Discussion: Describe your shop!

[Rick Chamberlain]

My shop:

1949 Unisaw with homemade overarm guard and rolling cart 1950ish Delta Homecraft 8" contractor saw 1950ish Boice Crane 12" planer 1937 Atlas 12" dp 1955 Craftsman 9" RAS 1950ish Craftsman 8" wood lathe Jet 6" jointer (soon to be replaced with a more appropriate vintage) Router table station with Jointech fence CMS rolling cart/cabinet with 12" Ridgid CMS 1959 Delta 20" bandsaw 1957 Delta 14" bandsaw 1944 Hardinge TM horizontal mill with Bridgeport M vertical head 1947 Logan 200 lathe 1960ish Powermatic 12" disk/6x48 belt sander Griz dust collector (cyclone soon, I hope) Devilbiss 80 gallon, 2 stage compressor Rol-Air pancake compressor 1937 (approx) Delta 6" grinder with pedastal HTP MIG welder 24x48 welding/layout table sheet goods cart 12' lumber rack, 8' high Miscellaneous hand and tailed tools for wooddorking Miscellaneous hand and tailed tools for metalworking

Want to add to the shop: About 20x20 :-) Shaper

Collects the most dust: The bikes hanging from the ceiling

Hours per week in the shop: Good week - 12-16 Bad week - 0

Shop dog:

2 of them. A Jack Russell and a mutt.

If you haven't guessed already, my shop is also my garage. For all the larger items, I've made mobile carts from box channel and angle iron. Ends up cheaper than anything out there, and I get a custom cart for each machine. And yes, my SWMBO can park her Suburban in the garage when I'm done working! :-)

[charlie b]

Easier to just show you. Poke around and explore by clicking on anything you're interested in.

More space to store wood and more ceiling height for long boards vertical storage. I hate having to cut a fine board in order to get it in out of the rain.

One answer - the Delta dust collector If you mean where does the most dust settle - behind every machine against the wall.

If you mean just physically in the shop - probably 25-30 hrs If you mean actually making furniture - 8-10 hrs, more during the summer doing projects with neighborhood kids.

charlie b

[Todd L]

Are you the same Chamberlain I just bought the Incra gauge from on Amazon? Just curious.

Todd L

[Tom Watson]

I went there.

What a great way to do a website.

Regards, Tom.

Thomas J.Watson - Cabinetmaker (ret.) tjwatson1ATcomcastDOTnet (real email)

[BIG JOE]

Art wisely suggested?..

Ø Hey guys..it's time we get back on track with some good old woodworking talk. Tell us what you have in your shop. Power tools..hand tools..wood stock..shop dog..etc.

***Shop***

Shop is basically one quarter of the basement of a 1900 square foot ranch. It has been laid out so that it may be walled off when we finish the basement. SWMBO has been keeping a wary eye on the boundaries for possible encroachment, but I've been pretty good so far. We are considering an addition out the back, turning what is a "lookout" basement, into a "walkout" basement, and the resulting additional 400-500 square feet would be new shop space (wood storage & finishing room). She is a little concerned that the only reason I want the addition is for the basement.

***Large Tools***

Jet 10" left tilting cabinet saw w/ recently added Grip-Tite fence face and featherboard system. Did the usual shelf addition under the side table, which also helps stabilize the legs. On the shelf are a loose collection of saw blades (hope to build that saw blade holder from FWW's last issue soon), push sticks, a Rockler tenoning jig, and various inserts. My hopelessly out of square and thus unused cross-cut sled is hiding under the shelf.

Makita 10" SCMS, sitting on a solid-core door atop a pair of homemade sawhorses. Beneath the door in some boxes is a pair of saw-stop fences which will be incorporate into a proper CSMS station with wood storage beneath and a large dust collection hood. Currently I make due with the stock bag and frequent vacuuming of the surrounding floor.

8 x 3 foot workbench, the top of which is a sandwich of 3 sheets of ¾ ply, construction grade, oak veneered, and Baltic birch from bottom up. A metal working vice in on the left side, and a woodworking tail vice is on the right, with a row of round dog holes leading to it. There are 1 foot wide shelves built above the back of it. Portable power tools sit in cases underneath on a shelf.

Delta 16 ½ drill press with shop built table.

Jet 14" Closed Stand bandsaw w/ Riser blocks on Delta Mobile base kit.

Grizzly 2HP dust collector w/ oversize American Fabric Filter bag, controlled by a series of 24 volt switches throughout the shop and a contactor/transformer wired into the 220 volt circuit. I used heavy guage HVAC galvanized piping, starting with 6", dropping to 5" and ending with 4" in a standard perimeter layout, complete with homemade

4" self-cleaning blast gates at each machine. I still have some fine tuning/sealing and the aforementioned SCMS hookup to do, but it works great as is.

