Is your hobby woodworking or building your shop?

[dennis thompson]

In looking at the various forums I can't decide if we are more interested in woodworking itself or building up our shops? I'm woodworking.
Which are you?

[Jim Becker]

LOL...there's a natural tendency for many folks to put a lot of time into their shops, even when they are also putting a lot of effort into projects. For me, the answer to your question would essentially be "yes"...

[roger wiegand]

Enough of the latter (and then some) to enable the former. My shop is way nicer than it needs to be, but it's a hobby and where I spend most of my days.

[Ron Selzer]

alternates
build up shop then build furniture then build up shop then build furniture
alot depends on money availability
no more room in basement to expand shop, HOWEVER SWMBO said IF she gets a new master bedroom suite addition then I can have the extra basement space HOWEVER she would get 8' x probably 20' due to southern exposure for her plants as there will be a walk out entrance/ramp on west side. This would give me 12-16 x 20 addition to shop with outside ramp down to basement
Just need to decide I want to work long enough to pay this addition off. Past retirement age now and still like working, just not certain how much longer.
Ron

[Paul F Franklin]

I'm pretty much with Jim...I enjoy both aspects, but when I do shop projects I focus on utility and efficiency more than making things beautiful or finely crafted...I save that for "real" projects.

[jack duren]

Making money...

[Dave Zellers]

Well you know the old joke-

Guy at party: What do you do?

Me: I'm a woodworker.

Guy: Oh! cool! What do you make?

Me: Oh, I make jigs and cabinets for my shop.

[Warren Lake]

shop management is a whole job on its own.

The smaller the space the harder it will be. the more types of work you take on the more stuff you need to have. More stuff means more storage and organizing. I likely have 50 wall cabinets for shop stuff and its not enough. More work each time machines are added place to store parts and accessories from the machines

[Anuj Prateek]

In looking at the various forums I can't decide if we are more interested in woodworking itself or building up our shops? I'm woodworking.
Which are you?

I enjoy both. End of the day it's a hobby, and I spend time on whichever aspect feels more satisfying, in that moment. There have been time where I spent days cleaning and organizing shop (old one). Then there have been days when two sawhorses served as shop.

[Andrew Seemann]

At one point, I came up with at rule that I would do one shop improvement project between each "real" project (e.g. item of furniture, custom door, etc.). The reason for the rule was to keep myself from doing nothing but shop improvement projects:)

[Rod Sheridan]

In looking at the various forums I can't decide if we are more interested in woodworking itself or building up our shops? I'm woodworking.
Which are you?

Both.

Normally after making a couple of pieces of furniture I’ll make something for the shop, might be as simple as a sandpaper storage cabinet…Rod

[Lisa Starr]

I love making furniture, but do find myself making items/upgrades to my shop and equipment quite frequently. So maybe some of both. What I despise is buying a widget I can make myself.

[Frederick Skelly]

I enjoy all of it: making furniture, fine tuning my shop and making hand tools (like wooden planes).
Oh. And talking about all of the above.

[John K Jordan]

In looking at the various forums I can't decide if we are more interested in woodworking itself or building up our shops? I'm woodworking.
Which are you?

After putting up some basic storage and building a workbench, I mostly use the wood part of my shop for woodturning and processing/drying blanks for woodturning. I spend almost zero time making things for the shop except things like special tools and lathe tool handles.

I can appreciate some of the incredibly beautiful shop cabinetry I've seen in pictures and in person but that is definitely not for me. My shelves are from 1x12 pine from HD, deck screws protruding from the walls to hang stuff on, satisfy me. Most of my closed storage is salvaged kitchen cabinets and lots of roll-around tool boxes. Open storage is mostly wire shelf units from Sams. One workbench is a salvaged piece of bowling alley resting on a salvaged kitchen base cabinet. I do have a cabinet saw with slider, jointer, planer, drum sander, scrollsaws, belt/disk sanders and bandsaws but most don't get much use except to support the woodturning. Since finishing the shop a few years ago I've built a few sometimes nice but mostly useful things for around the farm and the house.

I use the building for other than wood: machining, welding, electronics repair, video editing, incubating peacocks, 3d printing, farm equipment maintenance and more so I do occasionally make things to support other hobbies. In a couple of weeks I'll be cutting steel and welding up a steel calf on a sled to pull around with the 4-wheeler for roping practice.

JKJ

[Ken Fitzgerald]

YES!

