Shop Tour (pics)

[Fred Voorhees]

The Oneida dust collection system is installed and a shop tour is called for, so I thought that I would combine the both of them and present them to those who have been waiting patiently. My shop began as a thought in my head many years ago. It finally came to fruition when tax time came around about ten years ago and we found that Uncle Sam was a very greedy guy. Truth be told, our house was just about paid off and we had very little to write off. That is when we decided that that detached garage that we had always been talking about was probably in its time frame. Well, why not add a second floor and make it my dedicated wood shop? Heck, that was a no brainer! Well, it's evolved over the past eight or nine years up to what you see here. Still some improvements to make to her as time goes by. But I'm getting there. Oh and by the way, the shop's measurements are 36' 6" X 17' 6".


I hope the pictures post in the correct order. I am adding them in the order that I want them to post.

Picture 1 – The tour starts with the newly acquired Oneida cyclone unit which is located on the first floor level in the garage portion of the building. The shop is upstairs.

Picture 2 – Shows the ductwork leading to the underside of the table saw above it in the shop. This eliminated the need for a “drop” at the table saw location, possibly getting in the way when large sheets of material are being cut.

Picture 3 – The main trunk of the collection system comes up through the floor behind the North side knee wall. It enters the shop through the knee wall and is helped up the wall by these fabbed up hanger supports. My Wood magazine inspired lumber rack can be noticed also, as well as my Sommerfeld style router table. A Hitachi M12V router is housed inside. The cabinets are reused from an old attached garage. I will someday build some new ones. Until then, they are serving me well.

Picture 4 – The main branch of the ductwork heading into the shop and dropping down to my jointer. You can also see my lumber rack and a slight view of my mobile clamp rack. My new Jet air cleaner is up in the air.

Picture 5 – The South side of my shop looking east. The ductwork continues over to my RAS. The second drop here will serve an area at my bench that will eventually have an insert area for both my benchtop planer and a Rockwell chop saw. In the background you can see my Jet mortiser and oscillating spindle sander, as well as my Kreg pneumatic pocket screw jig, small grinder and behind that on top of the bench, my D4 Leigh dovetail jig. My table saw and my 6’X6’ workbench are in the foreground. And YES, my two fans.

[Fred Voorhees]

Well, I almost got the order correct. Anyway, here are the next set of five. I guess you can figure out which captions belong to which pictures.


Picture 6 – The South side of my shop looking west. My RAS drop and the middle drop as well as the furthest drop serving the Jet drill press and band saw. Another view of my thirty foot long side work bench. The speaker up on the wall pumps country music into the shop!

Picture 7 – The North side of my shop looking west. You can see my mobile clamp cart as well as the floor sweep drop of my new collection system. You can also notice my still – as of yet – fairly untouched lathe. I will get around to learning how to use that sucker. Also in the pic is the mobile utility cart I built a few years ago. It houses my belt sander, saber saw, Makita random orbital sander and Makita circular saw. My new Jet air cleaner is evident as well as a phone hook up and a picture of “God” beside it. And YES, another fan, this one an oscillating one! Hey, it can get hot up there in the summertime.

Picture 8 – More or less, the “hardware” section of my shop where screws and nails of various sizes can be had. The drawers hold more screws and nails. This all backs up to the opening for the stairway up and down from the shop.

Picture 9 – My new hookup for the jointer. I didn’t want to use so much flex hose here, but it was necessary to mount the blast gate up high here so that I could access my sheet storage area behind the lumber rack.

Picture 10 – A shot of my design for a floor sweep. Simple and effective.

[Fred Voorhees]

And finally, two more pics to complete the tour.

Picture 11 – A shot of my table saw with the outfeed table built according to the design on Jim Becker’s website. It’s a great project and well worth the effort and minor cost.

Picture 12 – A shot of my shop built clamp cart. Built from scraps from around the shop.

[Tyler Howell]

Wow Fred. Two Too Nice!

[Terry Hatfield]

Fred,

SUPER!!!!!! What a well organized space you have there. It was worth the wait for the pics. Really, really nice job.

t

[Todd Burch]

Very clean, very uncluttered. Very nice Fred!

