Bench for cut off saw

This morning I worked on a bench for the cut off saw. Homer had donated some rollers which worked nicely. I can't wait to put this baby to some good use.

Shop floor

Today I worked on putting the wood floor on my shop. The flooring is 3x6" fir. I am notching it out so that I can put a 1x4 in between each plank. I think this will give me a tighter floor and I should be able to adjust it if it starts to shrink.

Time to start putting some boxes together

I brought my lumber home from Dollar Saver planer mill. It looked awesome, it was neatly stacked, bundled and tarped. I borrowed a friends (homer's) truck and a friend (Martin's) trailer to get it home. I initially thought that I would have to hand bomb it all off the truck but I sat down and did some figuring first to see if I could offload it as a package.

I think physics is really cool when put in practical applications. I used three logs to roll the wood off the trailer into my dry shop.

Simple Fir Box

This week has been spent working on packaging my boxes. I have found a supplier of cardboard and have access to a plastic strapping machine. I need to determine if this is the best way to package my boxes or if I should try plastic wrap. I don't like the idea of plastic since it is not recyclable, whereas cardboard can be recycled.

I spoke with DHL. The boxes are approximately 120 lbs and can be shipped to all major destinations in one package. The cost should be from $100-$150 depending on destination. If I send the box to a smaller city I may have to break up the box into two separate packages as the maximum weight for the satellite offices is 90 lbs.

I built a fir box from some of the wood that I received from McBride. The final product looks excellent. I will try and upload an image. The cost for this box may be a little bit higher but I believe that customers will be very satisfied with the product.

The other issue that I struggled with on Tuesday was trying to write assembly instructions for the box. I have assembled many boxes and the assembly for me is fairly straight forward. To translate this to people who may have little woodworking experience is very challenging. I am working on a colour coding system to simplify labelling the parts of the box. I will then ask a few friends to use the instructions and see if there are any issues.