I found the Creek about the time I wanted to build a shop. At another unnamed website, a couple guys attacked and criticized any newbie who asked a newbie question. Some one there announced he was leaving that site and coming to the Creek where people were treated with a little respect and civility regardless of their woodworking experience. I followed him here.

I enjoy it all and coming to the Creek led me into a nice sized shop for my hobby and it has emptied my wallet several times over as I purchased new and bigger tools.

[Patrick Kane]

For years, I spent 0 time on shop improvements and all my time on commissions or personal furniture. Then, I had a point where I was inbetween tool upgrades and couldn’t do much woodworking without a jointer and table saw. This down time lead to a solid month of free time spent rearranging my shop, laying rubber flooring, changing the ductwork, adding more lights and hanging slatwall with hooks and shelves. It was a lot of time to make these alterations, but the space is so much better to work in. I do think some folks spend wayyy too much time on shop cabinets and organization, but to each his own. My Vice is I can’t stop listing after new machines.

[Andrew Hughes]

I have a shoe string budget so I spend time woodworking and finding wood to use. I do spend a fair amount of time cleaning and organization.

[David Stone (CT)]

Great question and topic. Even after 35 years in the hobby, I toggle between "woodworking" (meaning making furniture or doing stuff in connection with renovating my old house) and upgrading my shop, and expect I always will. Most recently, I've been building a sliding deadman to add to a workbench I made 20 years ago, partly using the capabilities of a used basic shaper I bought as a pandemic project. I've been learning some new skills and it's all good.

[Mike King]

Flawed poll. Missing acquiring tools.

Mike

[David Stone (CT)]

Great question and topic. Even after 35 years in the hobby, I toggle between "woodworking" (meaning making furniture or doing stuff in connection with renovating my old house) and upgrading my shop, and expect I always will. Most recently, I've been building a sliding deadman to add to a workbench I made 20 years ago, partly by learning to exploit the functionality of a used basic shaper I bought as a pandemic project. It's all good.

[Albert Lee]

I enjoyed the accomplishment of making something for a client and get the $$$$ for the piece to cover the tool cost and my time... however my accountant kept on telling me to stop working as a slave.

I love good machinery and the quality of it.

unfortunately woodworking itself, come in last.

[David LaRue]

Dennis,

Yes. My shop is for everything I do: Woodworking, storage for tile work, painting tools (HVLP, Airless, Air, and Rollers, and brushes), small and large engine repair, mechanics toolset, metalworking, plumbing, electrical, small appliance repair, building pinewood derby cars, building a better dust collection, better lights, upgrading old dust making tools, getting hooked on the green tools. My shop is my place to go to offgas from my day job in information technology which does not have start and stop time 24/7/7. I have to have my shop clean and ready to do the next project.. planned or not. For example I need to replace window screens on the porch that blew out this weekend before guests get here tomorrow. So my shop is not just a woodworking shop, and I really don't build furniture much, nor do I feel the need to. My shop is what it needs to be. I really don't know that I would call myself a woodworker, but rather someone that works with wood.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Flawed poll. Missing acquiring tools.Exactly!
I love the buying process.

Agonizing over the question of "did I make the right choice" by spending hours on end - while waiting for the delivery of whatever I bought to be delivered - by pouring over endless online reviews of the tool/item.
Spending days/weeks/months & sometimes years - searching for the best possible price on something, then making a snap decision to buy something else.
Checking then rechecking my bank balance - while waiting for the delivery of the item I bought - to see how far in the hole my purchase will put me. (maybe the shop elves (the ones that some one here at SMC said looked like Jessica Alba) have deposited a thousand dollars into my bank account).
Trying to find the best combination of - price - customer service - delivery charges - by scouring all the possible places to purchase.

& the other side

The horrible low that comes about when to tool is delivered & I open the box only to see - I have to put it together. I don't want pieces! I refuse to accept the fact that I have to spend hours assembling my new found toy! Where are those Jessica Alba shop elves?

It's like "The hunt". They call it hunting because it's all about the hunt and not the kill. :D :D

[Gary Petersen]

Heh! I'm probably more on the building a shop phase of my hobby. I'm eight or so years from retirement and have decided that woodworking is one of the main things I want to do with myself after I retire so I'm building out my shop and learning how to use the tools I buy now, while I have more disposable income. Most of the actual wood pieces I build are gifts for others but some larger pieces for use in our home as well.