[John Miliunas]

Well done, Fred! Thanks much for the tour. I think the only suggestion I'd make is to utilize the window at the end there for an AC unit to keep you comfy in those hot months. Otherwise, real cool. Nice clean lines on the DC runs and everything is tucked out of the way. Good job! :cool:

[Keith Starosta]

Fred, very nice!! I have a question about Picture 9. I have that same jointer, and have been trying to figure out the best way to collect the dust. Can you give me some detail and/or a front picture of what you've done? How effective is it? Thanks!!

Keith

[Jason Tuinstra]

Fred, way too nice!!! The dust collection is remarkable and seems to do a good job of keeping things dust free. Your use of space and organization is outstanding. I give it two thumbs up, way up! Thanks for the tour.

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Nice shop, Fred
Daniel :cool:

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Fred, shop tours are particularly helpful to me right now. As you can see on another thread, I am just starting to build my new shop.

I particuarly like the clamp cart and have already copied the picture with the intention of copying the cart some day.

[Dick Parr]

Really nice shop Fred!

[Fred Voorhees]

Fred, very nice!! I have a question about Picture 9. I have that same jointer, and have been trying to figure out the best way to collect the dust. Can you give me some detail and/or a front picture of what you've done? How effective is it? Thanks!!

Keith

Keith, I don't have an available "close-up" picture of the jointer dust collection connection. If I had a digital camera (like Terry Hatfield says I should :p ) I could run out right now and grab a close up. However, I use the original dust chute that came with the jointer. It did have a cover that bolted or screwed over top of the chute. I never did bother using that. What I did originally was to construct a cover that would more or less "sandwich" the chute as the original cover would have. This cover screwed into the original chute. I did have to drill new holes into the original chute to accomodate these screws. Into this cover I originally had a connection that was sized to fit my shop vac. I was able to use the same cover because I moved up to a five inch diameter hole, so that size hole encompassed the entire former connection. I just cut around it. I hope this helps.

As far as effectiveness, well, to me it's a brand new system and to be honest, I haven't been on the jointer since installing the hose to it with the exception of running a piece of scrap through the jointer a few times just to test the connection out.

[Fred Voorhees]

Well done, Fred! ............. I think the only suggestion I'd make is to utilize the window at the end there for an AC unit to keep you comfy in those hot months. Otherwise, real cool. Nice clean lines on the DC runs and everything is tucked out of the way. Good job! :cool:

Thanks for the kind words John. I did try to cool down the room with an air conditioner that I thought was sized right for a room that size. However, upon trying it, it labored for two or three hours and it didn't seem to me to have done anything as far as cooling it down in all of that time. That is when I decided to try fans. The fans work much more than the air conditioner did and they are cheaper to run to boot.

[Boyd Gathwright]

Fred,
Nice neat installation of your DC system. Looks like your new Right angled support blast gates worked out well, especially in your situation. Also like your clamp cart, nice touch. Overall, a very efficient looking workshop.

Good future woodworking.

Boyd




And finally, two more pics to complete the tour.

Picture 11 – A shot of my table saw with the outfeed table built according to the design on Jim Becker’s website. It’s a great project and well worth the effort and minor cost.

Picture 12 – A shot of my shop built clamp cart. Built from scraps from around the shop.

[Robert Ducharme]

Looks VERY nice. However, it is much too clean! :) Thanks for the tour.

[chris toomey]

fred,

how do you get pieces in and out of a second floor shop? trap door? staircase? just curious

[Fred Voorhees]

fred,

how do you get pieces in and out of a second floor shop? trap door? staircase? just curious

How you doin' today Chris? Yes, I guess that eventually it will become an issue that my shop is on the second floor. Access is by stairway. The stairs are a bit wider than normal, though I asked the carpenter to make them even wider, I didn't get it. I have made some larger pieces of furniture and have been able to get them down the stairs, albeit, with help of course. If it comes down to a really large piece that has to be built, it will have to be built in sections. I just recently built some arbor type lattice panels and they were ten foot long by six foot wide and I was able to get them down the stairway with help from my brother. They showed me that that kind of size was just about the limit though.