Preparing For The Big Move And Finding Inspiration On The Road

This week I have been making numerous trips to my new home that I will be moving into in a couple of days.  The number of trips so far has now reached number nine.  NINE!  This seems a bit much but will in the long run be a blessing on moving day.  Nearly everything that can be boxed and moved has already been done.  So all the big pieces of furniture, tools, scrap wood, half finished projects and remaining odds and ends will be what is left to move this coming Saturday.  This is the first time I have moved in almost 33 years so to go to a new house is a big adjustment for me.  Not including all the work that this has been to get ready for the move. 

  The plus side to all of this is a better home, a new chapter for my life, a whole new town and the Tinker's Workshop will be bigger and better once it is set up.  The new Tinker's Workshop will be a vast improvement over the original shop so I am looking forward to exciting projects that have been on the drawing table for a VERY long time just waiting for the right time to start building them. All of this is both exciting and scary at the same time.  It will all work out I have no doubt and so I continue to push forward on the prep for the move and the day when I can get back to building in my new and improved workshop. Just the setting up of the new Tinker's Workshop will be good for at least a few good posts on how to set up a sweet workshop. It will be fun for me as well as informative and entertaining for you.  So check back and I'll keep you up to date on my progress.

   Also with all my traveling this week from the soon to be old house to the new one I came across this billboard on my route that I just had to post a photo of for everyone to see, chuckle at, and possibly inspire you to follow your dream.   This is what I saw.  Live your dreams and you won't go wrong.  Keep tinkering!

Entertaining Destruction For My Thanksgiving

  As most of you have already seen on my blog I posted the loss of my garage space that was next to my house almost two months ago now.  A major fire had taken place in my garages that I had been renting and were destroyed along with some great projects, my motorcycle and Mini Cooper.  This as you can imagine has turned my world upside down to say the least.  
  Today was a good day at the Tinker's Workshop as the repair work was completed on my damaged home and the garages were torn down to top off the day.  I am here to say that I am glad the garages are finally being knocked down and removed as I have had to look at the devastation for these past two months every day I walk outside.  Not a nice thing to see or be reminded of over this time.  So without further rambling here are some photos I took today to show you how the mess is being cleaned up. The guy with the Bob-Cat was a real artist.  He could make that thing get up and dance. 

Here is a shot of what I have had to look at for the past couple of months.  Depressing to say the least.

The guy in the orange sweatshirt is the owner of this pile of rubble.  I would not want to trade places with him for anything.

Another shot of my garages or should I say the makings of another pile of rubble.

TIMBER!

Going,

going,

going,

going,

gone.

Strange to see the garages gone after looking at them for almost 33 years.  End of an era and lots of projects built in them over that time.  The really good thing now with the building knocked down is that it makes my home look that much better and I can even see down the street now from my kitchen window!  Improves the look of the entire neighborhood too. So there is a plus side to it after all.  With my moving to my new house in the coming weeks hopefully I can get this place sold in short order and move another step forward in my life.

  Yes this will be a Happy Thanksgiving for me here at the Tinkers Workshop and with this building (now rubble) being cleared away it's a very good start to the holiday weekend.  I hope you have a good turkey day as well!

The Gremlins Have Hidden A Lot Of Stuff Over The Years!

  A lot of things have been happening over the past few days here at the Tinker's Workshop.  In an earlier post I let you know that I will be moving very soon to a new location in Wisconsin due to the loss of my garages at my current home.  Through all of this a lot of people behind the scenes have been busy pushing through all of the paperwork that goes on with buying a new home and while this has been happening I have been packing everything that I can and started dismantling the workshop. 

   Just the workshop alone has been a huge undertaking as I have had to do this all by myself.  A lot of work had to be done just in this portion of the house to get ready for the upcoming move.  I thought it interesting to see the workshop once again as I had found it almost 33 years ago.  Needless to say I stuffed a lot of tools into a very small space to make the workshop actually usable.  It has been surprising to a lot of people over the years as to how I managed to create what I did in such a small shop. To compare the way it looks now with everything dismantled and scattered about to how it looked beforehand take a look at the photos I took today and the Tinker's Workshop title photo when it was all together.  Quite a difference. 

