In this dust-collection update, I wanted collate a few of the improvements I’ve made to the shop in an effort to reduce the amount of time spent cleaning up. I tackle this from two fronts: collecting more dust at the source and an since there will always be some dust that escapes - making that dust easier to clean up.

I was running into the capacity limit of my previous drill rack, so this was a great opportunity to build a new drill rack. This was also a great way to use up some extra material I had kicking around.

I was looking for a retractable power reel for the shop with one specific criteria: to be able to mount the reel on a flat surface (like a shelf) and not have it flop around. With a bit of annoyance and DIY, I was able to find/retrofit a reel to suit my needs.

A quick turbo project to make a raised bed [stand] for the dog bed - this elevates him so he can stare out the window in sheer panic and anxiety without bothering me about it. From a project perspective this is great: it’s a quick turbo project and it uses up scraps.

A raised garden bed/planter/box is just a glorified rectangle right? If it’s built for the outdoors, using outdoor lumber and we don’t expect fine woodworking joinery, how long could it possibly take to build?

In my case, almost six months it seems. YouTube timelapses lie. Read on to see how I put this together and maybe why it took so long.

Using your smartphone for music and navigation is a no-brainer, but getting it properly (and conveniently!) mounted in the car is needlessly complicated. I finally got tired of trying to make ‘universal’ mounts work and went for vehicle-specific mounts from ProClip.

We’ve tried growing things outdoors in the past, but we’re just not very good at consistently watering them. To address this, I wanted to use self-watering planters but store-bought self-watering planters are expensive and not only that, they are usually small table-top sized and/or have tiny water reservoirs.

I wanted a planter that I could put a thirsty plant out in the all-day summer and only have to water once every week or two. Oh and I wanted it to be relatively cheap.

We’re looking to grow some vegetables and herbs this year and I had a stack of materials that I had reclaimed from previous projects that I had kicking around “just in case I use it one day” (it must be the woodworker’s creed). It just happened that I had nearly the perfect pieces lying around to make an indoor grow station.

My first DIY truck bed divider did it’s job: it was easy to make, it hasn’t fallen apart and I can use it to reliably secure stuff in the bed to keep from sliding around.

So what’s not to like? It’s heavy, bulky and a huge pain to get in and out of the bed. Oh and sometimes my tonneau cover freezes over and if it happens to be in the bed at the time? Too bad, sucks to be me.

I’ve been building things for a bit now, let’s see if I can’t make something a bit nicer.

Now that I’ve had a drill press for a little while and finally starting to make regular use of it, it’s probably a good idea to build a drill press table for it. In the long term, I knew that I would likely build something so that it would best suit my needs but for the short term? I waffled between buying something basic, sucking it up and buying something nice or bumping the priority up on building my own. While I did end up buying a drill press table, I quickly decided that this wasn’t the way…

Now that I have a more permanent setup, I can finally put energy into tackling quirks and annoyances of my space. I’ve been chipping away at some small upgrades here and there to try and make the space more organized, cleaner, safer or just generally nicer.

Awhile back I bought a floor-standing drill-press which I mounted on a universal tool base. While the universal base was functional, I didn’t think it was a great fit for my top-heavy drill press as it always ungainly to move around.

I recently added a floor-standing bandsaw to my workshop which gave me a second chance at getting these larger tools on mobile bases.

After dismantling my plywood cart to make an indoor plywood storage case, I no longer have a way to collate and organize offcuts and scraps. This has led to a lot of material being leaned against any available surface and subsequently sliding, falling over, blocking something I want to get to or … all of the above. I needed to get an offcut cart, fast!

The biggest downside of working with plywood is, well, working with plywood. Or rather, everything up to that point: getting it, handling it, breaking it down and storing it. By sheer luck, our garage has a nice straight-line transition into the house where we have a long wall which would make for a great spot to store plywood. Only if I can keep it pretty…