Sanding Storage - A Great Little Weekend Project

 Well my take on making a storage place for my sandpaper turned out to be one of those perfect weekend projects. Two days in the shop and done, not even two full days more like a day and a half. but it was fun to get something like this that came together quickly and is going to be so helpful and useful, hopefully for a long time. This is the finish up of the project so if by chance you didn't catch the first part of this build you can catch it HERE.

I had the carcass and the permanent dividers in place to help organize the belts and flat sheets of sandpaper, I had left an open space towards the center to hold the papers for my random orbit sander and my mouse / detail sander. I wanted to make a pair of pull out organizers for these two types of paper. So I started the day by rechecking the measurements for the center area. I made a couple notes and a couple of quick sketches, and set to work cutting down the basic pieces of plywood at the table saw.

I decided on a small box with three sections to separate the course, medium and fine grits. I went to decide on a cut out to make it easier to grab the paper. You can see how I started with the first line and decided to make the recess deeper.

I cut the sections out with a coping saw then transferred the cut over to the pieces that were to be the dividers on the inside.

I decide that I wanted one of the dividers to stand above the others and a type of handle. AT first I was just going to round over the top of this piece with a semi circular cut, instead I threw considerable caution to the wind and decided to cut the protrusion as the mirror of the recess. I know . . . earth shattering design happening here every minute at the Oldwolf Workshop.

 The result makes me think a little of the minarets on the Taj Mahal, or as close to that majestic grandeur as you can get in plywood. . . I know I make light but the end result seemed to work out just fine, and why not have a little whimsical fun on a piece like this. In fact I challenge anyone out there who reads this to build their own sandpaper storage system and utilize elements from some great piece of architecture. What would you choose? The Pyramids of Giza, or ohhhh the Sphinx, maybe Big Ben in London, or the Eiffel Tower? Do it, make me aware of it and send me some pics and I will only be happy to post about it here. Now the real test... are any of you brave enough to take up the challenge?

Here are the lift out boxes finished up and ready to go.

 See how nice they fit into the carcass. I really am gonna love the change in organization I'm gonna get out of this piece.

 Next I glued and nailed on the narrow top section and took a few measurements for the sloping lid.

 I cut the lid to width side to side, but left the front to back length a little long so I could best decide what kind of overhang I wanted. I then planed the edge of the lid that would meet with the narrow top board at an angle so the edges would match up nicely when everything was closed up.

 I found a couple of small strap hinges in my "box o' hardware" and secured them in place with some 1/2" brass screws that have also been hanging around a while and other than maybe some sanding to pull off the pencil marks, I think we have a finished product.

 It was such a good feeling to pull of this quick little project after not being able to make it to the shop for a while. Finishing something always makes me happy, no matter the size of the project, it feels good and helps prime the engines for other bigger things.

 So, with this one in the bag, I'm looking forward to more projects and work, but I'l fill you in about that later.

Cheers,

Oldwolf