You know your shop is too small ...

[Swingman]

... when you (and two helpers) have to bring a client's project into your living room to trim it out:

want my next project to be a cutting board ... a _small_ cutting board)

[Larry Jaques]

I hear that. My last 4 projects have been a 5'x5' CNC router (finishing today, I hope), 200'+ of wire fencing, a 12x16' flagstone patio, and a 20' cedar fence. 2 in queue are a pair of 9-1/2'x8' barn doors to close off a carport and a 12' cedar gate.

My old bod's ready for a small project, too.

-- When a quiet man is moved to passion, it seems the very earth will shake. -- Stephanie Barron (Something for the Powers That Be to remember, eh?)

[Lee Michaels]

I feel a Johnny Carson thing coming on...

You know your shop is too small when...

1. The mice move out because it is too small.
2. When you drop something on the floor, and you never find it.
3. You have to store your lumber in the back yard or under the eaves.
4. Only skinny people will fit in your shop.
5. You can't use any hand tool or power tool without bumping your elbow into something.
6. When your primary work bench is a portable unit that sets up on saw horses in the driveway.
7. When your power tools become claustrophobic.
8. Your wife won't go in there to put junk on your tools and benches.
9. The only time you see the floor is when you move a completed project out of the shop.
10. There are rumors that people have gone into your shop, never to be seen again.

I will be working here all week. Be sure to tip your waiter.

[Swingman]

No kidding ... amazing, as you get older, what a difference just one year makes in how physical stuff just gets tougher. Last year at this same time, in May, I was working all day long, on off days from a big kitchen and remodel, doing this by myself, with no help whatsoever ...

and with what seems like a whole lot less effort than this particular desk is taking.

This week, I hired a 26 year old kid to give me hand with the thing, and the SOB is getting a kick of me working my ass off trying to keep up with him.

Then again, maybe not ... he called in sick this morning. (thank gawd!) :)

[Swingman]

You would be surprised how many of those already apply.

ROTFL ... keep'em coming ...

[G.W. Ross]

Maybe it's time to bring the rest of the tools in the living room and just Watch TV in the shop. Reminds me of a (distant) relative complaining that her husband had his motorcycle disassembled in the living room and the engine was in the bath tub.

[Swingman]

Not a bad idea ... it was 96 in the shop yesterday afternoon ... we keep the house at 78.

I'll let you know how that flies with the other inmates. ;)

That said, my ideal living arrangement would be a 3000sf+, single span building, with about 1000sf of living space built-out inside (storage above the living space), and the remainder shop.

Best of all possible worlds ...

[ChairMan]

you know your shop is to small when you turn around and your outside again

[Mike M]

My girlfriend always wonders why I had so many cuts and bruieses. Told her it's just dangerous walking around in the shop. I just added

360 sq ft to a 600sq ft shop and as I started wheeling things around I'm realizing it's still small. I need to do what you did and build some better storage. As I clean up I'm sure I'll find lots of tools I've lost track of because I couldn't get to them with out moving at least 3 tools after moving others so I had a place to move them to.

Mike M

[Swingman]

Know the feeling ... not only do you have to plan the logical order of steps you're going to take to fabricate a project, you also have to plan to ahead so you can get to those tools against the wall that you're blocking with every step.

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------- SFWIW, my 88 year old cousin, a farmer all his life, had a hip replacement in January,

He just finished his spring planting a couple of weeks ago.

Lew

[Puckdropper]

"Lee Michaels" wrote in news:4fbcf9af$0$466$c3e8da3$ [e-mail]:

You plane 1/8" off of a board and double the free space.

The vacuum has things stored inside it.

You can't wheel your tools out to the drive, there's just no space.

Puckdropper

[tiredofspam]

Reminds me of a guy that built a hanger on his property. He built out his living space in the hangar, off to one side that looks out to the runway and woods.

His daughter has a home and barn on the property... Its a big property.

Out front is his own private runway. He is the nicest guy, and was a pilot in WWII.

I would love to have the hangar / liv> >>> ... when you (and two helpers) have to bring a client's project into

[RonB]

OK - we have digressed his original post into "Reminds".

Many years ago we lived in a small two bedroom house in a neighborhood of similar homes. Small garages but some had basements. I had neighbors who rebuilt the basement staircase so it aligned with the garage door; and then built a "T-bucket" roadster in the basement. They spent about four years building what ended up being a pretty nice show-quality car. Half the folks in the neighborhood thought they were nuts, but they had it planned. It was a hobby, labor of love and they did the meticulous stuff in the well-lit heated and cooled basement and then disassembled it, carried sub assemblies up the stairs and put it back together. (the engine was a real bitch - I was interested and involved by then). At that point it took them about a month to reassemble, test and get it on the street.

RonB

[Larry Jaques]

My niece did that with me on the 140 steps going up to the gunnery points on DiamondHead Crater on Oahu back when I was 40-something. We were both surprised that I kept up as long as I did, though.

Yeah, I need a day to recouperate after (trying to) keep up with a worker, too. I grok that in its entirety. I hired a kid (41) to help me with the fence and flagstone, and I used his tireless body to do most of the harder work. My right rotator cuff is increasingly screaming at me, so I'm afraid my days as a handyman are numbered. Another career change is OK with me, but physical work is what's putting food on the table at the moment.

What I thought was a scratch or bruise during the fencing thing last week was evidently a spider bite. The area, right where my sock ends, now has a somewhat rectangular red spot about the size of my ring fingernail. There's sort of a hard spot in the skin there. It has me interested.

-- When a quiet man is moved to passion, it seems the very earth will shake. -- Stephanie Barron (Something for the Powers That Be to remember, eh?)

[John Grossbohlin]

Might be worth getting tested for Lyme if the spot grows... I know a LOT of people who have or have had it including the owner of the sawmill where I last bought wood and a lot of outdoorsmen.

I say this after my second dose of Benadryl... I was apparently bitten by a spider last night while sleeping. Things started as a bump on my lower backside when I woke up and then went to swollen lips and labored breathing. Dammed bugs!

John

[Swingman]

Damn, Bubba! I just took a trip to a dermatologist last month for

100,000 mile checkup (spent the most part of my youth in the sun in shorts with no shirt), and the occasionally itchy, quarter sized, red spot on my thigh, that has been ongoing on two years with no change, was suspected to be a spider bite.

She didn't seem concerned ...

(Hey, if we start comparing bowel movements, someone shoot us, please ... it's apparently hazard of that certain age ... and starts out just like the above). :)

[Swingman]

No problem ...

The first metal shop project in jr high (yep, we had a full metal shop class, complete with metal (Al) casting facility, at 14 years old), was a huge floor standing birdcage for my mother. Turned out too big to fit through the door, so the shop teacher bought it back for scrap and still gave me an A ... figured he was embarrassed that he had not foreseen the problem. That was a lesson I learned early.

[Leon]

>> (I want my next project to be a cutting board ... a _small_ cutting board) > If have found that with getting a bigger the shop, the projects get bigger. The shop never really gets bigger untill you move the lawn mower, wheel barrel, weed eater, yard hand tools, bicycles, etc out.

[Swingman]

>>>>>>> (I want my next project to be a cutting board ... a _small_ cutting >> board) >> >

Leon, as you well know, NONE of that crap is allowed inside my shop and it's still not any bigger! :)