• Taking Lanie’s car for its fortnightly spin

    Taking Lanie’s car for its fortnightly spin. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Lanie’s been in Europe since December. It’s been my job to give her car a run out every now and then while she’s gone. One has to do these things in style … 🙂

    Bonus picture:

    Taking Lanie’s car for its fortnightly spin. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Table saw cart — completed (for now)

    Table saw cart — completed (for now). Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    That’s another job finished. As I hoped, the dust collection seems to work well. I also made a zero clearance saw blade insert, which hopefully forces the air to be drawn in places where the dust was being sprayed out. Extended use will show if this was actually a good idea.

    Using the table saw as a milling machine was not the best method of making the blade insert, but it was the easiest way to do it, and it was remarkably effective. I found a store that stocked metric nuts, bolts, and machine screws so I could secure the insert. Now I must make some spares!

    Table saw cart (back) showing the dust port and power lead. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Family range time

    Family range time — Katie trying out a scope on a pistol. Gary reloading. Copyright © 2024 Ginger Allman, all rights reserved.

    There was a new AR15 to be tried out and sighted in, and some other new handguns we’d not taken down the range. We organized a family trip down to Sound of Freedom in Ozark and had some fun. I’m still shooting low and left as you can see on my target.

  • Building my table saw cart

    Table saw cart — the full concept revealed. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    By fitting a countertop on the table saw, I can have extra workbench space when needed. Unfortunately, the worktop I put aside for this task is bowed, so I’ll have to find a replacement. At least I have been able to prove the concept will work.

    The cart is more sturdy than necessary, but I’ve been using up lumber left over from making the folding photography table. I may make a few changes before I’ve finished. 🙂

    Table saw cart — completed (for now). Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Since I took the original picture, I’ve bolted the saw to a plywood base and added a dust port. I’m very pleased with how well the dust extraction has worked in my initial tests. The saw lifts out on its base so I can swap it for a different tool. I’m now thinking about adding a router table into the mix.

    The adjustable legs work well, I can wind them up and down using my cordless drill! The bench can be leveled anywhere in the garage (garage floors slope towards the center and the door), and also level it to my workbench when needed. That’s exactly what I wanted.

    I’ve still to fit a back, sides, and bottom shelf. There’s a power strip to be added and thinking ahead to using the cart as a router table, I’m fitting an additional power shut off switch.

    Quick test, and I needed to use the table saw! Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • New workbench storage

    New workbench storage. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    I have finally updated the storage area above my workbench. There used to be five plastic cat litter boxes on the shelf. They had worked well for many years, but they were open at the top, allowing dust and dirt to collect. I didn’t like the look of them either.

    A recent tidy-up produced a load of scrap wood we were going to burn. Going through the scrap, I realized I had enough to make a set of boxes to replace my cat litter containers. And that’s what I have done.

    I made a simple box, tall enough to fill the gap between the shelves; the front, bottom, and back are made of rough ½-inch plywood, and the sides are made of finished ¼-inch plywood. I also faced the fronts with ¼-inch plywood, cut slightly taller than the boxes to create a lip at the bottom, so that they cannot be pushed in too far—there are some cables running behind them. There are no fancy joints. They are simply glued and brad-nailed together.

    I made all five boxes in an afternoon, so, the finish isn’t furniture level, but they fit the space well and look much better.

    The original boxes made from cat litter containers

    You can see the old storage boxes made out of cat litter containers above the bench in this picture. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Hitachi C10FR Table Saw — My next project

    Hitachi C10FR Table Saw — My next project. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    It’s a very well-used worksite jobbing saw I’ve had for a few years. I’ve spent time setting it up, so it is accurate enough for my purposes. However, it is time to make some improvements.

    I’m going to replace the base with a wheeled cart with adjustable height to match my workbench. The saw sprays sawdust around when it is running, so, most importantly, I’ll be adding dust collection.

