I have a pile of tools in the shop that need reconditioning and or restoration. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours on an old “Handyman” yankee drill/driver. It was covered in crud and the inner compartment was filled with drywall dust caked with oil. The action was grabby and didn’t want to reverse, and the fwd/rev lever wasn’t working. The tool wast partially disassembled for evaluation a few days after I got it, but higher priorities prevailed at the time so it was bagged-n-tagged then stashed on a shelf with other tool projects.

I had finished some of the stuff on my to-do list when I came across the yankee while cleaning out “modern” tools that no longer work and are not worth repairing. I opened it up and re-evaluated the yankee’s condition. I needed a break and some bench time went a long way in relaxing and being productive at the same time.

Today has been even more productive than yesterday. I started out with a list of stuff to do and got some of it done before getting sidetracked.

There where some other projects that I had planned on doing later, but priorities changed mid stream. The shop is small, so shifting stuff around a lot is part-n-parcel to getting anything done. One thing that was getting on my nerves was having to keep moving my laptop, and the associated cabling, every time I needed to get into my service cart for tools.

Enter the shop desk, or, at least the main work surface anyway. Pretty basic, 3/4″ ply cut to a quarter circle to be held up by two beefy wall cleats. Like I said, basic.

With the desk in place and a place to keep my laptop safely out of the way, the next thing to clear up some floor space and get organized was to get the french cleat strips up on the walls and ready for tool holders.

With the french cleats up on the walls and time growing short, not to mention getting a little tired, I whipped up a holder for chisels and a holder for one of my braces.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After that, it was clean up time. Straigten up, clean up the shavings and saw dust, sweep, and gather up my stuff. The ten minute tidy complete, time for a couple of closing shots and head up stairs for dinner. A good productive day.

☮ ♥ ✈,
~FlyBoyJon