009 - The Box Of Many Things

It has been a week since we started painting streams and fixing things up around the work room, and what a week it has been for streaming. Twitch has been fucking up all week, throttling me between noon and 4 pm, so now my streams will have to wait until the late afternoon before I can do anything reliably. So for now, we sit and wait. 

We also sit and wait for today's delivery, since we mounted the stud boards and rails to the underside of the bench rather expertly in under an hour. Measured for holes, drilled them, checked spacing with bolts, re-drilled a couple holes because oops (next time paper template), placed rails and then final bolts in place - washer on top, locking ring on bottom. Today's delivery is a box of 1000 staples I needed because my original box vanished somehow, plus some 1/8" x 12" x 18" basswood panels to be the shelving on the rails (plus screws for the mounting). 

The plan is easy enough - hot glue the panels as double stacks to make them 1/4" and staple perimeter to reinforce, then drill holes at each end to mount, and mount with the new screws. Flat, sturdy shelf at 36" for holding all my supplies and tools at the moment, plus a place to keep the desktop PC to maximize work surface on top. The spacing of the rails is 16" 

Speaking of which, I ordered myself a new gaming desktop PC, which arrives Wednesday, and should last me the next several years (much the same way this one did). The workshop PC will remain a workshop and utility PC, and the new PC shall be solely for games. Both will stream, but reducing the strain where possible is best. 

While we wait for supplies to show up, we spent some time planning out the contents of the emergency box, shown below. I took one side panel and the bottom panel and comped them into shape, then started adding items to fill the space without going over the edges. Mostly. The emergency food on the right (6 bricks) and the three 1-liter collapsible bottles (with 26 treatment tabs, for 26 liters of water total) are not easy to place, but their volumes will fit inside the footprint of the box. 

As for the items inside the footprint, we have a flat scuba knife in front. To the right, there are three aluminum mint tins (taped shut for waterproofing) that contain matches, a sewing kit, and fuel sticks (cardboard and wax). On top of that we have a cheap multi-tool. Behind that, the red first aid kit, and on top of that a collapsible hand saw (which is really good and I will be ordering a second one for the shop). The yellow pouch in the back contains the emergency tent and some paracord, and the two army green pouches have the emergency sleeping bags. I have included four red glowsticks as well, and a rechargeable headlamp, which is resting on top of the four sealed emergency mylar blankets. There is still plenty of stash room for paracord, lighters, maybe tossing in a USB charger and power bank. 

Once I have everything lightly assembled on the box, I can start finalizing the contents, but right now I feel good about this setup. We have food, water, shelter, first aid, illumination, and utility all covered, plus the knife is basic self defense I can strap to my belt or ankle. Will probably add a fourth bottle and more water tabs as well, for cooking purposes. Other items like a poncho or collapsible grill would likely be throw into a bag if needed before bugging out. 

Actually seeing what will be included in the box recharges the motivation to keep working at it, despite the delays on materials and setbacks to the process. I will have everything I need for Friday's crafting stream, which means I will be able to work on the shelves all week prior to that. Staying winning. 

008 - The First Stream

Today is the first stream from the new work table, in celebration of my fifth year streaming on Twitch. It was a lot of work getting everything ready, fresh problems popping up every time a new problem is solved. The chisels arrived, and they were not for wood, so I needed to emergency order a set of wood chisels. They arrived and I learned about chiseling, so that's a new skill set I will be working on as well since I don't have room for a router just yet. 

Chiseling chiseled, bracketing bracketed, monitor setup, but then the spare desktop I was going to use as a streaming burner didn't have the proper driver version for OBS Studio. In fact, the GPU itself was the issue, and unable to be upgraded since it was integrated into the board. So now we have the gaming stream computer in the work area, and that will be what we use for the time being - and we will also be gaming from here as well. 

Which means we will need to speed up the upgrades to the bench while we are working on other projects, which begins Friday. I am not trying to move the desktop from room to room for eternity, so the first upgrade to the bench will be the storage rack. The holes in the supports on the bench will have 1.5" x 3.5" stud boards bolted on, then aluminum T-rails affixed on top of those - the rails have M5 holes 2" from the ends and then every 4" between. The vision is to affix the rails on top of the studs, then affix hardwood panels on top of the rails as a shelf for tool bags, project boxes and storing the desktop PC tower (right now it's on the work table). The shelf underneath will need 90mm M5's (ordered) for the studs, then other M5's for the panels (to be ordered later), but the panels themselves will be ordered once that step is complete, since I can't know what I am working with until the rails are in place. 

There's a short list of projects I will be drafting up as well:

• A miniature painting supply case, holding my paint rack, brush case, and palette. It needs to be lightweight with a locking front door, and I am thinking magnets instead of a clumsy latch, simple knob on front, handle on top. Store that under the bench when the shelf is complete. 
• Shoe rack, as a simple "classic" project. Bottom for storing boots, angled shelf for ankle height shoes and slippers. Chose this idea for both function and more intermediate design. 
• Standing pegboard tool rack. Locking wheels on the bottom so I can move it around the work room. Spacing between the vertical supports to drop the panels down. Wide base to accommodate hanging tools on the peg board, as well as a small platform in front for heavier tools. 
• Bench extender rack. Maybe an additional two feet past the length of the bench, same height of the work surface, again with locking wheels. The extra space would be ideal for laying out larger lumber or cloth. Could also attach a vise to the top, and make straps with clips to secure the extender. 

It's all little projects to start with. Get used to the tools as I go. Learn how, pun intended, wood works. Amass a collection of screws and nails. 

In the meanwhile, here's the work table, assembled and ready to go.