Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The New Workshop Is Shaping Up!

Today was another good day here at the Tinker's Workshop with the delivery of the materials I needed to construct the wall that is on one end of the planned shop.  This wall is mounted floor to ceiling with a door mount at the base of the steps.  The wall that I needed to put together is nine feet long and just about seven feet tall.  Here is how the construction went.



I laid out all the 2 x 4's that I needed for the wall first, taking care to get all the measurements right.  This had to be done just so as the wall from floor to ceiling varied from one end of the wall to the other.  One side was 80 inches and the opposite end was 81 1/2 inches in height.  So none of the 2 x 4's matched in length other than the two side by side ones at the door way.  The black 2 x 4 that you see in the photos was just a piece of scrap that I wanted to use up for the wall so it really did not matter that it was painted. 


Here the 2 x 4 wall is all nailed together after making sure that they had been centered at 16 inches on center.  The door way opening is 30 inches so it will be a nice size for mounting a pre-hung door to close off that end of the shop.


 The wall is almost in place now.  I was lucky enough to get this photo as the part was a tight fit and it stayed in place while grabbing my camera.   I thought the wall would be heavier than it was so again luck was on my side to slide it into place.  Notice at this point I had not mounted the lower 2 x 4 base plate. This actually simplified getting the wall positioned as it gave me more room to slide it into place.  


I got the wall moved into the planned location at the ceiling and then slid the base plate into place without any trouble using a pry bar and hammer.  I was amazed that it went in so quickly and simply.  It paid off to check and double check and even triple check the dimensions for cutting the studs to length.  I checked the wall to make sure that it was square and level and nailed it all into place.  A nice tight fit but not so tight that I had to beat it into place with a big heavy hammer. 


  The last little chore on this portion of the wall is to move the electrical box to the black stud shown in this photo.  I will not even have to disconnect the wiring to mount it.  A five minute job at the most.  This has to be mounted on this stud so that I can still use the outlet in the new workshop.  
  My father was a carpenter and passed away quite a few years ago.  I am sure today that he is smiling somewhere knowing that I did learn something from him after all the years that I saw him do similar jobs.  With that thought I also have a smile on my face and look forward to putting the finishing touches to the new Tinker's Workshop and starting the next big project.  Just a few more steps and I will be ready to start rolling tools in and making more dust.

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