Gary

[Tom Giles]

First phase - I had to build my shop building. Built 90% by myself

Second phase - I had to acquire equipment. I bought used and repaired

third phase - build shop fixtures/jigs

finally fourth phase - projects

enjoyed each phase. So woodworking for me is much more than projects

[Jim Becker]

Flawed poll. Missing acquiring tools.

Mike

^^ True dat!!!

[glenn bradley]

This thread made me smile. My dad has had numerous hobbies and all seem to consist of getting nearly ready to do something, doing one or two and then changing hobbies. He definitely likes getting ready to do something more than doing it :D. This has had the effect on me of creating an urgent need to complete things.

I have spent the last couple years fighting through the process of getting a shop built from scratch. I have enjoyed the challenges and the process but am pretty much done with the joy of "getting ready". Alas, there are a few more things to do before I can start making things that aren't shop fixtures but it is very close.

My previous shop was half the size and contained all the stuff in the new shop including the dust collector which is now outside the shop proper. I was making a lot of custom shop fixtures and jigs to get things done in a small space. I don't know how I ever got anything done. I was in a pretty much constant state of building something for someone.

I have gracefully backed out of being an active furniture maker for others. I plan to spend the next few years making things for our own forever-home and for friends and family. Somewhere during the next 20 years I will start to slow down and do less and less. I plan to spend more time sitting in , eating at and sleeping in furniture I've made than making new items. I find the whole idea somewhat comforting.

[Thomas Wilson]

It seems to me that the most popular topics for woodworking are books, magazines, and forums have to do with workbenches, toolchests, shop layout, dust collection, and tool acquisition. These are all activities which are related to setting up or upgrading the shop. That indicates where greatest interests lie. On this forum, “projects” are relegated to a little-viewed sub forum and never seem to get much more of a response than, “Good job.”

Looking back on my own posts, the vast majority have to do with setting up my new shop right now. It is a capstone of a lifetime hobby. In the past in my tiny, dusty shops, I worked more on moving stuff around to make room for an operation or assembly. In those days, I mainly built stuff we needed or someone else needed. There was pressure to build rather than organize. Now, I suppose I am retracing steps to set up the workspace the way I would have had it with less pressure and more money. The point to me is that I am really enjoying this phase. I have found reading and writing about it worth my time. I am nearing the end of the set-up phase of my new shop and have a long list of projects to do. We will see if I am motivated to write about the various built-ins and Christmas presents on the list.

[Pat Rice]

It depends on who you ask, I would say woodworking is my hobby and my wife says my shop is my hobby. Lately she is more correct as I have spent all of this year totally redoing my 21 yr old shop. Woodworking has been my passion for 35+ years and with the progression of time it has evolved. As others have stated in the early years I had very little money and worked out of single car garages. Many projects were home remodeling related. Now in my 60s I have more disposable income which has allowed me to greatly upgrade my tools and equipment. With my shop remodel almost complete I want to turn back to making things and expand to nicer furniture projects and non-shop related things. I keep pushing myself to expand my skills and knowledge and I am enjoying this journey.

[Leigh Betsch]

It depends on what I'm building at the time you ask.

[George Yetka]

I feel attacked :)
I took a break on shop building a while back to make some cutting boards. But rest assure I'm back to setting up the shop, rebuilding drawers and hangers for my clamps. One day I may build something for outside of the garage though. Im almost ready to get into a project.

I actually have tons of materials/hardware for Box building(20 or so), pen/bottle stopper/misc turning kits(30 or so), Adirondack chair kit, toy chest. And on top of that CNC machine will finally be ready to start setting up in a week or so.

Just need more time. I get a few hours a week at most. So building a french cleat holder lets me enjoy and be able to complete.

[Tom Trees]

Does this thread involve or is it intended for something in between hobby and a profession?
If one's on a shoe string budget, and intending to get some sort of pay outta it,
then that involves lots of work on the workshop.
I can't see how one would get around that, unless not using much tooling, but even that's a stretch.

I favour machines which won't have trouble down the road, and as little cost cutting as possible,
like not having much throwaway tools, i.e universal motors
which don't seem all that universal to me, and often gets deemed for the recycling centre.
Read of plenty of lunchbox thicknessers end up like that.
Only had an angle grinder let the magic smoke out last week for example.

Something decent and cheap likely would be needing work, and is a rabbit hole which pays off, should you ever envision
a lot of work ahead, you don't want to be fiddling with the shortcomings of budget machines.
Some would rather work with wood and do all those upgrades later, but likely are in the getting paid for work category already,
and lets hope they get enough that they can get a decent machine this time round.

