This is how we left the “storage” in the shed. The £20 bargain shelving and boxes from marketplace have been more than worth their cost, quite apart from the stacking blue and red boxes, the shelves themselves were made of pine which came in very useful at the next stage.

          The next part of the plan was to build another workbench into the storage ready to house the last of the powertools from my Dad.

          Another bargain from marketplace set things in motion and I put my mind to planning the new storage.

          Instead of the workbench stretching the full six foot width of the shed, it was to stop at five feet to leave a space for storing the stepladders in the corner.

          Shelves would hold boxes on the left in the other corner. The boxes will follow later, they will be for selected long term storage and will be lidded to keep sawdust and wood shavings out when not in use.

          A tower of shallow drawers will form the support to the right end of the worktop, and the centre is reserved for vertical drawers. These will also follow later and will need a bit more thinking and planning before they materialise into their allotted space.

          The top cupboard will eventually have two sliding perspex doors on the front, partly so that I can see inside at a glance, but again, mostly to keep sawdust and wood shavings out of the items stored there. At this stage though the cupboard will just be a shelf until the ceiling has been finished to insulate the roof.

          But first, as the little black dress needs good underwear, and even the best gloss paint looks better after an undercoat, the storage end of the shed needed prepping too …

          The internal cladding was cut to size and hammered onto the supporting uprights, allowing more expanding foam to be squirted behind it.

          Hubby looked at the attention and time taken for the cladding and questioned if it was really necessary. Of course it was, otherwise I wouldnt have been doing it.

          The foam is the reason my shed will live on and on. If, after all my preparation, the wood on the outside should be overcome by the weather. There would be a thick layer of foam to stop the weather breaking through to the inside.

          In the meantime, the foam will keep me cool in summer and warm in winter so that I can play for more than just a few months each year. And unknown to them, my neighbours will appreciate my foam too as a lot of the noise when I’m playing will stay inside the shed with me.

          My prep was delayed by the limited availability of said foam, and so a lot of measuring twice and cutting once happened to put together the basic pieces to support the storage workbench.

          Then another visit to what has now been dubbed by “The little Man” as the “Tool shop”, meant I pretty much had everything I needed to take the puzzle pieces, and secure them all together to make a new picture.

          The stored “stuff”, piled high on my “Workbench”, can now move back to this side of the shed and make room for a little, more gentle, playing to make the drawer tower inserts..

          More from before : Shenanigans in “The Shed“.

          Now that my chosen electric woodworking tools have been moved out of my Dad’s shed, its become a little easier to see what is left behind. After reading the set-up instructions for my bandsaw manual, watching very helpful videos online and finally making my first cuts, I became curious about a part of the machine table which seemed to have no purpose … Back to the manual I went, and identified the straight line on the table as the mitre fence.

          With the help of Mr Google and a few online tool shops, I found a couple of pictures of the part I needed, and if I thought this piece was so good, the chances were that my Dad would already have it. On my next visit to see Mum and Little Sister, we all went on a treasure hunt in the shed.

          We found treasure, lots of it, including the part I was looking for. In true “Dad” fashion … why would you have just one or two of these, when you could have four ?

          In fairness. The bottom two in the picture were burried beneath a pile of sawdust so there is the possibility that they had been mislaid and replaced, but that would still mean two for a job which only needed one.

          Ive joined a few Facebook woodworking groups and after choosing the more helpful ones, I put the question to them ? Why four ?….

          Lots of interesting suggestions appeared, all polite as theyre getting used to me asking newby questions. But eventually one person said they’re sometimes used on belt/disc sanders.

          This was the urika moment as I reached for the manual for my Dad’s sander, and there on the front cover it showed the mitre fence in the top right hand corner of the picture sitting snuggly on the sander worktable.

          This sent me back to the bandsaw manual again and instead of trying to read instructions, I scoured the pictures for the oddly shaped mitre fence, and there it was, page 13, item no.6.

          Further investigation was needed … The top left mitre is the original one which came with the bandsaw, as shown in the manual and the top right mitre is from the belt/disc sander.
The bottom left seems to be a replacement for the original bandsaw mitre, but with the more detailed measurements as shown on the sander one, however, the metal bar which fits into the table runner is too wide, and as I guessed my Dad would have done, I tried to swap the pieces but the bolts are in the wrong place too.

          Using the process of elimination, the third mitre would have been disguarded, and another bought with the right size bar attatched. Of course, when buying the extra mitre fence, I’m guessing Dad would have seen the heavy duty version with a longer side at more than twice the price … and gone back home to fix a piece of wood onto the spare one to make his own version.

          The mitre fences weren’t the only treasures we found, there were many, but possibly the best piece is this wood scribe with my Grandad’s initials on it.

          More from before : Shenanigans in “The Shed“.