It seems, no matter how much space you have, you end up filling it up and wanting more. The shop is no different.

The “uncluttering” solution is to (1) sell, give way, and throw out the stuff you don’t need and (2) use space more effectively. I did a little of the first and a lot of the second. My problem was I needed to use my vertical space better so I installed the industrial equivalent of a closet organizer – warehouse (or pallet) shelving.

My first challenge was to find shelving that I could afford. New stuff is nice, bright, clean and expensive. Craigslist yielded something that is old, dented, dingy, a little rusted, and affordable. A road trip in between “climate chaos” snow storms got them the last 90 miles to the farmhouse where they sat for another few weeks for the weather to cooperate. This weekend was the perfect.

It took a couple trial & error attempts before I came up with a process for installing the 10’ high up-rights and connecting the 10’ long spreaders. BARRETT did most of the heavy lifting. I would load two of the 50 lb spreaders on the pallet stacker’s forks and then lift them to 10 feet. I would then position a ladder at one end and bring in one of the up-rights. Once I locked the spreaders to the uprights with funky connectors and a 3lb sledge, I moved the ladder to the other end and repeated. Once all the bents were in place, I used BARRETT to position all of the lower spreaders then cut 2’x4’ cross braces and again used BARRETT to help deck the shelves with spare press board.

Currently, the shelves are holding some spare construction lumber, a pallet of pre-finished plywood for the home office cabinetry, and in a bit of chicken-vs-egg, the shelving hold the left over shelving.

It was a marathon session with some “creative CYA” but most of the spiral staircase is it.

Still to be done is the wood treads for the risers along with the balusters and handrail. If it were not such a huge safety and code violation, I’d love to leave the balusters and handrail off as the free floating treads look cool.

A curious coincidence is that each riser weights 42 pounds which is right in the sweet spot for a curling stone!

I was asked how I did the install without help. The short answer is “very carefully”. The long answer is that I built a pair of “holding” jigs – one at the top of the center pole and one in the middle. I first mixed up a small batch of epoxy and buttered the concrete floor to install the base plate. (Later, I drilled the concrete for a pare of holding pins I made and used JB Weld to make those permanent.) I then brought the 90lb center pole in and placed to over the center sleeve of the base plate and secured it with the two holding jigs. With a 12’ ladder next to the pole, I picked up a riser; climbed the ladder; remove the top holder; slid the riser over the top of the pole; reattached the holder; slid the riser down to the middle holder; detached it; slide the riser down the remainder; and replaced the middle holder. Rinse and repeat 12 more times. The last piece was the top platform which is installed much like a riser only it also gets attached to the rim of the hole in the second floor using lag bolts.

So, to the point of this post – any bets on the date and time I first hit my head on one of the risers ?

I finally broke down and splurged to add a good wood working lathe to the shop. It’s amazing what you get order from Amazon.com and with free super saver shipping the 500lb box was a good deal !

The deliver truck driver was very happy to see a 14 foot high door open and BARRETT waiting to unload the crate. One bit of humor. Knowing the delivery truck was going to be big, I moved the truck, trailer and car out of the drive so there would be room to maneuver and turn around. Both the delivery truck and UPS truck saw my vehicles off the side of the driveway and halted right then and there, thinking the rest of the drive was impassable. Both drivers were glad to learn otherwise.

The new lathe is variable speed and setup for 230v so there will be plenty of power and control. I still need to choose the right chuck for turning bowls but at least now the bulk is in place.

Now if I can only secure a bit of Herbie to make a new family heirloom …

What’s with all the cryptic Facebook posts and tweets ?! The short answer is that the farmhouse is finally getting it’s large spiral staircase.

The staircase arrived in pieces back in May – primarily because a deal is a deal and I had to order it back in February and I could not delay delivery any longer. So, it has sat on a pallet in the workshop for 6 months … all 1100 lbs of it !

The entire process started with finding an automotive restoration shop to find where they get their shop supplies. As luck would have it, I found a hot rod shop that branched out to sell the paints they used on their projects.

They matched the color chip I brought in and worked with me for the other supplies – white primer, catalyst, hardener, strainers, mixing cups, bonding agent, and other incidental supplies.

For the uninitiated, let’s just say a gallon of automotive paint runs about $100 and by the time you add a gallon of primer and the necessary additives, the materials swelled past $350. To be honest, that’s actually a pretty good deal but it’s still a bit of sticker shock when you have not done it for a while.

I planned to start over my end-of-year holiday break. But I got sick, then the weather turned too cold to paint, then I had business travel. Finally, this week I was home, healthy, and warm (well, warm enough).

I prep over my lunch break and shoot primer just before dinner. I have just enough time to shoot the finish color and let it harden before the shop drops below the safe temperature.

Another note for the uninitiated, these paint systems have "windows" of time between coats. Where as your typical house paint has minimum drying times, automotive epoxies and enamels have maximum times. If you cant get the finish color over the primer before the allotted time, you have to shoot primer again to reset the clock.

Anyway, over the past few evenings, I’ve managed all of the risers and the top platform along with the base plate, top cap, and one section of the top rail. I still have the 270 degree radius perimeter rail at the top of the stairs, all 52 balusters, and the hand rail. … the fun never ends here on the Salmon Farm !

There are some things you can do when having a 100% custom kitchen built – assuming you’re working with the Rod Tidwell cabinet shop. Two of those are "what to do with the space under the kitchen sink?" and "how to hid the dishwasher?"

The typical solution under the kitchen sink is to install a set of doors and just hide everything. However, if you want some organization and you are installing drawers in all of your base cabinets, you might consider a split drawer design. The idea is to install two narrow drawers that fit to either side of the plumbing. In my case, I designed the plumbing under the sink to all line up front to back and thus maximize the available space to either side. In keeping with the look of the other cabinets, I wanted a single drawer front. As you can see in the photos, the large drawer front is attached to two narrow drawers.There is plenty of drawer space and it still leaves clearance for the plumbing.

Concealing the dishwasher is personal choice. Some people want the front to match the cabinets while others want it to match the appliances. There are special dishwashers with unfinished fronts designed to take a custom panel. This may seem strait forward but there are some caveats. Not all panel designs will match up to the dishwasher attachments points. I would go further to say *most* cabinet designs will require the installer to get creative. For example, to insure clearance when opening the dishwasher, the bottom of the panel front was beveled on the back side and the supplied metal cover was lowered.  The larger issue will the the handles. The dishwasher requires a reasonable amount of force to release the spring loaded catch when opening. The typical panel front dishwasher does not allow for pull hardware that mounts from the back; however hardware that mounts to the front is weaker. Add that a panel front (rails, stiles, and a panel in the middle) has only a thin layer of wood for the hardware attach points. All this is to say that you might experience some additional costs from your cabinet installer or some grumblings or a less than perfect job … hopefully not all three and ideally none at all. My solution was to two fold. First, I used a urethane glue and add a filler band of thin material to the back of the panel where the hardware would install. Note: The material must not extend beyond the back side of the rails and stiles holding the panel. Second, after pre-drilling the panel for the bin-pull hardware, I used a slightly smaller bit and predrilled into the metal face skin of the dishwasher. Note: Be careful to just penetrate the metal so as not to hit anything that might be inside.

After installing the panel to the dishwasher front, I then installed the pull hardware with the screws now having a good "bite" into the panel, the filler band, and the face skin of the dishwasher.