June 14, 2004

Cleaning Up

Now that I've recovered from last week, I've been in the shop, trying to get it back in to some kind of acceptable shape. Personally, I hate cleaning... My apartment is usually a disaster... My desk is chaotic (though ?I know where everything is)... My shop however is usually pretty neat... That is for three main reasons... 1) my partner is a neat freak (he even vacuums the walls in here occasionally) 2) I have a small amount of space, so it needs to be neat to be able to do some of the projects we do (mostly fabric coverings requires the cleanliness) 3) I hate, Hate, HATE disorder in my tools and hardware area... (I'll slog through 3 inches of sawdust on the shop floor, but there better not be a single bolt out of place in the bins)
So, with my partner still down with medical issues, that leaves me to deal with the cleaning... I did bring in a couple guys to help me sort through the vast majority of the pile last week, but the small stuff, and actual cleaning is my issue to deal with... So, in I came today, made a nice fresh pot of coffee, dealt with a little paperwork, and then started in on the cleaning... I managed to get everything away, and then comes the sweeping... You'd think that a 30 x 60 space would be a breeze to sweep... You'd be wrong... Apart from the tables and tools that need to be moved (I left the table saw alone this time, I'm not that motivated), you end up stirring up all the dust on the floor you're trying to sweep up... So it just settles back down after you've passed by... This is where something called sweeping compound comes in... Sweeping compound is this great stuff that comes in drums... You scatter it out on the floor (its sorta like thick sand) and it holds down the dust while you sweep... Neat trick... Problem is, I'm too cheap to buy it... So what I've found is that you can get the same result by taking coarse sawdust, and soaking it with water... Talk about your low tech solution to the problem... Part of the problem becomes the solution... At any rate, the shop now stands in readiness for the next project... That one goes in next week, and I have no more information on it than simply the title of the show... I can't wait...

Posted by Backstage at June 14, 2004 02:42 PM
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