Quick Tip, but you have to be careful

If one of your rings looks really rough--lots of burn, bad blade or drill marks--give it a preliminary sanding before you glue it to the other rings. You have maximum access at this stage, but need to be careful not to take off too much wood, especially from the upper and lower gluing surfaces. And if you use a spindle or belt sander to do the clean-up, be extra careful since they sand so aggressively.

Shop is up and running

Well, the tools are finally in place and I've started living in my new "home". Only the bandsaw remains to be assembled, but all my basic tools are up and running. The space we're using is a one car garage which must still be usable to park a car (condo rules), so we put all the heavier stuff on mobile bases and can get the car in without difficulty. We rigged up an adapter for the sanders so we can use the shop vac for dust collection, and we're using a box fan with two filters for the drill press. Here are some pictures of the main wall.

A shop of my own, at last!

After several years of using a community woodshop, I'm finally cleaning out our one car garage so I can get my own tools. Fortunately, for the work I do, all I need is a scroll saw, drill press, spindle sander, and vertical belt-disc sander combo.

Having my own "shoplet" will also let me shoot videos more easily. Videos made in my kitchen are OK, but sometimes just a little limiting. I'd love to be able to make videos "on demand" to answer any questions that come along.

I'm starting to research drill presses and sanders, so if any of you have any good (or bad) experiences with particular pieces of equipment, I'd appreciate hearing from you. Same for any good ideas for working in a limited space.

I'll post pictures in a few weeks--wish me luck!