Ridgid 13" Planer, sitting on a wire cart

Jet 6" Closed Stand Jointer

Like Keith, an unfinished Norm Style Router table. Carcass is pretty well complete, need to build the drawers, attach and edge the top, add the insert, Incra Dovetail Jig/Wonder Fence, Grip-Tite fence faces, Woodpecker magnetic switch and casters, all of which are sitting in boxes.

Sears Router Table, enclosed for dust collection and outlet/external switch addition. Not sure whether to keep once Norm Table is done.

60 Gallon Rol-Air Compressor, with black iron lines run around half the shop to take out the moisture (2-6" risers and end blow out), ending with a filter and regulator under the workbench.

***Portable Power/Air Tools***

Milwaukee Skil-Saw

2-12 volt, 1-18 volt Black and Decker Drills 1-15.6 volt Craftsman drill (one of the few things Craftsman sells that's still nice) Corded B&D Drill Bostich Brad and Finish Nailers ¼ Sheet Craftsman Sander PC 333 ROS Sander Delta 1" Strip Sander Delta Grinder Fein 3 ¼ HP Router Craftsman 2HP Router B&D El-Cheapo Jig/Sabre Saw

***Hand Tools/Clamps***

4 Jorgie Cabinet Master Clamps 6 Bessey K-Bodies 2 Gross Stabil PC-2's (these are the best, IMHO) 6 Pony Pipe Clamps 6 Quick Clamps 2 Bessey Tradesmen Deep Jaws Five or six other assorted bar clamps 2 Band Clamps Handful of C-Clamps and other clamps not worth mentioning 50" Clamping Straightedge Metal planes consist of bull-nose, smoother, and low angle block 10-12 Wood bodied planes including molding planes Marples blue handled chisels, Sears black handled chisels Dovetail, coping and a couple back-saws Various marking and measuring tools

***Wood stock***

200bf of common grade cherry, though quite nice for common 300bf of assorted thicknesses and grades of Walnut (which along with the cherry is sitting outside the recognized boundary of the shop at present) Odds and Ends of White/Red Oak and Hard/Soft Maple Various scraps and one full sheet of sheetgoods Ø What do you want to add to your shop?

Aforementioned wood storage/finishing room Stationary Belt/Disk Sander - The Fisch had a nice review. Mortising Machine ? Grandpa just told me he has one buried in his basement for me. Upgrade Jointer to DJ-20 Upgrade Planer to 15" (Powermatic or Grizz) Upgrade DC to Cyclone (Hope to use same motor, maybe have that annoying wrecker who keeps spamming us build me a the cyclone part)

Ø What collects the most dust?

Bandsaw, although it usually occurs to me AFTER completing a more difficult cut that the bandsaw would have been the wise choice

Ø On average, how many hours a week do you spend in the shop?

10 hours/week in the winter, and 5 hours/week in the summer is probably a good average.

Joe Tylicki Germantown, WI

[Unisaw A100]

Hey! Some guys know how to talk about their 'chinery.

UA100

[Unisaw A100]

Eh-hem? Norm style?

No. Not on your life. Mine is/will be An Ultimate Router Table.

UA100

[Bob Schmall]

The thing is so massive it has its own gravity well.

[Unisaw A100]

And it has to go back down the stairs.

sigh...

UA100

[charlie b]

Thanks.

I like checking out sites of other woodworkers and got frustrated by not seeing the stuff in its context. Found out how to map areas of a graphics image to a page and the rest was easy. Where stuff is relative to other stuff gives a better idea of how the shop works. Having the combi, the miter saw and wood storage at the garage door end makes dealing initially with wood easier.

Having the workbench behind the combi lets it be an outfeed table - keeps the outfeed alleys clear AND it's a step away from the wall cabinet of handtools. Most everything is on lockable wheels - including the long kitchen base unit that the miter saw, with it's 8 feet of tables, is on. Made rearranging things earlier on a LOT easier. The only thing in the Right Shop that's stationary is Das Bench.

Wish more folks would do a shop floor plan with "click to see" links to the equiptment pictures and info.

My site also has an all text menu that lets you get to other stuff fairly quickly. For parts with more than three pages I'm using a separate "table of content" linked to the various pages on that subject. You can start at page one or jump to page 34.

My site ain't all that sophisticated, the navigation is pretty basic - but it's currently about 20 megs of stuff - hopefully some that's useful to others.

charlie b

[JG]

I can sum it up in one picture:

's about as clean as it's ever going to be.....)

-- John G.

