I have decided that the best way to move my nearly 600-pound jointer/planer from the garage where it is currently stored into the shop is with a dolly and a couple of strong helpers. I looked at purchasing one but was put off by the price. Cheap ones with a 2x safety factor are around $300 and from their appearance do not seem up to the task. Really well-designed ones are almost twice that much. I decided to pick up a set of swivel casters rated for an 1100-pound load each ($60 for the set) and built the base out of left-over framing lumber. The wheels are 4 inches tall and 2 inches wide. I plan to use scrap sheets of OSB for a smooth surface over which to roll the loaded dolly. Only time will tell if this plan works out. Of one thing I am certain. This dolly will definitely stand up to the load.

Side Note: My shop is now largely operational. I used my miter saw, table saw, bandsaw, and planer in the construction of this project which features lap joints at the corners.

I put an extremely long day in working at the River House. I am racing the clock to have my shop operational so that I can immediately start building cabinets when the bamboo plywood from which they will be made arrives. Imagine my delight when I returned home to this lovely meal.

Our house builder has been making slow and steady progress on the soffits. They are using a man lift to position themselves under the eves to facilitate the work. Before moving it to a new section of the roof, I hitched a ride to install the downlights that will illuminate a future patio. Beats the hell out of a ladder.

We enjoyed a visit today from our nephew, John Quinn. He met us at the River House for an extended tour followed by a late lunch in West Concord. It was great to catch up with him and learn about his plans for the future.

I spent the balance of the day moving into and beginning to organize my new shop. Tomorrow, I plan to install provisional dust collection and will be very nearly ready to start cabinet making once the bamboo plywood I ordered arrives.

Today, we celebrated both Father’s Day and Maya’s birthday, one and two days early respectively. We attended the Verrill Farm Strawberry Festival in the morning and were fortunate to miss the rain that fell for much of the rest of the day. Jeanine suggested the event and I thought it would be great fun. After noticing the very large number of small children in attendance, Kyle suggested this was a planned attempt to accelerate the timetable for having grandchildren. No such subterfuge was at play but if it had that effect, I will be choosing to attend the festival again next year. I feel very fortunate that the kids all live close by and that we can be together so often.

In the afternoon, Kyle helped me to collect a three-piece recliner that will go in the mini-theater of our new house. While we had the U-Haul trailer we also returned the recliner that Jeanine has been using while recovering from her foot surgery and moved a bunch of shop equipment from the Road House basement to the River House.

This morning, I installed lighting for my new shop. The setup includes 7 rows of 20-foot-long linear LED lamps. Each 20-foot section is made up of five 4-foot-long sections (four rows are visible in the photo). The total light output is 75,000 lumens. The arrangement provides shadow-free very bright illumination over the entire shop. When full brightness is not required, only half the lights can be turned on but still cover the entire floor space.

In the afternoon, I moved my table saw and bandsaw from the garage into the shop. I managed the effort single handed but will need help with the jointer/planer which weighs twice as much at 572 pounds. Once I lock in the location of each machine, I will connect each to my dust collection system and will declare my shop open for business. That business will include making all the kitchen cabinets and vanities for all the bathrooms.

It has been 4 weeks since Jeanine had foot surgery to correct a previously botched bunion procedure. Her doctor has given her the all-clear to start putting up to 50% of her weight on the foot. Although her knee scooter is still the most comfortable way to move around, the process of loading and unloading it from the car has kept her from driving anywhere. Now that she is up on crutches, she is back on the road again.

The beauty of nature never ceases to amaze me. I found this cactus growing inside a large pot outside a U-Haul rental center of all places. The responsible gardener notice me taking a picture and was happy to explain how he had found one little stem years ago and had been dividing them ever since. The photo only shows a few of the several hundred that now completely fill the 30-inch-wide pot. Stopping to smell the roses might be fine for people whose dominant sense is olfactory. For someone who is more visually oriented, I find it more satisfying to pause and look at the cacti.

The 16″ jointer/planer I ordered arrived today. At 572 pounds (660 pounds as shown) it is the heaviest thing that will reside in our new house. I am still contemplating the best approach to getting it from the carport where it now sits into my shop. The motorized pallet jack that brought it down the driveway is only good on hard surfaces and would have sunk in the rain-soaked clay soil had we tried to get any closer to the house. I will probably uncrate it and disassemble it into lighter components (motor, beds, cutter head, fence). The extra work will be worth the riskier challenge of moving such a heavy object. You can count on a blog post once it reaches its final resting place.

The last essential system I need to set up before getting down to business in my new shop is dust collection. The dust collector has already been installed in the mechanical room along with ducting into the shop. Now I need to connect the duct work in the shop to the various machines. I decided to make the duct supports out of leftover plywood. A long cable tie will be used to secure the pipe to the support and the support will be anchored to the wall with pocket hole screws. The cable tie will run through a hole bored through the full width of the 3/4 inch thick support. To make that hole I needed to set up my new drill press. It went together without a hitch and has exceeded my expectations for build quality and accuracy. It was a real pleasure to use.

Plaster work on the River House should be completed this week and will be followed by wood flooring installation but not before the indoor humidity reaches an acceptable level. I installed a digital hygrometer on each floor to monitor humidity levels. At this time it is hovering around 85% and the current and forecasted weather is not going to help much. I am going to look at renting an industrial dehumidifier to help speed things along.

My new shop at the River House has a single lally column located in the middle. Initially, I thought this would be highly undesirable. When I laid out my shop equipment, however, it became apparent that this would be the perfect means for dropping power to the machines which will be centrally located. Today, I built a square column around the round one and installed four 120V outlets and four 240V outlets upon it which will be used to power my table saw, bandsaw, jointer/planar, and router table with several spares. The base of the column and floor molding through the basement is built out of a rice hull-based product that is impervious to water. Should the basement ever flood, we can sustain 5-1/2″ of water before the drywall or plywood becomes exposed.

For 15 minutes this afternoon, 3/8″ hail fell in Concord combined with torrential rain. At the time, I was parked under a tree which help minimize the impact of the ice chunks hitting my car. Driving was briefly treacherous on the frozen ball bearings but they melted quickly leaving little more than dismay behind. Hail in June where we live is a pretty good validation of climate change.

All that remains to be done before I can move into my new shop is the painting of the ceiling. This can happen in a few more days when the plaster has completely dried. In the meantime, I am taking care of a few construction details. Pictured above is an “L” shaped box I built to protect the geothermal water lines which run from that foundation wall to the mechanical room. The red light shown dangling in the upper left-hand corner is used to signal when my dust collector bin is full. It will get affixed to the wall or ceiling once the painting has been completed.