Making an assembly table

I have built wood projects on the floor of the garage, in the driveway and on plywood sheets on a pair of sawhorses, but I have never owned an assembly table. While planning this out I thought of all the problems I have experienced while putting together a project. I must have walked one-hundred miles over the years just in my garage looking for tools, sandpaper and such. I needed drawers in the table to hold router bits, sandpaper, sanders and finishing products. I have already built a cabinet on rollers that holds all fasteners, thirty different kinds of screws, five different kinds of nails, staple guns, screw guns, pin guns and all my clamps.   I just needed a table to roll that cabinet up to. I told my wife we needed a better chest of drawers in our bedroom. After we bought one, I took the old dresser and started to build a table frame around it. I also wanted a large floor shelf to store large tools. I painted that shelf before I installed it with the same pattern I painted the garage floor with. I then attached an  electrical box so I would have only one extension cord in the garage floor. Remembering how hard it was to hold down a large flat board and try to sand it, or carve it at the same time, I imbedded a four feet T-Track into the top of the table to hold boards flat in place. I bought several different types of hold down attachments for the T-Track. That is most likely the biggest benefit to this table over other work tables. I also inserted the top of the table into a frame so I can easily replace it when it gets too banged up. Add two wood vices and we have an assembly table. 

GARAGE REMODEL

Our garage was built in the early 1900's. The cement was made on site and includes everything from sticks to different sizes of rocks. There is no border foundation. The entire floor is only 3" to 4" thick. Over the years, the building has settled and the floor has cracked in several places. The center has cracked 1/2" wide and the center is higher then the corners. Any contractor would have recovered the floor with another 4" of cement and sand, but that would be way too expensive for us. Every recommended floor repair was $600.00+ and none of them were recommended for a floor this damaged.  I decided to keep the project under $300.00. I used various crack fillers and I sanded the floor with a 4" belt sander. The floor was given six coats of bonding sealer, epoxy paint and a clear flaked top coat.

WALLS and CEILING: The entire garage is made of bare rough cut redwood, which I love, but it made the room very dark. I painted the walls and ceiling bright green. This was a three month project. There were 23 broken windows that needed to be replaced. When I removed the glass, some frames fell apart because of wood rot. The frames were rebuilt and sealed with epoxy. All that is left is to call an Electriction to rewire the room.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Time for a Chicken Coop (By: Jim)

Our son, Jason, moved off his farm land this month. He offered up his chickens and equipment. We did not have a chicken coop, nor a place to put one, so I ordered one from a family who builds them for a living. As soon as I saw the coop, I realized it was in need of many modifications to work properly. It weighed about 400 Lbs. and could not be moved by two adults. I bought three wheelbarrow wheels and made a frame for them to to ride in. The four doors had no trim support, so I redesigned them to weather seal the side hen boxes. The side screen windows were open, so I made storm shutters for both sides. The chicken coop was roofed and weather sealed the day before the chickens were picked up. Jason gave us an automatic feeder and automatic watering cups, so the chickens are pretty-much maintenance free. He also gave us a solar light system, which causes the chickens to lay throughout the night. We are averaging 13 eggs a day from 18 chickens. The cost for feed is very low because the chickens are eating left over feed from the goats.

This picture shows the automatic feeder box to the left of the chicken coop. The black pole on the right side of the chicken house is a solar light system. We just started on our yearly garden. I will report on that next month. Between the Goat milk and meat, the Chicken eggs and meat, and the garden, We are EATING THE QUALITY OF FOOD THAT GOD INTENDED FOR US TO EAT, and our health is improving daily. The FDA should be ashamed of themselves for pushing chemically treated food and destroying the health of so many people.