Mindfulness and the workshop

Circle around various corporate entities, and you’ll find the term “Mindfulness” cropping up more and more, as the latest trend takes increasing hold.

Now I say that in somewhat irreverent terms, but without any real intent.

I am not really on strong terms with mindfulness yet, there are many long courses all about it, but what strikes me early, is this concept of being in the moment.

Many of us drive to work each day, and yet can’t remember how we actually got there. We are walking around the house, put down our keys, and cannot remember for the life of us where they are a little later on.

These (and many others) are perfect examples of taking actions without being mindful.  Being in the moment, actually tasting the food we are eating, focusing on the activity, being particularly aware of what we are doing, not just going through the motions without concentration, without being mindful.

It got me thinking about the shed.  Some of what we do out there is without real thought – cleaning up for example, yet daydreaming (or just not concentrating).  Yet a lot of what we do, especially while working in the shed had better be very mindful, or you might find yourself fingerless, or worse.

To turn that around, I find that the shed activities really do focus the mind.  You cannot have random thoughts bubble up and become a distraction, and the activities really allow you to concentrate intensely on the task at hand.  It is like a form of meditation, and why I find I feel really refreshed after a good session out in the workshop.  Better than sitting around with your eyes closed, focusing on breathing and saying “Om”!

When I am shaping wood, solving design questions, cutting, planing, joining, gluing, polishing, there is no room for abstract thoughts, distracting thoughts, and problems at work and other stressors do not get a look in.

That is not always the case unfortunately. When having an unsuccessful day, it either allows an opportunity for these external pressures to creep in, or it is because those external pressures have been there all along, and not shut down enough to allow a successful day.

The next time I am having a bit of a bad shed day, I’m going to focus a bit more on why – am I being distracted by thoughts, or just me having a bad woodworking day.  Of course, like the golf saying goes, a bad day in the shed is still better than the best day at work!

Classic House

Watching an old episode of “House” and came across the following quote.  Seemed too good not to share!  From the episode “Clueless”, Season 2.

 

[Wilson is flipping through House’s TiVo selections]

Dr. James Wilson: Now, why do you have a season pass to The New Yankee Workshop?

Dr. Gregory House: It’s a complete moron working with power tools, how much more suspenseful can you get?

 

Ah, the good old days, when there was still some woodworking content on the pay-TV channels.  Seems to have taken a bit of hiatus.

Speaking of having taken a hiatus, things have been a bit quiet around here as well. Short story is simply – I needed a bit of a break.  Getting to the end of the year is always a real push, and last year was certainly no exception, and when it all piles on, the website gets squeezed for time and mental space.

After the typical chaos of Christmas, the family headed to Echuca-Moama for a week, which has been a chance to recharge the batteries somewhat.  43C days are not always the most relaxing, but the time out was good.

Been out in the shed this afternoon, blowing out some figurative, and literal cobwebs.  A combination of getting the tools working, and the grey tool between the ears.

I was making some test pieces for the next “The Shed” magazine article that I will be working on over the next 3 days. It involves a particularly long tambour door in a rather different way (as in, it is definitely not a door, nor is it designed to slide!)

And time for a reflection on the past year in the new shed.  Yes, it is 12 months ago today that construction of the current shed was finally completed!

 

Episode 103 Shed Tour

Finally!  A tour of the shed, warts and all.  It is still a work in progress, but I guess, it will always be somewhat of a work in progress!

Stu’s Fair Dinkum Shed

Think I have been a bit slack – things have been such a whirlwind getting everything done, and moved and finished (etc), that I don’t think I’ve actually published any photos of the shed?!

I’m very close (and looking forward) to giving you a walking tour of the inside (and outside)

It is a pretty cool thing to have I can tell you.

Weekend Rap

Yo yo
Ok, no!

I meant the other wrap!

Have put in some hours this weekend, irrespective of the heat. Not sure what it got to, but at one stage as the sun was rising and the hot air ripping through, I wasn’t sure if I was in Melbourne, Death Valley, or on Cremetoria!

Some of the things knocked off, or at least progressed over the weekend:

# Insulated PA doors (as previously mentioned)
# Sorted out the rubbish left after builders, after Jessica’s 7th birthday and the SawStop packaging
# Filled in the trenches left from the plumbing
# Tried to roll the trailer (and a few other things) over the ground, but got badly bogged in the soft sand that is the local ‘soil’ Going to take forever to get the yard back to a reasonable condition.
# Fixed up the boards laid so far on the mezzanine. As was (not unkindly) pointed out, it looked like the floor had been laid by an amateur. Now at least it looks like it has been laid by an amateur with a sledge-hammer! Still got a bit over 1/2 the mezzanine to go before I can start using it for storage
# Flattened the area behind the shed in preparation for the 2mx2m being relocated there
# Emptied the 2mx2m shed, moving the boxes into the workshop
# Relocated the 2mx2m shed (involved a significant degree of deconstruction to get it into location)

Think that is about it – been a pretty heavy weekend.

Started seeing some tools that haven’t seen the light of day for about a year.  Found the Tormek (finally!) and it looks still in good condition.  The various wheels have survived as well, which is good news.  The kitchen knives will be well-pleased.

Continue to find a few tools that are no longer required, so once I have a good lineup, they will be moved to new homes.

That’s about it – next will be establishing a floor in the ‘new’ shed so items can be moved in without risk to their long-term survivability.

Storing Tools

Being the start of December, it was time to get the Christmas decorations out, and given I was fully expecting the shed a long time ago, I had packed the decorations at the back.  So it was a full unload of the storage shed, and a first look at some of the boxes and items in them that I haven’t seen since they were packed in January/February.