Either way, they are likely spending time in the shop, maybe not theirs, but the work is likely very similar.
I would sooner the extra skills and really getting to know how my machines inside and out.

Tom

[Michael Schuch]

I have never had the budget to go out and purchase a bunch of new top of the line tools but there are some tools that I have always wanted for which I keep a mental list. When a used one comes along at a price I can afford I jump on it. This past year has been a pretty busy year for acquisitions.

$200 for a Delta 19.5" drill press with Reeves drive variable speed.
$400 for a Casadei EMA KS/1400 sliding table saw with a 52" slide.
$100 for a Long arm 16" Delta turret arm radial arm saw.
$150 for a 5hp dust collector with a sizeable cyclone.
$40 for a 4' x 6' stainless optical table to be used for a perfectly flat assembly table. (I need to make a stand for this bench)

I have been keeping an eye out for some duct work for the dust collector which will be a pretty major expense if I have to purchase new. The dust collector will also be a time consuming install but each of these acquisitions take a good bit of time to fix up, organize and integrate into the shop.

[Darrell Bade]

Definitely building projects, but I am in the process of finishing the shop for the second time. Had the 32x20 80% finished in 2011. Kept building projects and finally in 2016 said I am finishing the shop before building anything else and did. Expanded my shop in 2019 to 40x32 again about 80% complete. Been building stuff since. Finally said a few weeks ago I am finishing the shop before another project. Too much stuff laying around that needs a home, wastes to much time building a project. Two wall cabinets, drawers for under the saw extensions and extending the ductwork for two machines and it will be done. Maybe by the new year if the funds hold out with today's prices.

[Warren Lake]

what darrell said ive spent way way too much time over the years trying to find stuff. People say im super organized im not but ive done what ive done and more will happen for sanity and efficiency when working. If you want to do any type of custom work you will need stuff to be able to do it and the stuff has to be stored somewhere. I pefrer wall cabinets as much as possible. Stuff is out where i can see it.

[Jim Becker]

I'm going to add that sometimes a woodworking project will spawn a shop project...kinda a "lessons learned" thing that might involve workflow or some other factor that could have been better. And, of course, sometimes a change to the shop or a new tool will spawn a woodworking project because of new or changed capability.

[Phillip Mitchell]

LOL, Jim - every time I do a project / build that I haven’t done before it pretty much always spawns at least a couple of immediate shop improvements and usually a tool/machine added to “the list” as I think of about 5 ways to improve the initial process that I fumbled through.

[Jim Becker]

Yup...that's, um...normal. :)

[Phillip Mitchell]

They both have to go together for me, but I do this for a living and (occasionally) as a hobby / necessity for my own household.

As Warren (and others, I’m sure) said, if you do custom stuff and want to be even somewhat efficient, you need a somewhat deep stable of stuff and you need to have it available, organized and ready to set up if there’s any hope of making a profit. I know most here are doing this as a hobby, but even then the satisfaction and ease of workflow you have from a decluttered, organized and well-outfitted shop is worth it for peace of mind.

My shop is an ongoing project with to do lists that revolve and morph as certain goals are reached and the shop is used and “lived in” for a variety of different types of projects. The shop has never been “done” since I’ve started woodworking. It’s also very small which means I have to pay a lot more attention to that type of stuff because I need use every square foot wisely.

I keep a handful of dry erase white boards in my shop and one of them is dedicated to shop improvements / upgrades, planning them out and keeping up with progress.

[David Publicover]

I seem to be mired in the shop building phase lately. I decided a year or two ago to finally revamp my one car garage shop to make it more efficient, organized and easy to keep clean. I replaced some equipment and made new storage cabinets and shelves. I was just finishing my new bench last spring when we decided to move. Now I have a much bigger shop but much work to do to get all set up. Once I’m operational I expect I’ll have plenty of projects to work on. We are doing some extensive renovations and while the main job will be contracted out, I intend to do a lot of the smaller jobs plus make some furniture for our new home.
I’ll be honest and admit that I enjoy both aspects of the hobby a lot. Why choose?

[David LaRue]

Great job picking up deals!

[Michael Schuch]

Great job picking up deals!

