Woodworking? Really?

Seeing how the title of this blog seems to indicate some sort of tie to woodworking I thought it would be nice to at least mention that I'm trying to set up a small workshop in our one car garage in the house we're renting.

I've been pouring over internet articles and Chris Schwarz's "Workbenches" book for a few days and have settled on an idea of what my new workbench will look like. After applying for another job and taking a 5 mile jog this morning, I headed to Home Depot to pick up lumber.... What a workout! After picking through the whole bin and heaving split, warped and other undesirable boards to the side I ended up with ten decent 2"x12"x12' planks of southern yellow pine and a gallon of Titebond II. I think each board weighs around 60lb. By the time I had my stuff picked out, I had literaly left a puddle of sweat on the floor by the lumber bin. Eww. Labor of love I suppose.

Loading 600lbs of lumber that is 12' long into a compact pickup with a 6' bed and driving down the interstate back home seemed a bit dicey, but I took great comfort knowing that the load was secured with ten dollars worth of the finest Chinese ratchet straps you can buy from Harbor Freight. A free-body diagram and summing the moments about the CG of the goodies in the truck bed would have looked pretty ugly but I got home without issue and stacked the boards in the garage. They're now resting comfortably separated by 1/2" square stickers to allow them to acclimate to the garage, essentially being outdoors. I figure I'll give the wood a week and start milling stuff down to size.

The bench, when finished, will have a leg vice on the front left corner and a nifty wagon-style vice on the right side. It should weigh around 300 lbs when its complete. This one shouldn't not rock and scoot across the floor when I'm using the hand planes. If so, I could always throw bags of concrete on the bottom shelf... :)