As a professional Computer Toucher™, I believe it's important to have hobbies that don't involve Touching the Computer. The one I've chosen is woodworking, if for no other reason than LEGO is too freaking expensive. I've been on holiday for the past week and have remained relatively offline on purpose to focus on my woodworking hobby. My goal was to upgrade my humble workshop this summer so I could actually start building furniture this winter. Here's what I've been up to this week.
As I mentioned in my last post, my intention with the large board on the left wall was to put up French cleats, or "haaklatten" in proper Dutch. This is an inexpensive and extremely modular system for creating tool holders because you use scrap wood to make them, and you can move them around on the wall as you see fit. As a bonus, it's a great way to practice your woodworking skills.
French cleats are made from thin strips of multiplex, 12 cm (4¾ in) wide in my case, that you rip through the middle at a 45° angle. You put the lower board on the wall with the sharp end facing the user, and the upper board goes on the back of your tool holders. This creates a strong connection that resists forces pulling it down and simultaneously allows you to pull it up and off the wall easily.
It is highly advisable to use multiplex instead of MDF or "real" wood for your French cleats. MDF is just compressed wood chips, so it will not hold its shape at a 45° angle, and a milled plank of wood might contain knots that create an uneven cut. Multiplex has neither of these problems since it compresses multiple layers of wood chips together and holds its shape even at sharp angles. Truly, multiplex is the American cheese of furniture making: cheap and tacky for most purposes but perfect for this one specific job.
The right saw for me
I'm using a circular saw to rip my boards because I neither own nor have experience with a table saw. This is definitely not ideal, but it gets the job done. I bought a new battery-powered circular saw because the old one was just too big and unwieldy. It weighs 5.4 kg (~12 lbs) and has a 1600-watt motor that would make the lights flicker when I turned it on. The new saw weighs 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs) and uses the same 18V battery pack as my drill. Its motor is way less powerful, which is good because I don't need a super-powerful circular saw. It actually stops the blade in under half a second when I let go of the trigger instead of continuing to roll for a good ten seconds. 😬
My old circular saw came with three pieces of track that click together to guide the board during long rip cuts like these, and unfortunately, I needed four pieces of track for this cut. 😭 You can't easily buy new pieces of track either, my local hardware store doesn't carry them, and they're €63 (69 USD) on Amazon. Instead, I'm using the distance measuring tool to create a fence on the right side of the board. However, this means I don't have a good way to clamp down the board to my workbench without it getting in the way of the saw's path. So I clamp the board down in the middle and on the far end, stop cutting in the middle, move the clamps, and then continue the cut. The finish on this is horribly uneven, but it's for the workshop, so it's fine.
Dust, dust everywhere
One thing I did not anticipate beforehand is the sheer amount of dust that comes from making these long cuts. The circular saw comes with a cutesy plastic container thing, and even though it fills up completely after a single rip cut, it feels like 80% of the wood dust it generates is just blasted right into the workshop. Luckily, the weather was nice enough to keep the door open, and I wore a respirator the whole time. But I'm definitely looking into getting a shop vacuum for my next workshop upgrade!
Screwdrivers
Once the cleats were on the wall, I made my first tool holder! I found a cool video on how to make a screwdriver rack. They advised making a cardboard prototype before drilling into wood, and I did just that. I spaced my holes 5 cm (~2 in) apart, which seemed to work fine for my screwdriver collection. An important thing I don't see mentioned enough when making these holders:
Leave room for expansion
I only have eight regular screwdrivers and four thin ones. But I made a holder big enough for sixteen regular screwdrivers and eight thin ones. This is simply so that when I buy another screwdriver, I don't have to make a whole new tool holder. It's all about being practical instead of Pinterest-perfect. 💖
The next holders I want to tackle are my jigsaw and circular saw. I want these big-ticket items front and center so I can easily pull them off the wall when I need them for my next project. Which, if I'm being honest, is probably another tool holder. 😅
