Garden beds by a furniture maker

While the shop continues to be without power my focus has remained on the gardens. I'm installing various garden beds and in particular a large one on the north side of the shop. This bed will be 5.4-6m long x 1.2m wide x 0.5m high, made from 2.4m x 1.2m x 50mm Tallowwood sleepers. A simple task to cut to size and screw together... however... I don't like simple. Rather than simple screws I've decided to dovetail the joints. In a sense treating the project as a rather large chest or blanket box. 

To begin with I've used hardwood dowel and titebond 3 to joint the end pieces.

I've recently acquired a  Makita BDF459SHE brushless drill. This is a piece of kit I can definitely recommend. Plenty of power. Not too heavy. Holds a charge well.

I used the circular saw to trim the ends using a MDF guide and a Chris Vesper Square. 

Then laid out the joints like I would any other. 

However, the dovetail saw stayed in the toolchest and the 4351FCT Jigsaw did all the hard work. 

A slight deflection in the blade resulted in some angled cuts. However, repeating the cuts on the other side and adjusting the oscillation of the saw resulted in a good result without chiselling.  

The site of the future Northside bed. I've be excavating slowly by hand to level it and remove rocks. I'll also be placing a drainage channel along the edge. 

Joining the sleepers end on end will be a little tricker... perhaps finger joints, perhaps half lap... proper scraf joints made be a little too much. 

Electrical Plan: Draft 1

Click for enlarged image.

I'm in the process of deciding on Shop Layout before locking in the electrical wiring plans. FineWoodworking make a handy shop planner which was faster than my attempts in SketchUp. 

The shop is 4.8x5.4m. Main tools are a tablesaw/ router combo, jointer/ planner combo, 14" bandsaw, 3hp dusty, drill press, large workbench, large tool chest, and the shelving. All the tools are wheel mounted.

The bandsaw and jointer/ planner combo are used for initial milling/ machining and therefore have long pieces to deal with. Hence why the bandsaw is near the door (and probably jointer should be swapped with the drill press.) 

The tablesaw/ router combo is quite large and I'd like to keep it central. 

The dusty I may move to the other side of the wall.

Further shop set up...

The old green shed is starting to look more like a real woodwork shop. The shelving is installed and going to good use. The tools are unloaded and put in their place. Various machinery settling into place. The bench positioned, wheels removed and vices installed. General tidy up and rubbish removal. (The engine crane and scrap bin in the photo is planned to go to storage.)

The shed's second section will be dedicated to storage. Ultimately I'll place a large wood rack on the wall, and move the scrap bin in here. 

Next to the shed I've dedicated an areas 1.2m x 5.6m for a raised vegetable garden bed. Because of the slope of the hill this has meant shifting a lot of soil by hand. This should be installed in the next few weeks. 

Metal Shelving Installed

The metal shelving is finally up and operational. It is made from a collection of cheap Hand Storage kits that I've acquired over time. The shelves are shallow (1') and are only rated to about 20kg but they certainly do the job. For extra stability I've screwed them to the hardwood shed frame. The kits are designed to be 6' tall but in this configuration are closer to 11'6" and stretches most of the north wall. Time to get organised. 

New Supplier: Pilliga Natural Timbers

I'm testing out a new local timber supplier - Pilliga Natural Timbers. This time I'm not looking for 'cabinet grade' timber but rather timber for the shop and yard. After debating various materials I've decided to use Tallowwood (Eucalyptus microcorys). It is naturally termite resistant and has a high durability in wet or damp conditions. Perfect for garden uses.  I've ordered 15 - 2400x250x50mm sleepers and 80 l/m of 150x30mm timber and am expecting delivery soon.

Cleaning Shop: North Side

The new shop is divided 2:1. The smaller north side section is going to be dedicated to timber storage and gardening equipment. This is how it looked a month ago. Today it looks a lot better (but I don't have a photo). The timber cleared out. The rear shelving removed. The metal shelving in the main section. Everything gone. I high pressured water cleaned the ceiling and walls and it's all starting to look a little organised.