A portion of my living room is slowly being swallowed up by over 30 packing boxes already filled with almost all the small items that come with moving my home and the workshop hand tools, miscellanous parts, hardware and power cords.  I'm just happy that I am not also moving belongings of four or five more people.

The workshop is slowly being dismantled and the space cleared of years of hidden dust, dirt, and lost screws and nuts.  The gremlins manage to hide a lot of missing screws and nuts over 33 years.

  This pile of parts was my CNC machine.  I was able to take it apart in sections and only had to disconnect one stepper motor cable for the move.  This will make things easier to move and reassembly of the machine an easy task.  I already have plans to update the CNC machine to improve the setup on the  cutting bed to a full T-slot table.  Possible making this out of aluminum.  I also have some ideas on how to level the cutting table easier and quicker than the original desing. I'll this update to the machine once I get this big move completed and the shop set up once again. 

This photo shows the work table and the work bench taken apart ready for moving day.  Every little thing that I can do now will save valuable time when moving day gets here and I can head to the new house and workshop space.  The current floor space of the workshop had one area that is 12' x 12' and another area 6' x 6'.  A grand total of 180 square feet of usable floor space.  Very small to say the least. The new workshop will have a floor space that is 13'6" x 20' plus a storage area that is 12'9" x 24'4".  This comes to 580.25 square feet of usable floor space.  Well over three times the work and storage space of the current shop.   I love it!

  I received word today that my loan for the new house and ultimately the new home of the Tinker's workshop has been approved!  Another call came today from my realtor to see if I could show my current home to a prospective buyer.  So as I said earlier a lot of things are happening here at the Tinker's Workshop.   Can't wait for it to all come together.  Check back again for more updates as I post them. 

Good News For The Tinker's Workshop

  If you have been following my blog at least over the past couple of months you know what I have been going through here trying to put the pieces together after the major fire destroyed my garages and a lot of great projects.  This is now in the past and good things have been happening rather quickly because of the what has happened.
  I now have my house up for sale and already have found the new house and future location of the improved Tinker's Workshop.  The Tinker's Workshop will be online as long as I have a following that wants to see what I am up to with the projects that I work on.  So this move will be huge for the me to start over after the fire and a plus for the blog site.  Lots of great projects have been on hold for years simply because I did not have the room in the workshop to start construction or have the place to store what I want to build.  So with all of this in mind here is the good news about the new place for the shop and my home.
  The new workshop that I am planning will be three times larger than the one that I currently have in my house now.  (As my workshop in my basement now is only about 12 feet square.  VERY small.) That is plus number one.  Secondly in the new location for the first time in my life I will have my own 24 x 24 foot two car garage.  This opens up all kinds of possibilities for future projects that as I've said have been on hold for years.  Like building a full sized electric three wheeled car that I built a model of a couple of months ago on my Makerbot 3D printer. (See earlier posts of this project). Or building a custom built teardrop trailer which would look excellent at any camp site. (See Blender 3D Creations link on this blog).  Or a custom built composite fiberglass micro catamaran sailboat. I also have several projects that will be perfect for my new 1/4 acre back yard.  My current back yard is only 20 feet square so 1/4 acre  will be like living on an estate!  It will be great to be able to build another big project at the new location and not bump into something every step of the way.
  So out of all the hassles with the insurance company and losses that I have had to endure during the past couple of months there will be some really good stuff that will come out of the mess.  At this point the smile has returned once again to my face and the prospect of getting a chance to work on projects that yesterday I thought were only long lost dreams give me great hope for the future of the Tinker's Workshop and my sanity.  Yes I do believe someone is watching over me and also is smiling! As always I will never stop tinkering and so should you.  Stay tuned for more updates on the move and new projects that will be in the works.