shelf [part two... and done].

So today - with rain in the forecast (i.e. no skiing at Rainier) my backup plan was to finish this shelf (so I can move on to the next project... for which I have quite the list going but nothing narrowed down - though I'd love to build something else... ).

That meant having to dado all the joints... so off I went clamping the jig to each piece and being careful to route on the correct side of my line (thankfully I only screwed up once - on a small piece for which I had enough scrap to recut)...

Eventually after a couple of hours I had a nice pile of dadoed wood...

And then... time to start putting this 6'x4' puzzle together! I figured building it lying down would be easiest - and so I quickly had the first half done glued and drying...

I realized at some point though it was gonna be hard to get this thing into the basement and that... maybe I should build it with screws instead of glue so it can be disassembled for easier transport. But it did pretty much go together like a puzzle - fit the right pieces together in the right order and BAM! Done!

With hooks on the end for ice axes and poles and such...

And a cubby for tents...

Then let the bin organization begin... (!)

I am stupid-excited to get this stuff finally organized properly. I don't know exactly how much the jig cost to build (probably $20-30) and the plywood was $35/sheet x 3 sheets. Not terrible for a custom randomized shelf.

And maybe the coolest part... it's modular!

Meaning if more room is needed I can build a top section (just 2' tall to make it a cool 6'x6' cube) that will line up with the four vertical ends - they can be stuck together with dowels even. Yeah... maybe I'll get started on the add-on right away hehe...

shelf [part one].

So tonight I decided it was high time to get rolling on this shelf. I'm excited. And I need some organization of my outdoor gear. Bad.

With 23" wide sheets of plywood to cross-cut I broke out my garage sale find Milwaukee circ saw. I have to say... it's definitely worth the $30 or so I paid for it over my old Skil. That thing was notoriously unable to make a perpendicular vertical cut which was lame. But this Milwaukee did a fine job! I tested each cut with a square...

Perfection. Or as close to it as possible with a hand power tool.

I used my trusty $20 guide and the included C-clamps (along with my 48" drywall square) to make some just-about-perfectly-straight and really really square cuts...

And ended up with a pile of lumber ready to be dado-ed!

Not enough time to start that tonight... so I just did my test and got everything ready for the real deal this weekend. This meant I got to test out my awesome jig!

Which basically worked perfectly. The only tough part was the pattern bit is only a hair over 1/4" high... and I'm trying to make a 1/4" deep dado. So it took some finessing to get the depth of the router set just right but then it was a piece of cake to make the dado joint...

Then fitted a second piece of scrap wood to test the joint...

Perfect! And ready to rock and roll... I'm excited to do all the joinery and really use my jig. And then get to organizing my gear!