Shop cleaning day...

With the Boring till now put back together and hanging in its spot on the wall (finally).

Last touch left is to secured it to its top and bottom cleats, 2 screws each.

Not necessary, just making it small earthquake proof, for the tools to remain safe in place without falling over. Being facetious here, where I am, if my underground basement walls move... I have a bigger problem...

I really like the contrast between the hardwoods (Yellow Birch, stained)

and the color of the till. I'm also glad I gave it a fresh coat of paint

prior to re-installing the holders 

But the sad shape of the shop is causing me to pause for a minute.
While I have a few projects  on the go, it is seriously hampering my efforts, and in response to Sylvain concerns about waiting too long before introducing the grand peanuts into the shop, I know that my first order of priority right now is getting this shop safe..er to walk around.
As it stands I can take my life into my hands everytime I walk in, but it is definitively not safe for the little ones.

The infamous spot, I started working on,

the space under the window, between both tills.

And NO the window is not centered above

Not only is it hazardous to walk around, it is also not safe for some tools...

Long overdue to own this place, lets roll up our sleeves!!

Concurrently, we are transforming the former  African Violets plant room (AKA Bedroom) into a crafts room for Jean and the little ones. Must finish a small projects I started for her to hang neck laces.

The big hardwood X in the old repurposed frame

has a lot of small dowels layed out for hanging neck laces, below it would be horizontal wire like the smaller frame shown besides, for earings. YES, that is my $8 mitersaw ( NOBEX :-) in use up there, along with a few planes from Veritas and Lie-Nielsen. Yeh, now got 3 shops :-) 

"The bench" is a solid core door on a set of folding table brackets

That room will also received a Murphy bed down the road, but that project is further on the horizon...
For now the two electric beds that were inside have been sold.  Much quieter at nite without the grand peanuts playing with the bed adjustments up/down, up/down :-)
They now have to sleep together in another spare bedroom, what was I saying about quieter...??

Times to suck it up Buttercup and clean up the shop!!

After a couple beers... getting there slowly.

Much safer for little (and big) feet and for the tools, to walk around

Obviously need more and better storage for clamps.

And my Snap-On tool chest needs some Ahem, cleaning to close the drawers :-)

Maybe on this wall space??

Here goes one more shop project...

As I am putting away my tools spread everywhere, err I meant better organizing their layout,  I am quickly reminded that I desperately need more planes till spaces. And Jean found another moving box full of woodies, so ...

1 - That explain why I was missing some, and
2 - I can see another plane till (No 3) on the near horizon...

While I add another plane till for my woodies on my To Do list and ponder some more on life's mysteries, I still need to deal with my current mess, so I am resisting opening that box for now.

Must resist... must....

The box was even labelled Rabot (plane in French)

That tells me that was from my last move from Bagot Qc

And talking of till, been playing around my new one.. :-)

Quite versatile, as you can see. 

I am happy with the results, it does what I wanted.

See all that room at the bottom?  OHHH I got plans for that :-)

Tried a few tools inside the Boring till to see how it is to reach in and put in / remove tools from it.
Works like a charm, but, mind you I am a six footer, maybe a tad high for others to be reaching comfortably.  Bottom line ALWAYS adapt your tools storage solutions for YOUR tools and YOUR physical dispositions. If I was wheelchair bound, I would of course put it lower and perhaps modify to better suit my needs.  Or still too high for a 10 year old girl :-)

Trying various tools convinced me that I hit the sweet spot for my anticipated storage.
This boring tool holder (the lower one) has a series of  twelves (12) one (1) inch holes spaced
two (2) inches apart CL
While the spacing at 2 inch may seems a bit large and wasteful, remember that these were drilled for holding Boring tools not chisels etc, hence the extra room required and the bigger hole size 1 in, versus 7/8 in )

Checking my other holders I was playing with, I realized they have a smaller hole, 7/8 versus 1 inch.
Their spacing's was 1-1/2 in and the other 1-3/4 inches CL. This is the size (7/8) I am going with for the majority of my chisels except for the three true socket chisels (paring), these would need dedicated holder shaped to hold the chisels by their sockets.  Which Ken mentioned in a previous comment, that these socket chisel can be finicky to make proper holder for them.  True, but I have a love hate relationship with them. Love the balance of these chisel in my hands, hate the fact that the handle separate too easily.  Which is both handy for packing and a curse when trying to hold them in a holder.  Lets see if I can come up with some simple solution...
All this means more time needed to trial or muck up some thing else for these chisels. Small price to pay.  All that time figuring out the details as I go along, means that in the end, I get what I need and want, bonus! Just like what happened with my other tills... Coincidences?? NOT!!! :-)

That 6X6 beam on the floor is taking lots of room, and it has spectacularly developed stress cracks and is somewhat twisted. That Pretzel beam had been laying outside in the snow covered ground when I brought it in the garage to acclimatized itself a bit before making it downstairs.  Oh what joy it was to man handle a 6X6 beam down the stairs... No sure anymore if I would be able to salvaged enough of it for my need, it is currently too long and need to be shorten.  Which is simply to put up a post inside my hand tool shop in order to hang my Post Drill on it.  But I do have another beam laying outside... May be better off buying a new one...!!!

The pretzel beam worse end, quite a twist and a large crack

The other end is straighter but also has a crack, albeit smaller

And in case you missed it, these two pics are taken at the same approx. angle,

notice the twist in it?

Said drill was awaiting warmer climates to be stripped and cleaned then repainted outside.
Its time should come soon, but it would be quite messy and involved, so I may just hang it up for now (it's perfectly working as is) and deal with that mess later.

For now priority is to make the shop safe for the kids. Rudy still like to chew on wood and metals so he is still banned for now. He will in time becomes my new official Shop's dog as he matured. He will be turning 3 in a few days (June 15).   For the time being he is quite busy chasing Chipmunks around.

I will continued on my current projects, but I need to make it safer for the kids as soon as possible so we can get started together in earnest.

Bob, now fully committed to own back his shop for the grand kids sake (OK and mine too :-)
Don't know what our first projects would be, but I know I will need some stands for around my benches and work stations :-)