Shopsmith Forums

I am feeling pretty good most days now and the weather is going to turn colder about Monday so I hope to dive into getting back to working on the woodshop next week. It is going to be in the 40's today, Saturday and Sunday so I will be doing some extra outside stuff first but the joy of the basement shop is that it can be -20 and I can still work up a sweat working there.
I have been puttering around slowly trying to put away a few tools or supplies when I would go down to feed the wood furnace but the time has come to accomplish more. Diana's siblings and inlaws will be here for a yearly gathering on the 11th and such gatherings always include a visit to the woodshop of who ever is hosting that day.
My biggest problem with organizing my current shop is that for all practical purposes this shop has never really existed. Sure I sat my machines around and tried to "stack neatly" many of my tools and supplies, but it is still at the stage where if I pick something up to put it away it generally just doesn't really have a home yet... I have made some progress but not much in the last year.
One large problem right now is that I gave Diana a 3' deep strip across the full 24' of the south wall for our Christmas decorations. They will just barely fit there even with very careful packing of large totes and stacking smaller boxes all of the way up between the joist above. She only got out about a third of them this year due to my situation and that whole wall is now a mess and flowing out into that end of the woodshop. That stuff doesn't get put away until after that dinner on the 11th... Just something I will have to work around for now. The shop room is 24' x 40' so I can still work on most of it OK. I might get her to re-stack the the boxes some to free up some floor space.
My new outside door (to the open pit outside) is still a rough opening with a temporary panel over it. My big hope is that I can get that opening framed in during this 3 days of temperatures in the 40's and make a door for it so I don't have to use a drill/driver to open it to move something. I have an ancient old junk freezer (very heavy) sitting inside in front of that door right now waiting to "go away" and it is really in my way. Once I get the door open I can hook to the freezer with my loader tractor and get rid of it. The door will be normal height but 5' wide.
The big culprit is just "stuff"... I am putting in a new main breaker box for the house (it has a main and an auxiliary, both fed by a huge breaker box on the meter pole) where it splits off feeds to the house and to the barns etc. It also has a feed from there to the water pump so we can shut all power to the house and still have water to fight a fire if need be. All of that electrical "stuff" is in the woodshop. I made a folding leg 2 height work table a year or two ago. I have not seen the top of that table for at least a year... I need to empty it and fold the legs and put it away.
I'm still looking for spaces to store lumber. The bulk of it is going to have to be stored out in another building. Right now it is scattered around in batches in about 5 buildings and not doing me a lot of good.
Oh, to be organized... It may just be a pipe-dream but I still have to try.


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Happy to read you are feeling better these days! Keep on keepin' on:) .

After reading your title to this thread, I finally understand what's been going on in my 16' x 20' shop. Organization and Shop are two words (and things) that just don't fit together. A-men,


Before Christmas, I was intent on getting a handle on organizing my shop. After clearing off the main bench, so I could see the surface, I started on "re-organization" of the 100 or so little plastic drawers containing numerous types of hardware/fasteners that usually require a trip to the hardware store to find.

It's a good thing to have all that hardware contained so it isn't sitting round in bottles and cans, but with that many drawers, the stuff needs to be sorted and labeled. So - on with the job.

While moving one of the drawer cases (weighing in at enough to make me grunt) I must have lost my presence of mind and while holding the case, stepped backward. Whoops! forgot the small step stool was in back of me.

After laying on the floor for a few moments, with the case on my chest, I realized I had fallen backward and knocked over the Shopsmith stacked tool cases. Not only that, but my gut hurt. Wow! broke a rib lower back side.

Well - after a few pain pills and two weeks later, and Christmas - I can now get back in the shop to continue the impossible - organizing?

I have a few picture frames to make. Maybe I'll get to that rather than the "O" thing.

charlese wrote: While moving one of the drawer cases (weighing in at enough to make me grunt) I must have lost my presence of mind and while holding the case, stepped backward. Whoops! forgot the small step stool was in back of me.

After laying on the floor for a few moments, with the case on my chest, I realized I had fallen backward and knocked over the Shopsmith stacked tool cases. Not only that, but my gut hurt. Wow! broke a rib lower back side.

Dang Charles, makes me want to go down to the shop and chop up my step stool...

"lost presence of mind"... Is that anything like a "DUH!" moment?