  • Hibiscus — Hollywood

    Hibiscus — Hollywood. Our hibiscuses have generally been a bit ‘Meh’ this year, so this one stood out. The blue tinge is due to reflected skylight, not coloring. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Doorstop

    Doorstop — another test shot to get a feel of the workflow with the new storage and table. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Knife

    Knife. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    A quick test of the new photography table. Jim gave me the knife a few months ago, I’m not sure where he got it from. It’s hefty and made from surgical steel. I suspect it’s from India (the maker’s mark has been removed).

    The piece of driftwood was sent to us by a friend of Ginger’s in Sweden. It was washed up on the Baltic coast and is amazingly lightweight.

  • Set up for a quick test

    Set up for a quick test — I used a small hand-held fill in light for the test pictures. It has finely adjustable color temperature and brightness. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage Two

    Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage Two, almost complete — Some final adjustments to the bottom doors to be made. There is still some minor work and finishing touches to be completed. Apart from that, all done. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Now with added ‘Small Product phototable.’ For small quick shoots it can be pulled out with a small surface, just over a foot deep. For larger items it can extend up to 36-inches. The whole unit can be moved around to make the best use of the light or to put it where it is needed. Now to find out if it improves our photography workflow.

  • A costly mistake…

    A costly mistake… Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    At $70 per door, and I ruined two doors before I realized my error. I forgot to allow for the Inset panel (at 3/16-inch) when selecting screws to mount the doors on cross braces. That brings my ‘Cock-up Account’ up to $200 in a couple of months (don’t ask).

  • Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage One, almost complete

    Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage One, almost complete. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Sparkle Zone Storage Center, Stage One, almost complete. Now for the fiddly bit of the end panel and the ‘fill-in’ panels. That big gap — that’s a special space, and will be Stage Two!

  • It fits

    It fits. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Carcasses fitted to the wall, this, and fitting the doors is the easy bit.

  • Will it work?

    Will it work? Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Dry fit. Just eyeballing it to make sure we like the use of space, and checking I hadn’t messed up my size calculations.

  • Boxes

    Boxes. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Boxes — I was going to custom build the Sparkle Zone Storage Center, but we realized we could save a lot of time (but not $$$ — the doors alone were nearly $700) by bringing in ready-made units. I volunteered my friend Tom and his pickup to help me collect the boxes and the large 8ft by 3ft end panel. The truck’s bed was full to overflowing.

  • An empty wall equals storage potential

    An empty wall equals storage potential. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.

    Recently we’ve been on the lookout for more storage space. We have also been looking for somewhere with space, that we can use for small product photography. The south facing windows of the ‘Sparkle Zone’ offer good light and, we realized, space for storage of our photography gear — and more.

  • Doorstop

    Doorstop. Copyright © 2022 Gary Allman, all rights reserved

    I finally found a use for one of the few small rock samples I have collected over the years. The rock is a memento from a visit to Piney Creek in July 2021.

    On the first version of the doorstop, I used a hot glue gun to fix the rock. It held for a few hours before (as I suspected) the sandy surface of the rock caused it to come loose. Reluctantly, I opted to drill the rock so it could be screwed to the base.

    This picture is the result of several technology tests. I installed the Samsung Raw Camera software (thus far, I like it) and Lightroom on my phone and used them to take the picture and edit the image (cropping and a few tweaks).  Finally, I’m creating this post on my phone. The only step in the process that hasn’t gone as well as expected is creating this post. The Jetpack post creation software is sadly lacking in the basic functionality required to create a decent post. Oh well, that’s why I’m trying this. I’ll finish it off on my computer.

    Apart from the problems creating the post, the results are encouraging. The camera lens foreshortening is fairly significant, which surprised me as I used one of the ‘Telephoto’ options, which ought to have reduced it. (The base and back are made of the same 3/4-inch board, not that you would think that looking at the picture). I’ll need to try moving back and cropping more.

  • Morning sunlight in the workshop

    Morning sunlight in the workshop. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
    Morning sunlight in the workshop. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
  • Workshop Bling

    Workshop Bling — I finally got around to adding some drawer pulls onto the drawers in the workshop/garage. Copyright © 2023 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.
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