| |
In the fall of 1988 and winter of '89, I worked on a crew restoring a 180-foot high sandstone church built between 1853 and 1857. The site foreman, a pleasant Brit, had lots going for him, but it was one of his faults that taught me the most on that job.
The foreman's role was to orchestrate us tradesmen as we met the kind of widely varying work you find in any restoration. He also supplied tools to labourers when needed, and took-on manual work as time permitted. The guy had some well-made tools, too, but most were rusty, ill-adjusted sources of frustration. Personal organization wasn't his main feature. Blades for his circular saw were never at hand, and drill bits -- if they were to be found at all -- were dull, ineffective and never surfaced anywhere near a drill. I must admit that my own tool collection could have been better organized at that time, too, but somehow I didn't see that clearly until I watched someone else struggling needlessly in the same way I was. I remember thinking that both of us could gain about an hour a day if we didn't have to hunt so long for the simple things we needed.
As it turned out, I mustn't have been the only one thinking that, because the foreman was soon replaced by another -- a situation that drove home how personal organization wasn't just a nice extra, but a matter of job security. In fact, whether you work with your hands for pay, or just to get things done around the house, working efficiently is important because no one has time to waste these days. This issue is especially important when it comes to power tools because they all require many small accessories to operate. The best power tools in the world are useless if you can't find that one-of-a-kind wrench for changing a blade, or those 80-grit sanding discs you need right now, or a fresh screwdriver bit for your cordless drill. Every power tool worth buying deserves a place to call its own.
|
|
There's No Excuse
Even if you try, you'll find it hard to think of reasons why you shouldn't make some shop-built boxes for your power tools. You can make them out of scraps and they only take an hour or so to assemble -- a small investment for years of optimum performance. The box for my worm-drive circular saw you see here is built using 1/2-inch exterior-grade plywood, with strap hinges on the back of the lid, and a padlock hasp on the front. I never actually lock my boxes, but find the hasp an inexpensive, reliable way to keep things shut. And you'll never find a better set of handles than a pair of poly ropes. Just drill two holes in each box side, thread a length of rope through, unravel the ends, then braid the strands back over themselves to form a continuous loop.
A weatherproof lip around the inside of the lid is important too, ,just in case you're caught in a downpour working outside. Four strips of 1/4-inch ply does a better job than similar pieces of solid wood because plywood resists splitting so much better. Glued-and-nailed butt joints will hold your box together for years as long as you use a weatherproof glue. The most convenient formulations are also fairly new. Look for brand names like Titebond II, Weather-Tite, or anything that claims a type II water resistance. Although these products look like regular yellow carpenter's glues, they're different. Weatherproof glues resist softening in damp conditions, unlike ordinary wood glues that turn to mush if they get doused with rain.
|