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Farmer, after following your previous posts documenting your shop move I pictured you as healthy and strong as an ox. Did your issues come as a complete shock to you or were there warning signs that you might be willing to share with us so we can be on the lookout for ourselves. Glad you're back in the shop, even if somewhat limited.
Fred

fredsheldon wrote:Farmer, after following your previous posts documenting your shop move I pictured you as healthy and strong as an ox. Did your issues come as a complete shock to you or were there warning signs that you might be willing to share with us so we can be on the lookout for ourselves. Glad you're back in the shop, even if somewhat limited.
Fred

I had a big long answer typed out and just as I was finishing up it just blinked and went away... Oh, well...
I have always been a bit of an ox and have generally been in good health except for almost kicking off at age 8.
Over the last year I had been noticing that many times when out walking horse fences I would walk maybe a half mile or less and have to stop and rest a while. After resting I could usually continue walking OK even if it was a couple of more miles. This summer I had a few “events” where I came close to passing out and was extremely out of breath. The worst was this September at my wife's 50 year class reunion. They had it at a kind of swanky (read as expen$ive) resort at French Lick Indiana. One night we were walking from the hotel to the casino which was a whole 600' away across a small valley about 10 deep. When I got to the casino I ended up hanging over a low wall for a while to keep from going down.
When we got home we made an immediate appointment with our local doctor. When she asked what I was there for I told her that I wanted somebody to hold my hand and tell me that I would still be alive in November...
She sent me for a stress-echo test and it kicked out an anomaly of some kind. Then she referred me to a cardiac specialist in Indy for a heart-cath procedure which we (and they) felt would likely involve a couple of stents. When I woke up they said that stenting wouldn't work and it would require a full bypass. I asked for about 10 days to take care of “things” (updated wills and some horse things mostly).
I don't recall how much I have posted here before but I was very lucky. I walked into the hospital in otherwise good health. I was not a trauma case. They commented that I was one of the healthiest people that they had done a full quadruple bypass on. They said that other than the blockage my veins and arteries were quite healthy and that my carotids were open and doing well. They seemed almost excited that I was a non-smoker and non-drinker. Apparently a high percentage of their patients have a lot of smoking damage.
Give up smoking, drinking and big buffets and you might avoid this...
It is something that you want to avoid. It is survivable but it hangs way out there on the end of the miserable event scale... Looking back at it and knowing that I shouldn't have to do it again it seems less bad but I would still do a lot to avoid ever going through it again. It is more common than I ever knew, my surgeon does them daily and he isn't the only one in that hospital doing them. They told me that the survival rate for somebody in my level of health was 97%. I don't usually ever win anything but I sure didn't want to win a membership in that 3% club...
They now do some bypass operations through “keyhole” incisions but of course I couldn't be that lucky. I got the full chop their way in, shut down my heart and do a re-plumb then hope I would fire back up thingy. It took around 5 hours.
When I woke up in intensive care I was the most excited that I had woke up... Tubes and wires everywhere and a big external pacemaker hanging on me to keep me pumping. I didn't have any idea that that many shots even existed. Every couple of hours you get woke up for 4 to 6 more shots, most in the belly. Many of mine were insulin. My glucose levels went nuts after the surgery and are just now getting to normal.
Currently I only have a weight restriction (now 20 to 25 pounds) and still take about a dozen pills a day. In another 3 weeks I should be able to do about anything. That is when my sternum knitting is to reach 100%. I try to get out daily and today I worked outside most of the day. When I don't get out much I walk the trudge-mill a while and I climb the stairs a half dozen times a day. As I said, I feel pretty good now...


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So glad that you are still with us kicking and trying to work after such an operation. You are a survivor.
I am glad that I gave up smoking 30 years ago. I do not drink but I am a bit on the heavy side, so I have to work out some of that.
Sitting in front of my computer, is not physical exercise, I have been told.
Anyway good to have you with us and wish you a continued good health for many many years.
Thanks for writing about your experiences and keep on doing so.
Happy New Year Francis !
Happy New Year Forum members !
Happy New Year Shopsmith company and staff !

You guys are looking at this all wrong. organizing your shop is not a project it's an excuse!

"Sorry honey i'd love to go shopping for clothes with you and your mom but I'm organizing the shop."

"I've got to get that extra 520 dear, it will help me with organizing the shop."

it's the project that keeps on giving!

robinson46176 wrote:Dang Charles, makes me want to go down to the shop and chop up my step stool...

"lost presence of mind"... Is that anything like a "DUH!" moment?
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Yea! Kinda like that:( Dang! If the shop had just been organized, that step stool wouldn't have been there;)

Oh well, It only hurts when I laugh (Seriously) and when getting in or out of bed. Kinda like you hurt the last few weeks, but not quite as bad. Adds to my sympathy.

reddog5362 wrote:You guys are looking at this all wrong. organizing your shop is not a project it's an excuse!

"Sorry honey i'd love to go shopping for clothes with you and your mom but I'm organizing the shop."

"I've got to get that extra 520 dear, it will help me with organizing the shop."

it's the project that keeps on giving!

Yes, that's sure part of it!:) Gotta be careful not to over do it though.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Farmer. Glad everything worked out good for you. I try to eat right and ride my bike 7 miles a day but I could lose 30 pounds or so. I have 3 co-workers who have passed away in the last 2 years, and 2 more just found out they have cancer. Gives one a different perspective on life. Have a Happy New Year.

Fred