Practice being thoughtless

[Bombarde16]

To set the scene

• 18 months after our move, my clamps are still homeless.
  
• I have a stack of mahogany plywood salvaged from some old wine racks, a little glue and some drywall screws.
  
• The kid and wife have gone up to bed, the house is quiet and I can't sleep.
  

And this is what results:

OK, so it's some clamp racks holding (compared to other folks here) a paltry handful of unremarkable clamps. Nothing special.

What struck me as worthy of the forum's attention was that this was a completely unpremeditated (i.e. thoughtless) build and how refreshing that was. Totally spontaneous: Grab some scraps and get to work. I did all measurements straight onto the workpieces (NO MATH!) and by referencing off the clamps themselves and the wall where these things would hang. Nothing but a few handsaws, a square and a driver drill. One of the couplers from my shop vac had a traceable OD that was close enough to the diameter of the pipes. No noise but some late night talk radio and only a teeny pile of dust to sweep away. My clamps finally have a home and now I can go to sleep.

I could have obsessed over this in SketchUp and it'd probably have been a better rack. Maybe I could have gotten the clamps into an even tighter space. Maybe it could have had some cool swing-out feature. Certainly would have been prettier. But then my evening would have been spent at a computer and my clamps would still be homeless. Tonight, it was nice to remember what it's like to build something without thinking too much.

One sees in the picture a few handplanes that are homeless. Perhaps I need to make some more time to be thoughtless.

[tdale51@yahoo.com]

I know what you mean when you say spontinaity is so refreshing. The other week I cobbled together a quick ceiling joist hanging "shorts" rack. No formal plans, no difficult joinery just pure unadulterated(sp?) sawdust making. Almost theraputic isn't it? The best part is...now your clamps and my "shorts" have very functional homes.