A Wall and a Home Gym

Nick Momrik6 Comments

It’s been a busy few weeks packing and moving to the new house. Actually, it’s been a busy year! Building a 40 foot wall before being fully unpacked is a great idea, right? My dad was up for it, so of course I was. I’d never build a wall before, so framing was a fun challenge. This new project meant buying a couple of new tools, which I always love.

We’re very excited about this new gym area inside the house. No more garage gym for us, which was brutal in the Michigan summers and winters. There is still some organizing to do as we figure out how we use space. The wall isn’t actually finished yet either.

After I finish paneling this area I can get started on the other side of the wall. I picked up 1/2″ OSB for the shop’s wall material, to make it easy to screw small items in anywhere I want. You can’t beat $16 a sheet. Check out this cool storage space for sheet goods I gained by having the wall follow the floor joist.

I’m excited to get this mess of a shop organized, especially with all of my wood and large clamps at the other side of the basement for temporary storage. It’s going to be awesome.

Saginaw Spirit – 2024 Memorial Cup Champions

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Saginaw hosted the 2024 Memorial Cup and we were lucky to have tickets for the Championship game on Sunday night.

The Memorial Cup is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played among the champions of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL), and a host team, which alternates on an annual basis between the three member leagues.

[…]

The Memorial Cup is sometimes referred to as one of the hardest championships to win in hockey, factoring in the number of teams across the CHL’s member leagues nationwide, the Memorial Cup tournament being played between their top teams, and the limited eligibility period for players to compete at the major junior level.

Wikipedia

The Spirit held a 3-0 lead at one point and the London Knights tied it up in the third period. Then Saginaw scored the 4-3 game winner with 21 seconds left in the game. It was amazing!

The Spirit came to Saginaw in 2002 and this is the city’s first Memorial Cup. The CHL web site has a great game highlights video.

Mountain Dew: Citrus Blast

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Not many places in Europe sell Mountain Dew and when you find some, it’s usually without sugar. After a week in Ireland I finally found some good stuff.

This is called Citrus Blast and tastes close to the Mountain Dew sold in the US, but not as sweet. I ran the numbers and found it contains less than half as much sugar!

I’m going to give it a 8.5, especially since it’s kind of outrageous how much sugar a 20oz in the states has.

Universal Box Joint Jig by KM Tools

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I’ve been wanting to try box joints for years and had saved several plans to build a jig. A couple of months ago I saw Katz Moses Tools was releasing a box joint jig and I jumped on it because their video made it look so good. It was still a pre-order at the time and the web site said it could take 3-4 weeks, but mine was delivered in a week. Assembling the jig was a piece of cake.

I was very impressed by how snug the runner fit in my table saw’s miter slot. After a few pushes back and forth it wore in and then I added paste wax to make it slide like butta! I grab some scraps and my dado stack for a quick test.

The jig is easy to use and with some quick adjustments I’ll be able to dial in a better fit. My next project will be a monitor riser for my desk so I’m looking forward to doing some walnut box joints.

Floating Walnut Nighstands

Nick Momrik3 Comments

With our new house having a big walk-in closet we won’t need dressers, so we’ll be selling our bedroom set, which meant it was a good time for new nightstands. Here’s a photo dump of the build.

These will be floating on the wall in the new house, with about five inches of space under them. I did a lot of things in this build I’ve never tried before, so I learned a lot. I love how the decorative grooves turned out on the drawer fronts, which was inspired by something Michael Alm did on his kitchen cupboards. The oak handles were made with inspiration from a couple we liked on Etsy (1 & 2).

I can’t wait to get moved in this summer and mount these on the wall!