For the first time in a long time, I actually have a post ready to go when I thought I would. It’s been a long week, between finishing the assembly of my desktop & recording and editing video, but that’s all done with now, and my first video post is ready to go. I had originally planed on starting a cutting board project, but since it was so hot last weekend, I thought an obligatory shop tour would be a better idea. I know I have lots of room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with my first attempt.
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Image courtesy of MSA
PPE isn’t normally a topic I get all worked up about, but after using these glasses for almost a year, I can say these are by far the best pair I have ever owned. The lenses are large, and perfectly contoured to fit my head.
This is really beneficial for two reasons. One, because they are so large I rarely see the sides in my peripheral vision, so I often don’t realize I have them on, and thus I’m less likely to take them off. Secondly, because they are so well contoured they set really close to my face, and thus do a better job than most at protecting my eyes from flying debris.
If you’ve ever worn earmuffs and cheap safety glasses together, you know that the glasses ear pieces get forced into your head by the earmuffs. At best, it’s annoying; at worst, it causes pressure points and headaches.
Since the ear pieces on these are wide and thin, they spread the force out over a greater area, thus reducing the likely hood of a headache (at least for me). I originally got my pair at Woodcraft, but they don’t appear to carry them anymore, however you can pick them up on Amazon.
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Last night I finally finished one of the two utility benches, I’m about 80% done with the second one. To finish the top I used BLO (boiled linseed oil), spar urethane, & Johnson’s paste wax. A lot of traditionalist woodworkers will scoff about applying a film finish to a workbench, but this bench is going to be exposed to a lot more than glue dribbles.
To see some additional shots from this project check out the following posts:
- The design concept
- Welding the frame together
- Welding together the leveling feet mounts
- Rough cutting the lumber for the top
- Gluing-up a top
I finally got time to finish welding my workbench legs today. I really underestimated the amount of time it was going to take. Though it was more work than I expected, I enjoyed it, and my weld skills are much better now than when I started. Next up is making the Sothern yellow pine tops, so stay tuned.
Last night I finished up the mounts for the leveling feet of the utility benches I’m making. Of every thing that needed to be done, the mounts where the one thing I was concerned about. Somehow I needed to figure out how to weld the two pieces together, without imparting a lot of distortion in the final part. After reading a bunch of posts on Welding Web, and asking a few question I determined that the best way to do this was by pre-heating the two pieces before welding them together. I used a cheap propane torch to preheat them to over 500°F. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, but I think it worked because the beads are nice and fluid looking.
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