Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Spring must have sprung

I know this because I was moved to tidy the workshop. I mean really tidy it, so you can see the floor and everything. It was so clear I was finally able to put down the anti-fatigue matting I got cheaply back in January. The old man swiped the other pack for the garage. Anyway, it doesn't link up with Axminster's old style matting that I already have, but I think doubled-up in front of the bench might prove most beneficial anyway.


Colourful, ain't it? If it gets too much I can always flip it over to the black side. One unexpected benefit is it comes provided with straight bits to fill in the jigsaw-ish edges. As there are more than needed for the mats in this configuration I've managed to get them to fit "well enough" at strategic points round the old black matting. Viz: below the over-hanging Woodrat and mitre saw handle. A visual guide to know when not to stand up in a hurry and thus avoid cracking your head. Clever, no?

But better, and more time-consuming than that - I've done my bi-annual chuckout of off-cuts. The three plastic boxes under the bench were full to over-flowing, but no longer. However the kindling pile should be proportionately larger now.

It pains me to do it, mind you. If I could find a way of stowing it so I could find the bit I wanted when I needed it, I'd probably have kept the lot.

Now to mess it all up again with shavings and sawdust...

8 comments:

  1. Boy-Spring truly must be in the air! ;)
    Those certainly are some, eh, "colourful" mats!
    Philly

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  2. Right hand – red.

    Chris

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  3. Chris, that's very cryptic - care to elaborate?

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  4. That most favourite of American pastimes: Twister
    (well that's what I was thinking of anyway)

    Jasper

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  5. Oh, Twister. That's the one with the tornadoes, right...? ;~)

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  6. Well, one good thing about the colored mats is that until they get really dirty, you should be able to find the odd dropped widget.

    It use to be hard for me to rid the shop of off-cuts. Until I moved out of a large shop into a small one. For a while, I made pen blanks from much of the exotics. I stopped after about 5000 of them.

    So the question is, are all woodworkers packrats in so far as scrap wood? ...

    Take care, Mike

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  7. Sorry Alf, do you not have Twister in the UK? Your floor mat looks like the huge game mat -- except it's squares instead of circles.


    Chris

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  8. Chris, yep, I believe Twister is to be found on these shores. It's my fault; we've never really done "games" in our family. Possibly we're too competitive for it to be wise...

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