Many Saipan Tribune readers are part of the SOHO (small office and home office) world. I\u2019m a long-time SOHO guy myself. As the new year rolled onto the calendar I was mid-stream in a project to custom-build some furnishings for my office. The big question was this: Can a total carpentry know-nothing produce functional SOHO furnishings?<\/p>\n
I finally have the answer. It\u2019s \u201cyes.\u201d Sick of your office? You can probably fix a lot of it yourself.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s make that a qualified \u201cyes.\u201d My current SOHO is a get-your-work done sort of office, as opposed to a more polished meet-with-clients sort of space. Functionality, not professional polish, was my goal. I will, however, note that everything came together square, level, and tightly fit. I can deal with simple. I won\u2019t, however, suffer shabby. <\/p>\n
It took three basic power tools (a circular saw, a cordless drill, and a jigsaw), along with various accouterments for measuring and marking, to get this done. And if I can do it, then anyone can. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve taken two steps. The first was to build a four-tier console that covers an entire wall from top to bottom. It serves as a bookshelf, as a platform for a printer and stationary, and as a storage area for boxes of office supplies. The second step was to build a long, narrow table that runs along a wall. <\/p>\n
The long table is supposed to provide a surface for arranging documents so I can do impressive things. Somehow, though, it got covered in my collection of Merle Haggard CDs. <\/p>\n
Come to think of it, I haven\u2019t done anything remotely impressive since 1982. So I\u2019m thinking that impressive can wait a little while longer. There\u2019s no need to defile a fresh new year by trying to force things. <\/p>\n
Anyway, the next, and final, step will be to build a desk that will tie together the ensemble. That\u2019s a great word, \u201censemble.\u201d It adds some class to my entirely classless operation.<\/p>\n
I did my marking, sawing, and sanding in the garage. Then I carted everything over to my SOHO workspace where I screwed everything together using the cordless drill as a driver. <\/p>\n
During the entire process I didn\u2019t encounter any big problems, but everything took a lot longer than I anticipated. This didn\u2019t bother me, since part of the reason I embarked on the project was to putter around at a slow pace and ignore the demands of the fast-paced world. <\/p>\n
For example, when I assembled the first three parts of the wall console, it took me about an hour to set the pieces square before I fastened them together. Lacking any coherent methodology for this situation, I addressed it with my true specialty: blunt-headed trial-and-error. <\/p>\n
And so I patched things together, took measurements, shook my head in dismay, took the pieces apart, then started all over again. I did this dozens of times. When, by pure dint of randomness, everything finally jibed, I held my breath and fastened the pieces together. Everything else went smoothly from that point on. <\/p>\n
When I was in the cutting phase I marked the lumber to show where the factory cuts were. This was under the theory that they\u2019d be more square than my cuts were. After all, a newbie with a circular saw ain\u2019t exactly going to give Pythagoras a run for his money. This extra degree of pessimism allowed me to strategically match things together during assembly to make the early fits as square as possible.<\/p>\n
On the fastener note, before I got the project rolling, I did some experiments with scrap wood. The types of screws you\u2019d use with a normal screwdriver (slotted- or Phillips-head) didn\u2019t work nearly as well as the star-headed ones (\u201cTorx\u201d). I also experimented to get a feel for how small my pieces of wood could be before they\u2019d run the risk of getting split by the fasteners. <\/p>\n
Having realized that fasteners were going to be an important part of the equation, I ultimately wound up spending more on screws than I did on my circular saw. As for the smaller pieces of wood, I drilled pilot holes in them before driving the fasteners and this prevented splitting.<\/p>\n
Well, such are the highlights of the project. I encountered no pitfalls, no jokers, no bad surprises. In summary, this stuff is doable. <\/p>\n
To my fellow SOHO operators who are contemplating improving their spaces, I say: Come on in, the water\u2019s fine. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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