboard. We'll see what else I'm able to get to.
XOXO from the sleepy puppy
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