Thank you. All of these were picked up from businesses. A couple of the businesses were closing (one retired, one closed do to covid supply problems), another one was changing direction, and another was just cleaning out old machines (same guys that sold the $800 Inca 130 shaper to another member on here). In a typical year I might pick up one machine and often none at all. All of these except the optical table were upgrades to existing tools and just too good of deals to pass up even though I didn't have a real "need" for them. If I really needed any of these they would have been many times more expensive and unavailable on the used market.

I have wanted an optical table or a used granite ~4' x ~8' surface plate for a work bench since college physics 30+ years ago. The one I purchased doesn't have the threaded 1/4" mounting holes on the surface on a 2" x 2" grid like I was hoping. But the lack of holes has some positives as well as negatives. I will do a thread on this build when I get to it I definitely need input and ideas for this one. I am thinking the 4' x 6' size is actually going to work out much better than a 4' x 8' table in my shop.

I am working on a mobile base for the sliding table saw which is, of course, causing a reorganization of the entire shop.

[Alex Zeller]

I don't know how it's one or the other unless you either have a huge shop set up with every possible tool or if you only build the same thing over and over. As you expand on what you make you will need a tool or piece of equipment. Then there's the you started off with a contractors table saw, for example, and then upgraded to a cabinet saw (or a slider) that required a reorg of the shop to make it fit. Finally there's the "I now have enough clamps" so you are now tripping over them requiring focus on the shop to keep them handy. I don't know how your hobby can be woodworking without also focus on the place you do it.

[Jim Dwight]

You would only have to see my shop to know it's all about the projects, not the shop. It is messy constantly with a mixture of nice drawers and really crude pocket hole ones. It's all about function, not about appearance of the shop. I buy tools because I need them for a project. If I stop using them because I got something better, they leave (like my hollow chisel mortiser).

[Steve Demuth]

Making and repairing/restoring things are my primary forms of relaxation and distraction. My shop is just another tool in the belt for doing those things, and it serves woodworking, metalworking, farm mechanics, and increasingly, electronics projects. And, I really like incorporating new techniques into what I do. Learning is my only true lifelong passion. So, my shop's way too small for all the tools and materials I've tried to stuff into it, and I'm fixin' to build another one. But, the shop is not my focus, the projects are, even though inevitably, given my penchant for wanting to new things, I keep changing the shop to accommodate.

[Edward Weber]

In looking at the various forums I can't decide if we are more interested in woodworking itself or building up our shops? I'm woodworking.
Which are you?


For me it's woodworking, hands down. Shop projects are a necessity no matter how enjoyable the may be. Like many woodworkers, I suffer from a workshop that is too small and ever shrinking, hence the necessity to organize.

[Howard Rosenberg]

interesting question

this year, it's hard to tell

spent the last number of years away from woodworking and the shop started to look like a volcano - my wife told me this spring to tidy/clean/organize the shop or she'd appropriate it

cleaned it up and realized how deeply I'd missed conceiving the engineering and then executing projects, so this has been what I've been calling "the year of infrastructure" - bought a SDD and deconstructed my DC, built a new TS outfeed table using torsion box principles vs the heavier "than something" particle board top that scared the fertilizer out of me every time I swung it into place (I tend to wear sandals in the shop....)

so yeah, this year it's both...

[Kris Cook]

When I was working out of town a few years ago I was building a tool chest in the garage of the condo we were staying in. I was also building a work bench at home on my garage workshop. My co-worker and roommate where we were staying asked me "when are you going to start making things instead of making things to make things?

Now that I am in my third year of trying to finish up my dedicated workshop I am really looking forward to getting back into some furniture projects. I have enjoyed however, the planning and execution of building the shop.

What was the original question?:rolleyes:

[Stan Calow]

My shop will never be finished. After 20+ years, much of storage is still in tubs and boxes. In fact, I'm starting to reduce the footprint to phase things out. When I started out as a hobbyist, with working, home maintenance, and family life, my shop time was measured in a few hours a week. If I had prioritized building a shop over projects, it would have taken years to have anything to show for it, and I'd have probably lost interest.

[derek labian]

I think the delineation is between working on your shop and working on woodworking is potatoes and potatoes. If your a production shop, you spend less time working on your shop because time is money. If your a hobbiest, you can spend more time on your shop. I think a lot of "shop" work is woodworking. People make benches, drawers, sleds, etc. This is all woodworking as well. The common theme is creation of something, out of wood.

[mreza Salav]

For years I was buying tools and building my shop, especially during the period was building our house. Now over the last 5 years or so I have rarely bought any new tools (well except a recent 23g stapler that specifically bought for a project I have going) and have only used the shop. In fact many tools and items need attention (tuning and cleaning) but time is limited. So the project take priority....

