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I really enjoy working in my shop making things but have to admit that I also enjoy, with almost equal satisfaction, working on my shop. It seems there's always an improvement to be made. My barn turned into a shop and now a studio (called now because I do wood carving LOL) is my home away from home separated by only a couple hundred feet.
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Originally Posted by Steve Mathews
Id say im 60/40 60% love adding tools and improving shop. 40% enjoy projects
As my experience and types of projects have grown, so has the need for certain changes grown in the makeup and layout of my shop. I truly enjoy the time I spend in my shop.
"Shop Projects" are absolutely something that many of us enjoy doing...it's an opportunity for so many things. I'll include "making it a nice environment" as something many of us also enjoy because it makes spending time there more enjoyable. Of course, folks who are earning their living with their shop will do these things out of necessity to be more productive, but even then, there's a place for shop projects.
My current work is actually a shop project...more formal and functional Systainer storage instead of haphazard stacks of boxes where what I need in the moment is often at the bottom of the stack. LOL It's been planned for a long time and is the perfect size project to be handled safely with my right wrist still constrained with weight/strength after last November's surgery. Further, it's preparing me for another two cabinet projects that will be going in the house. Working some things out this way is productive for sure.
I agree with you Steve.
well. after 17 years my shop is done. but have sade that so many times......
my shop is full to overflowing getting hard to move around, now taking over most of the rest of the basement for wood storage and may start doing final assembly and finish on the other side. Wife moved her sewing machine out, now need to move what is left into the storage room or gone.
I currently have a fair sized backlog of maintenance and repairs to the existing machines. I got all the dust collection hooked up for NOW, never ending project for me. However, need to do final assembly and repairs to machines that were bought and moved in during the brief periods I could do that. Have bearings screaming on 15" wide belt sander, one of the dust collection blowers.
In the past I have made cabinets for the shop, very basic, workbench, cabinets for the garage, etc. Seem to alternate working on the shop and working in the shop. Tore walls out downstairs and expanded the shop once certain kids were gone and before grandkids could ask about moving in. Did leave the full bathroom, it is in the road however too handy to tear out. Dust collection has been a 20 year project, thinking I will not tear it all out and redo again, just minor adds for new to me equipment.
No cabinets planed, however need to make individual cabinets and aux tables as needed.
Need to make 5 hope chests and other projects grandkids think of. Want to buy another 500 bdft of cherry just because. White Oak now too expensive to buy just because so the approx 200 bdft I have is set aside for SWMBO projects.
Ron
just need to heal up from below knee amputation and get my new prosthetics leg fitted and learn to walk again. Doctor said I will be able to do things I haven't for at least 7 years.
Ron, sorry to hear about the BKA. Hope it heals smoothly, and soon.
Best, Patrick
As someone said, heal completely and quickly!
I tend to complete a furniture type project, then a shop project, then repeat.
Shop time is precious, so keeping the shop clean, organized and ready for work is extremely important to having an enjoyable productive shop.
I don’t have time to waste looking for things, a place for everything and everything in its place is the mantra, and no, piled on the Unisaw is not the place😏
Regards, Rod
I have to occasionally do woodworking long enough to ensure my wife my shop is for woodworking and resist the real desire of working on my shop and buying new equipment (which I think I like best).
I do think paying attention and making improvements to ones workflow is worth the effort.
Also, things just change over time. I'm just starting a minor re-arrangement of my shop (which is my garage which shares space with a car, but car is moved to the driveway when doing woodworking). I've added a few tools since I built it out several years back, and have just realized that some things don't work out as well as I thought they would. I've also built a greenhouse/shed since then, so a lot of garden tools that were previously stored in the garage are now stored there, which changes some requirements. So the changes I'm making should allow better use of the space, and hopefully shouldn't take more than a few days to do.