Workshop tour- new finishing room, metal shop, woodworking, and merrymaking
You may remember that I went in with a couple of other guys to pool tools and money and make a dream workshop. That is why you haven’t heard from me in a while. I have been busy building a finish room, moving all my stuff, hanging slatwall, etc. This video was taken after a long day of man glitter making, and the shop is as it is during use- no cleanup for the camera.
Here is is the link to the vid. Fast forward to 0:45 to skip me yacking about mangoes and Sahara dust, which I thought I had edited out.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=krdJfezDKiQ
A few notes:
I got a steal on some 3/4” treated ply, and the finishing room is skinned wall-to-wall in that, as is the other side of that wall, which was then skinned in slatwall. I paid $17 a sheet for the 3/4 ply, so it was cheaper than Sheetrock. Shop is open air so I am not worried about using treated ply. It is the way to go down here. Hanging stuff is easy- 3/4 ply everywhere. Just screw it in where ya want it.
Also, some of the cabinets do have the missing glass for the doors, which I will put in- some day. Cabinets were left behind by previous shop owner who was a cabinetmaker. I paid $300 for all cabinets and some leftover plywood. Not bad.
All lighting is LED throughout the shop.
Vince (metal shop) is a Dewalt guy; I’m a Milwaukee guy. We have a lot of fun with that. I bought him the Dewalt banner. Recently he bought a Milwaukee nail gun and a Milwaukee hydraulic drive impact gun (after using mine and loving it.) I put a Milwaukee banner over the Dewalt sign, just to mess with him, and started calling him a converter. It ended up by my sink. Normally I don’t put up branding in my shop- these were just fun pranks.
The ramp is mainly for bikes, but is nice to have. Ramp and stairs easily remove for dock height loading.
The jointer is a 12” Grizzly. I love it, but am going to build a bigger infeed/outfeed for it. I build a lot of big stuff: doors, beds, boats... and frequently joint 8’ lumber. I built table extensions for the shop where I teach, and it is a great thing to have. The planer is a 15” knockoff of a Powermatic, and I hate it. Saving up for a bigger, better one.
One person is a welder/Mr. Fixit by trade, another is a lawyer by day, and restores antiques by night. Me, well, I make messes and clean them up, over and over just for fun. I teach woodworking by day, and go figure- I get done and head to my own shop to do more woodworking. Safe to say I enjoy woodworking. The shop is more hobby than business, but I take on occasional stuff that interests me, but only if it is something crazy that I want to be challenged by. Oh, and yes, I retired early from the corporate life, so there is much less jet-setting now and more woodworking. I now teach woodworking at a program for at-risk youth, and my only regret is I didn’t do it sooner.
The boat is in parts and will soon start going together. I have to finish my Harley project, a bed, a rocker, and a desk. (Sigh). Never enough hours in the day.
Do you NEED two bandsaws? I mean, sure- of course you do! I must say- it is really convenient to have one for curved cuts and one for resawing and thick cuts. As you see, we build a lot of rocking chairs for some reason, and a lot of slab resawing goes on as well.
There is another person in the space behind the doors with the flag on them. He keeps separate because he does production work, but he has full use of our shop, which mainly ends up as him using our bathroom.
We have three dust collectors: one wall mounted for the bandsaws, and two larger wheeled ones. One stays hooked to the saw most of the time. The other is a little ho and flits around with all the tools. The one for the saw really needs to be better set up, but the shop has been changing and I wanted to let tools settle into a space before I route any ducting. I have no desire for a fixed dust collector. I am a huge fan of having the collector next to the tool. The two saws, however, really need fixed ducts. If this were a production shop, I would change that, but for us, rolling the collector around isn’t a big deal. If I get tired of that, I will buy more dust collectors before I run ducting.
What would I change? I’m not happy with that back wall, which used to be plywood storage, and then became a catch-all. Every shop has a catch-all, right? Most of that stuff is boat parts that will gradually become a boat. That’s what I keep telling myself.
