NiteWalker's Blog

DVD Wall Rack

2008-12-28T14:44:00.005-05:00

First the project. I was browsing online for a good sized wall rack for DVD and video game storage. Most of what I saw was either too expensive or didn't have the capacity I was looking for. So I sketched a rough draft, fiddled with the dimensions and made a shopping list for Lowe's. I had simple requirements for this project. Since I'm in between workshops at the moment, I wanted this project to go together without any cutting. I accomplished this by using 48" long boards for the sides and six 24" long boards as the shelves. There is no back necessary as this is a wall hung unit. The boards are all 3/4" thick and 5 1/2" wide (standard 1x6's at Lowe's). I used pocket screw joinery to assemble this project. Quick, simple and strong. I plan to paint this project so I used pine for the sides and poplar for the shelves. The shelves are spaced at around 8 1/2" apart. This leaves a little finger room for taking DVDs and video games out. Very little glue was necessary to hold it all together. The pocket screws really do their job well.

Here's the rack just after completion, before sanding and painting.

I'm pretty satisfied with the results. It was a spur of the moment project so I didn't put very much into the design. Now that it's finished I'll have to build another one for my video games as this one will be almost completely filled by movies.

I Miss My Shop

2008-12-09T02:05:00.003-05:00

I really do...
A little background first. Up until November my shop was in a spare 9'x9' bedroom in our old apartment. Over the summer the house we were staying in went into foreclosure. So basically we spent the next few months saving money to move and looking for a decent place. In early November we found a place and moved in on the 9th. Unfortunately, there's not room for a workshop for me here.

There's a positive side to this though. My parents' landlord is willing to let me rent the garage in the back of the apartment building they live in for a very reasonable price. He also is giving me freedom to remodel the garage however I want. As of right now the garage is a simple one-car garage with uninsulated walls and a single layer of OSB flooring. I plan to take up the old floor and replace it with two layers of plywood (type unspecified as of yet). I also plan to insulate the walls and put some plywood or pine tongue and groove wall boards up. By using plywood or solid wood on the walls I can avoid having to hang and tape drywall. Another advantage is that I'll be able to hang cabinets anywhere on the walls without needing to locate a wall stud (which are 24" on center in this particular garage). That's a definite plus for me. I'm not sure what I'll use on the ceiling but it will also be insulated. Once the walls are up I'll probably give the entire interior a few coats of a beige paint. After that I'll be ready to bring the rest of the tools to the shop and really start putting it together. As for the cold winter months I plan on getting one of the air conditioner/heater hybrids. That's not set in stone yet though. I'll really get down to the planning after the holidays.

So for the time being I've been sifting through my tool collection and selling some of my unused tools on woodnet. I've also been keeping my eyes open on the same forum for any good tool sales to pad my collection. I've acquired several tools for well below retail and in great condition. I'll post my recent tool acquisitions in a later post. It's getting late and I'm a bit tired. Thanks for reading.

First Post

2008-12-08T03:26:00.002-05:00

This is my first post and actually my first time using a blog. Most of last evening and nite I spent studying various online blogger tutorials. What you see now is the culmination of my efforts. I'm not 100% happy with it yet but I'm tired and need some sleep...

Basically this blog is going to cover any of the projects I build in my shop, be it a new arcade stick or a piece of furniture for my house. I'm a tool freak so I'll also be talking about any new tools I acquire, and what I may like or dislike about them.