With the Craft Show season over, and heading into the winter, its time to clean up and reorganize the shop to get it ready for winter projects. Provided your shop has heat, the winter is an excellent time to build items and prepare for the new year.
Typically, after I get done with a major project (piece of furniture, craft show season, etc.) I follow the following steps:
Initial Cleanup
- Start with a thorough Thinning
- Empty waste cans & Dust Collector
- Throwaway wood <12” long
- Straighten up woodpile
- Shop vac (with bag) to Vaccum/clean up
- Tools: Don’t use ‘em, then lose ‘em
- Collect tools I’m not using and sell/gift them
- Clean Tablesaw blades
- Clean/spray cast iron surfaces of tools (tablesaw, bandsaw, etc.) – Topcoat or Wax
- Clean putty knives with random orbit sander
- Clean glue off of clamps with putty knife, then wax
- Touch up/Sharpen chisels & plane irons on 8000 grit water stone
- Find a new place for home-repair items, Project parts, etc
- Tubs for electrical, drywall, painting, jig parts
- Clean out your finishes
- Cull out finishes & dispose of
- Label & date finishes
For the winter, I’ve got the following priorities
- Build wedding presents for three nieces
- Build out items that were depleted during the craft show season, so my inventory is ready both online and for 2022
- Develop 2-3 new items for craft shows/online
- Complete some workshop items (Joinery Bench, support for Bandsaw) to make the workload go better
Finally, we are looking to remodel our kitchen this year, and since we haven’t been able to find any cabinets we like, it appears I’m going to be building kitchen cabinets this spring/summer.
Ought to be fun!