[Jeffrey Thunder]

You mean a shaper? Like one Roger Cliffe used to own?

[Phil Anderson]

Art Finkelstein offers up the best thread of the month with:

After reading many of the posts, and after getting a little older, I find myself very grateful for the size of my shop. It's a free-standing 24x36 building dedicated to woodworking. It's got double swing out doors that open to 16 feet by 11 feet high. It has it's own power box with several

110v circuits and four 220v circuits. It is lit by 7 double 8', high-output fluorescent fixtures, that do a really good job for these old eyes of mine. Inside you'll find the usual power tool arsenal, tablesaw, bandsaw (2), drill press (4), jointer, sanding center, dedicated mortiser, laser guided miter saw, air compressor, radial arm saw, oscillating spindle sander, grinder, router table, lathe, planer, etc. Hand tools consist of all the basics plus trunk-loads of antique tools I've accumulated from countless garage sales. I also have a lot of wood, mostly in two racks that take up too much of my wall space. It's really good to have, but I wish I had someplace else to store it, yet keep it handy. Lately (last two years) I've been ignoring the shop except for accumulating more stuff. That is where two of the drill presses have come from. Just deals too good to pass up. It's been piling up and only recently (2 months) I've been feeling really guilty (and wasteful) and only now have begun to get the shop into shape again. I've been out there every weekend just organizing and cleaning. I'm feeling much better about it now and will begin some actual woodworking, soon. Actually, I've been doing some woodworking along with the organization. New clamp racks and drawer dividers, pull-out shelves in a new cabinet to store portable power tools. It's going to be so nice to just walk out there and build something with little preparation.

I can't really think of anything. Well, OK, a DJ-20 jointer would be nice.

When I use it, I use it all.

Lately, 12-16 hours per week. Future plans, 16-20 hours. After retirement in about 8 years? If I have my way, 35-40 hours per week. I want to make up for lost time. You can see most of my shop here:

I'll be taking new pictures and adding better descriptions as I finish up the organizing and cleaning. The site has been up for a long time and I haven't really added much to it, but it's a priority after the shop is once again "complete." Also, it's moving to

Thanks for the thread, Art, very intersting and "on topic."

[Rob Stokes]

hey partner!

Rob

[Rick Chamberlain]

Nope.

[Joe Tylicki]

My apologies, I had thought that was how Norm referred to his, but alas, it is merely a Deluxe Router Station, and could probably be hogged down to a toothpick in 20 seconds with an Ultimate Router Table.

Nonetheless, I'm not sure how much mine will resemble the plans by the time it's done.

Joe

[patriarch]

Art Finkelstein wrote in news:Xns94EAE15424B1Cart@211.115.194.9:

Most of the Normite stuff, a growing collection of meat powered tools. More handplanes than are probably healthy. Half a dozen handsaws from my father's generation. Shopmade sleds, jigs, fixtures. F-clamps. C-clamps. Spring clamps. Kbodies. GS PC2s. Homemades. Ponies on pipes. A 9 foot long by 7 foot tall rack of really special lumber, much of which has a story.

And a craftsman whose skills are growing, albeit slowly. And his gratitude is growing quickly for the blessings to be able to work wood, and hang out with woodworkers.

a serious jointer (DJ-20?), a drum sander (Performax 16-32?), and better dust collection (Oneida, maybe?). And, as someone else said, maybe 400 square feet. And patience. Can somebody send me some?

The reality is that I have, or have access to, most everything I need to be able to do anything my skills and ambition allow me to do. An old friend of mine has committed to teach one of my sons how to build a guitar, something he has wanted to do for years. So there will be some more learning going on, and that's a major reason I started with this hobby.

I don't use the fancy dovetail machine as much as I thought I would. And there is a benchtop mortise machine still in the sealed packaging from last January.

There are also maybe three or four 'stalled' projects out there, lurking in the corners. A mission style blanket chest. A jewelry box. A headboard one of my sons started last summer.

Average really doesn't tell the tale. Some weeks, none, to speak of. Then today, Monday, a friend and I took a day off from work, and spent from noon until 9 pm, building a fancy redwood potting bench for his wife, who is a master gardener. Otherwise, maybe 12-15 hours a week, spread over maybe 4 sessions.

It really depends on whether I'm in a finishing cycle. The need to keep dust down really clogs the shop work flow.

Thanks, Art. I needed to do that inventory.

Patriarch

[patriarch]

"Bob Schmall" wrote in news:8Iaqc.6781$ [e-mail]:

So, is that supposed to help with chip collection? ;-)

[Art Finkelstein]

"Phil Anderson" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thank you, Phil.

[Unisaw A100]

Yahbut, the top on mine, will look like a 'tato chip.

UA100