A few odd jobs around the place

Following up on the last blog post, I found a whole lot of photos which I had taken but forgotten to upload to Google Photos. There is a short comment on each one by way of description.

OSB box for the concrete foundation

The concrete foundation finished (65x65cm)

The position of the concrete foundation on the west side of the house

The finished floor (with step)

After painting the same colour as the workshop floor

The other thing that I was busy doing was tidying up the workshop. To get this done on some kind of a permanent basis, I needed storage solutions. Due to lack of those, everything was left on top of a single shelf, or on the floor. I decided to go with a tool wall. To do this I cut MDF board and screwed it to the wall. This was easier said that done because the wall itself was gas blocks. It was easy to drill the holes but it wasn't easy for the screws to get a grip. After a bit of manoeuvring and filling, I managed to get a secure fit. What you can see on the picture to the left is the boards already fixed to the wall. There are four red screw storage boxes attached on rails already. I have another three rows of two smaller boxes and two rows of big boxes ready to go in. That will fill up the space to the left of the steel support. On the right I'm getting ready fixings for saws, bits and chisels.

To make the fixing for the chisels, I used offcuts from the MDF boards. There are nine chisels at the moment, and I decided to leave room for twelve altogether. If I need more, I can make up another fixing fairly quickly. The chisel fixing was actually simple to make. A 15mm forstner bit for the holes and that a quick touch with the table saw for the slots. The only complication was the chunky chisel. The steel shaft was way to thick. The solution was a less secure fixing for it. It won't fall out without a lot of encouragement but it is nowhere near as secure as the rest of the slots. It isn't fixed to the wall yet. I used my new dowel tool (the dark grey and green tool to the top left of the workbench) to attach another bit of MDF as an angle to the chisel holder. Once the glue is dry I can screw it directly to the wall.

Another thing I got done was a drawer for my workbench. I was always looking for things like the small square, the calipers and pencils. That probably has to do with the lack of a working tool wall, but things like the pencils and the small square are used so much, it probably makes sense to keep them in the workbench anyway. I got the plywood from Holz Balk in Vilsbiburg. The sides are 16mm ply and the bottom is poplar plywood, 5mm thick. Once I had everything cut to length, I cut 5mm slots towards the bottom of all the sides. The bottom of the drawer ran nicely into those. The drawer sides are dowelled and glued together. It seems to be a fairly good fit overall. Since taking the picture on the left, the drawer got a coat of linseed oil. It now looks much the same as the rest of the workbench. It sticks a bit when opening or closing, so I'll have to find some way of dealing with the tracking.