re-doing cleat shelves

I had to spend the weekend downtown for a grad program residency, but before I left I had some time Thursday morning to redo my cleat shelves in the garage. I needed a chance to clean up a little and appreciated the chance to get a project done.

My circular saw fell off it's shelf this winter, taking down two of the bottom cleats on the way down. It's my fault for not make sure it was properly balanced; I was pissed about losing my shelf space. So I came up with a plan to add some back, but also get the circular saw a little sturdier on the wall.

Instead of individual cleats I picked up a 2x4 plywood and put it on the wall with construction adhesive, drywall anchors, and a line of wood screws in a stud. I think this should hold it.

With that up I put one of the old box shelves back up after popping the cleat off. I kregged it right to the board. Same with the circular saw shelf, more glue and a couple of wood screws through the back.

Add in another shelf cleat that I can figure out later and I think I've gotten a good deal of storage back. The bigger shelf is sturdy enough to stay on the floor, the table saw goes up against the wall, and I've got a spot for just about everything.

The best part was I could watch/listen to John Oliver while I was working. This set up is working well; if the dog was interested in staying in the shop vs the yard it'd be just about perfect. 

Not really a project but still work getting done

The gate wasn't the only thing I got done before class started, and this might be my favorite. It's not as fancy as redoing a basement or building outdoor furniture, but I convinced the wife to get a small tv to put over the treadmill in our third garage, and holy hell is it great having it up.

The TCL in the basement has worked great, so when the price on this 32" model dropped I thought we had a good candidate.

And a small enough tv that I wasn't too worried about using an extending bracket on one stud.

The tv bracket hangs on this, which can be adjusted accordingly.

All I had to do was line it up.

Attach the bracket to the tv,

And viola, on the wall.

It's kind of liberating to not worry about cord management right now too. Of course, getting it straight (enough to not be distracting) took a little finagling with tightening the bracket, but I could not be happier to have this up in the garage. I'll clean it up at some point but by getting home early on a day where no one else was home, even the dog, I was able to get this on and run before anyone else was even home. 

Just in time for GoT to come back too, no, that timing wasn't suspicious at all.

Get some work done!

I really enjoyed my two week break between classes this time around. Usually I'm itching to get back to it, but I managed to get some relaxation in, including some projects around the house.

One thing I got done was adding a gate under our deck. Of course this is an area the dog was instantly curious about, and I needed to close it off. While there was still snow out I just put the old screen door in front of the gap, but now that it's a little nicer I thought I'd close it off in a more presentable fashion.

So I brought home a lattice and some pressure treated 2x4s and got to work. That lattice was a pain in the ass. Of course HD wouldn't cut it, and I understand why, but that meant bringing the whole 4x8' thing home on the roof. Dammit.

Thankfully I could fit a gate in there with one side being 48", so I only had to make one cut on the lattice. For the 2x4's, I moved the blade down on the table saw to do some pass over cuts and carved out a nice groove to drop the lattice in once I had a frame, which I mitered together with glue and kreg screws.

This was solid, but I had some small hinges I hoped would do the job. They seemed to work. And yes, this was when the dog decided to freak out about someone walking by, when I was trapped under the deck. I got out eventually.

I had some bigger screws to put the hinge on the deck post at least.

The boy was also out, and he wanted to help so I let him finish putting a hook & loop on the gate and wall to keep it closed.

Good to have those little hands around. 

Voila, one finished project. Man I needed that, b/c classes have started back up and I'm back to having no free time for the foreseeable future.