Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Standing Up Is No Longer A Headache!

Hard to believe it is almost a month since the last post … but a month well spent.  The removal and lifting of the shelf turned out to be a much larger task than originally planned.  The shelf has finally been raised alleviating the need to cower when at the rear of the assembly area. Also added some outlets and a switch for shop lights under the shelf plus replaced some of the lumber to change the way the shelf is anchored, making the new shelf much sturdier than the old one.

Those that know me well will not be surprised to hear I also got sidetracked and ended up making a seemingly simple project into a much larger retrofit. More on that later.




                                                                As you can see there is now plenty of room to stand up
                                                                straight under the shelving without fear of whacking the
                                                                cranium. However, I still  have the tendency to cower
                                                                when nearing the general area of the shelf.

A string of portable lighting was purchased in March and when I got into lifting the shelf and had the ladders out thought I would hang it. Much to my surprise, there were not any rafters there! Never really noticed that minor detail … so there really wasn’t any good way to hang the lights and make them easy to move as the project dictates. So I decided to add a few rafters. (That is a fun job to do by yourself).

                                                  This photo shows all but one row of the portable light string
                                                  perched on the new rafters. The rafters will come in handy for
                                                  more than just the lighting … should be useful for hanging
                                                  wet painted parts from them to dry, using them as a tie off
                                                  point, ect. The new outlets are also visible to the left of
                                                  the workbench.

Tomorrow morning will finish the electrical by installing two shop lights under the shelf. This will help immensely at the power tool workbench ... standing in front of the bench creates a large shadow over the work area.