Road Trip - New Tools!

(June 22, 2012)

At this point it was time for a road trip. As you can see in the above picture I had acquired several pallets and had some wood that I was piling up that needed something for me to do with it. 

Here is another picture of more 2"x4"s that I have all the nails out of. It's ready for the next step. But... what was the next step? I had gotten quite a few (in my opinion) pieces of wood but it was dirty and they were of different sizes and different types of wood. So it was time for a road trip. I called my good friend Matt who is more like family. Well... he kinda is family. He's been dating my sister for 7 years now. They live about an hour and half away. I talked to him on facebook and started talking to him about woodworking because I know he has been doing it for years and has his own wood shop. 

(June 26, 2012)

So I made the trip and checked out his wood shop. He showed me all his tools and his wood stash. Wow! He has a lot of wood! LOL. To my surprise most of it was pallet wood. I was amazed at how he took some dirty pallet wood (just like mine), threw it through the planer and a jointer and was making pieces of furniture. It was incredible. And as we toured his wood shop we found that he had a couple of tools that he was willing to part with. So that started the beginning of my true addiction. 

Here are my first two tools that I brought home from him. A Black & Decker Miter Saw and a Black & Decker Random Orbit Sander. I was SOOOO excited. I was even more excited that I got these for only $40. But at that point... it was all over. It was just the beginning. 

On the way home the first thing I did was stop at the store and pick up some sanding paper.

Side note: I have a Lowe's in my town. Usually this was where I shopped. On my way home I stopped at a Home Depot. As much complaints as I may have about Lowes... my hometown Lowe's has EXCELLENT customer service. Home Depot (at least this one)... sucked. Sorry... I just didn't like the whole experience.

So... this did not stop me... I got a package of sanding paper for my new sander. It had 60-100-150 in it. So as soon as I got home... first thing I did was grab some of my boards and start sanding. I kept to the 60 and didn't spend a whole lot of time. I just wanted to see what "could" be done. Here is a picture of my first sanding experience.

 The bottom is what the middle board started out looking like. The top board I sanded half of it just to see the difference. I was totally hooked and just kept sanding boards.

Matt also had a couple of other tools for me that I didn't bring home. He said he had a table saw, band saw and a scroll saw. He wanted to tune them up, clean them up and get them ready before I took those home. But if I was that excited about a sander.... what do you think would happen with a table saw? LOL!