[Sean Nagle]

This is all woodworking as well. The common theme is creation of something, out of wood.

This is very true, it is all woodworking. The question might best be posed, "do most of the projects you complete leave the shop or stay in the shop?"

[Jeff Heil]

Great topic of discussion. I am building my new shop in half of our new home's attached garage. The progress on the workshop has been stop and go, moved equipment and machines in and made some quick temporary work tables to finish the trim and cabinets for the house. We are in the house now and much of the cabinetry, all the trim work and the mantel are done. Transitioned back to getting the workshop finished now and the last of the house projects are waiting until the last of the shop walls are insulated and the shop heater is installed. Once I have heat, I will finish the last of the drawers and cabinet doors. To me the shop projects must support the projects I want to build. I love time in the shop, just need to balance working on the shop and working on furniture and cabinet projects. I just need to find a way to get more time in the shop, work and life seem to pull me away. Really excited to have a 24x32 dedicated garage work shop, had a 15x40 basement workshop at the previous house. It was climate controlled, but a pain carrying all materials down the garage steps to the basement and finished projects back out.

[Justin Rapp]

I tend to enjoy both actually. Of course once I get things in my shop set up the way I want, I think of a better way to set it up and redo things a bit. There is the never ending re-organization, which I dread since now I have to to remember where things go, but also on a constant path of upgrading or getting additional tools that require more space, more organization.

[Ole Anderson]

At this point, neither. Some of my most rewarding projects revolved around my shop, particularly my dust collection system, but not much left to improve on there. Early on I took on some pretty big WW projects for around the house, my biggest being my first, a computer hutch. Followed by my kitchen cabinets ten years later with a few big ones in between and after. Now I still love working in the shop when I have a project of necessity or a request, but they are coming further and further between. Nowadays I don't look for projects to do, they need to find me.

Answering this thread makes me want to start another thread. Guess what?

[Mike Nolan]

I am mostly a tool collector. I build things to hold my tools. It makes me happy when I have the tools to do something. It makes me unhappy when I know I have the tool but can’t find it. I have built a few useful things for the house but not enough to justify the money spent on the shop. But for me woodworking is a hobby, not a business. We asked our kids if they wanted anything to be left specifically to them in our wills. One of my daughters' only request was for an end table that I built.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Woodworking is the hobby. Building a workbench, saw till, tool cabinet, outfeed table, router table, workstation for the sliding compound miter saw, shorts bin, sheet goods rack are all wood working. In the early days it was more about household needs, beds, book shelves , tables, cabinets, gifts … and so the focus was more on output. In the past 5 years or so there as been a shift towards more of the hobby side of things - what technique do I want to learn? What do I want to create not because we need to fill a household need, but because I want to try my hand at that? The latest shop build was a shaving horse, presumably to be used for chair making. We do not need chairs. I’m not even sure that we want new chairs, I just know that I have an interest in making a chair. But that will go on the back burner because we also recently decided to remodel our bedroom and I will be making closet modules for a 12x7 walk-in. Nothing too technical, but lots of dresser drawers and shelves.

[Ronnie Hurst]

I find I'm more into building the projects, either for my wife or customers. Ashamedly, my garage/shop is a mess that is long overdue for a cleanup.

[Derek Meyer]

I spend more time designing and building shop improvements, but I have to do an occasional project or my wife threatens to start selling my tools. Gotta keep her happy. My latest project for her was a cedar planter box with benches on each side, sized for our front porch. She now has it decorated for Thanksgiving. It turned out well so she is very happy.

Now she wants shelves added to a couple of walls in our laundry room. After I do those, it's back to the shop to design and build a clamp storage rack, and then either an organizer for nail guns or getting started on the cabinets for a miter saw station. The list goes on...

[Gordon Stump]

I used to spend many hours in the shop making furniture for money. My profession as a musician took its toll on family. The phone rings and off you go to the recording studio leaving a dinner party or holiday behind. The good news is I only worked for an hour or so on a jingle or 3 hours on a record. So my answer WAS a nebulous YES as well.

But now as a retiree with no desire to make big stuff for money I only go into the shop to fill inventory on a small production level for my niche small business. I guess my wife paid her dues and I do not think it is overly fair to hang out in the shop fine tuning stuff unless necessary. So now NO to building the shop up.