Not everything has survived as well as one would hope, so there are some lessons here that may be of benefit for others.  So far, only one tool looks particularly bad, and it may be recoverable (but will always bear the scars, even if it is).

1. Pack as if it is for an indeterminable length of time, rather than an expected few weeks, or months.  Things have a habit of blowing out well beyond expectations, and if the tools are packed properly, any delay will not cause an issue.

2. Packing includes serious consideration that the tool will be exposed to moisture.  A light spray with WD40 (for metal tools) then wrap individually.  I started wrapping individual tools in bubble wrap when I started packing but stopped after a while when I decided I was being too pedantic.  Now I wish I had persisted after all (and see point 1).

3. Using cardboard boxes is asking for trouble.  I started with a bunch of removalists boxes, and although they stack neatly, they definitely do not last anywhere near as long as you’d want.  It depends on where you are using to store the boxes, but given workshop boxes are unlikely to be given the same inside-the-house priority as household supplies (and will often be emptied a lot later than the rest of the household boxes) they find themselves absorbing more moisture, weakening.  Even if they are in an ideal environment, in time the boxes start to compact.  If they are a bit heavy, this process happens a lot faster and the contents bear the brunt.

4. Boxes will get moved, and moved again.  Having a system that allows the boxes to be moved, stacked and restacked easily will be a real asset.

5. Label the boxes, and record the contents.  Consider keeping a photographic record as well – if it gets to a worst case scenario, it will greatly help in the insurance claim.

6. Sturdy plastic boxes with lid are much more useful.  Each stack of boxes should ideally have a wheeled base so the stack can be moved without having to load and unload the stack just to move it.

7. Whether you are storing boxes in a storage unit, a garage or a shed (especially a shed), get the boxes off the ground.  I bought a smallish shed instead of (and for about the same price as two months of a storage unit), but thought it would be fine with a heavy-duty groundsheet.  It wasn’t.  I should have purchased the shed base kit. Another alternative is to use pallets (plastic or wooden) as the shed base.  If you can get the pallets in and out of the shed or storage unit without unloading them, all the better.

8. When you do (finally) get to unpack the boxes, crates or whatever, make sure you are unpacking the tools into their final home.  Otherwise you planned pack and store will quickly turn into a shambles.

9. Sort the tools as you are unpacking them.  Any tool needing TLC, put them aside for treatment, rather than assuming you’ll get a round tuit.

10. Be prepared for some damage, and loss.  Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

SSYTC063 The Shed Arrives

SSYTC063 The Shed Arrives

All 1.6 tonnes of Australian Steel.  There is a bit more to come – a roller door that will arrive later today, and the PA doors, the windows and insulation is currently at the yard waiting for the erectors.

So now we wait again, hope for a long run of fine weather so the other sheds in the queue get done quickly.  It is going to be interesting to see how this pile of miscellaneous steel shapes become a shed.  The pile looks very small compared to the resulting structure!

Shed arrives, and is up already!

It’s Amazing
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It’s Astounding
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It’s slightly smaller than I expected
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Assembly was a breeze, except for the breeze
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But a shed is a shed- right?
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Just a week to go

Estimated deliveries

Got another update today, with the order being placed with the manufacturing factory today, and with a bit of encouragement we have a 3 week deliver to site.

That means (barring some minor manufacturing issues), delivery to site on December 2.  With a bit more manipulation, I’d hope to have construction starting either later that week, or at the start of the next (depending on what job the erectors are doing, and how soon after the 2nd it will complete, and the infamous weather).

So 5 weeks today should (with a whole lot of variables added in) see the doors of Stu’s Shed TNG open (that’s a Star Trek reference fwiw – saves me justifying whether this is shed number 2, 3 or 4!)

And as a separate (but not entirely unrelated) bit of news, I have been chatting with I Wood Like (Gabbett Machinery) (they are holding my saw until I am in a position to receive it), and it is going to be relocated to their Melbourne factory ready for delivery.  As much as I’d like it sooner, there really isn’t an option but to wait for the shed to be ready.

For those playing at home, it is the SawStop Professional 3HP.  It has the full biesemeyer rip fence, 52″ rails with the additional table infill. About the only thing I need to confirm is whether the blade guard comes with a dust extraction port, or if that is an upgrade (and how much that upgrade would be).  (Update – comes with the machine – the other guard I saw is for the contractor’s saw (I saw a saw, and saw the saw was sure not to saw and make you sore)), So final price is $4004, although I will probably want to add a few extra bits to that – another insert so I can cut it for dados, and the dado brake at this stage.

Going to be a busy christmas getting all this organised, and the shed itself obviously!

At least I have some pretty firm dates to work with – that makes a world of difference.

Related articles

• Yes, I’m being Fair Dinkum – the shed has a green light! (stusshed.com)

That one, right there!

 

They have arrived!  Shipment has landed, has passed customs and is now in the warehouse.

And that one at the bottom, second from the right, is destined for Stu’s Shed.

I only count 10, and some have already been sold, so there are not many left if you want one of the brand new Professional SawStops.

 

Now I just have to have my shed hurry along so I have somewhere to put it.  Expecting news about the building permit tomorrow, and hopefully that means the slab can be ordered tomorrow as well.  Might prove to be a busy weekend getting the back ready for the slab pour, depending on how long it takes between placing the order and having work commence (about a week last time I checked.  That has probably blown out a bit because of the weather recently).

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.  In the meantime, I will sit here staring longingly at my new saw, waiting to come home.