A busy weekend woodworking!

May 16, 2010

With a motorcycle, an interest in photography and a job working with computers I don’t often have a chance or a reason to put my basic carpentry skills to work. Due to the Warspite project, however, this weekend has been spent doing exactly that!

Because I’m already relatively short of time day by day I needed a permanent workspace for the Warspite project (and possibly other model building projects in future!) to save having to spend 20 minutes each time getting everything set up and putting everything away again afterwards. This workspace was going to be the kitchen counter. However, I didn’t want to be cutting into the kitchen work surface or airbrushing the kitchen wall. I also didn’t want to be inhaling enamel paint fumes and I didn’t want our dinner trays, recyclable items or anything else falling on the half-built model and damaging it. I also didn’t want it all getting dusty!

So, this weekend, I’ve built this:

This started life as a 4ft x 4ft x 7ft wooden crate designed for transporting very heavy items safely across the world. This weekend I have dismantled it, sawn it into pieces, attached the pieces together in various ways and put a coat of paint or two on it in order to turn it into what you see above – a 2.5ft x 2.5ft x 3.5ft modelling workspace. These photos show it after its first coat of paint. Coat 2 is drying as I write this post.

I still need to put a handle or two on the front lower edge, but other than that, it’s pretty much finished. The front and top are hinged and lift up to reveal what is inside.

There are a couple of shelves on the left hand side and a 230V extraction fan on the right. The idea is that the fan will have a tumble drier hose attached to it which will be shoved out the door or window to keep the paint fumes away. When the painting is finished, I can then close the lid on the box (which is far from airtight) and let the extraction fan keep sucking the fumes out of the box and drying the paint at the same time!

Depending on how the lighting proves to be in my kitchen, I might put some lights in the box too. I haven’t decided about that yet.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Now I just need the missing Airfix parts, the photo etch kit, the paint, an airbrush and compressor, a cutting mat, a knife, some paint brushes, some sandpaper, some filler and some glue! Maybe a few other bits too. Who knows!

UPDATE (evening of 16 May 2010): The box now has its second coat of paint and is installed onto the kitchen counter!