I've Been Ignoring You Again

It gets this way around big craft shows (Renegade Fair is coming!). The house is in complete disarray. There are towels strewn in the hallway (your brown owl is coming soon, my etsy orderer), the front room is crowded with wifey's ties and the kitchen... well, actually the kitchen is clean. Go us! We're actually constructing a complete new booth this time around and it's given me a chance to use my (finally) installed vise on my new workbench! Check it.

First, I had to build up the thickness of enough of the table to support the screws on the underside of the vise. If I had it to do over again, I would have extended this longer than I did. It's a little saggy in the middle. 

I glued it once.

Then added another layer. 

I attached the vise to the underside of the table and installed the legs.

Then I screwed a section of 2x4 into the wall to anchor the table to, for added stability.

Finally, it was standing. I put a coat of oil then wax on it. That's supposed to be good or something. I'm making stuff. I'll show it to you soon.

Not So Fast

I thought it would be so easy to install the vise I bought but it turns out I have to build a whole new workbench. There's a lesson in there somewhere about needing a workbench with a vise to build a workbench but I'll be damned if I know what it is. All I know is, this is going to take a while. 

 Measuring. That's a good first step.

Gouging a large chunk of wood from the current work table. Why not?

 Doing the whole thing with my bare hands. Fun!

 Close to accepting that it's just not going to work.

Vise

Last week, my wife texted me and said, "Your vice is here." Since I am a complete and total ass, I texted back, "My vice is at home in the liquor cabinet. What you have there is a vise," and so it is! I've really wanted one for a long time so that I can get to carving my ridiculous wooden creations at home. Now it's here. And it's so heavy. And I have only vague ideas on how to install it. Tonight, I'm going to take it out of the box and get to measuring. This is an exciting step for The Heated Design Studio.