Portable/outside workshop/woodworking?

[Matt Lau]

Hey Guys,

I'm not sure where to post this, so I'm posting this here.
Over the past few months, I've realized that I spend most of my time at my office...about 4 hours (on my day off) to 10-11 hours (on my full patient days) on average.
While I have a 1.5 car garage workshop about 30 minutes away, I generally get about 1-2 hours a month to use it.

Out of frustration, I've started to create a mobile/portable workshop inside the compressor room of my dental office.
I've got a used Festool CT36 as the base, various hand tools, and a dewalt folding workbench with Veritas attachments.
The whole thing fits in the back of my Honda Fit, with space to spare.

I haven't had a chance to use it yet (massive leak at office, lots of new patients, coordinating community dental outreach), but look forward to doing so tomorrow!
Mainly, I'll be using this for acoustic guitars/ukuleles...but also plan to use it for smaller projects (boxes, book shelves, fixing things around the house).

If my patient doesn't show up in the next 10 minutes, I may take photos.


Do you guys have anything similar?

I might call this my surreptitious hidden mobile workshop.

[William Adams]

No, but that's something which I'm very interested in, and would love to replicate --- I find myself waiting on my kids a lot, and a couple of times have grabbed a box of files and so forth and done some work on a(n archery) bow stave while waiting, but whittling just isn't as socially acceptable as once it was.

I usually have to haul work out to my back deck when working with tropical exotics, so have to be at least that mobile.

I would love to see a photo.

[Jim Becker]

It seems quite practical to do some form of "mobile woodworking". Just pick your battles. Hand-tool work is the easiest to accommodate and the least messy, particularly in your office environment when I'm sure you need to be reasonably careful with that kind of thing. So with good project planning, you can get a whole bunch of satisfying and relaxing work in while away from home and keep most of the serious "dust making" activities in your regular workshop at home.

[Mike Heidrick]

You wont need to pack a drill.

[Matt Lau]

I just figured that I'll chime in regarding the outdoor/mobile workshop-----it works well!

IMG_20180125_130818.jpgIMG_20180125_133741.jpgIMG_20180125_133728.jpg

The Dewalt workbench is NOT going to make any neanderdude satisfied, as it skitters if you saw incorrectly or do rough planing.
However, workholding is pretty good with the Veritas stuff. The Dewalt clamps are poorly made, imprecise, and shift during clamping...but securely hold the workpieces as needed...then again the workbench costs as much as the Veritas surface clamp.

The festool and systainer rolls right out, and plugs into a nearby wall plug. I have a LV worktable worklight that can slot right into a MFT systainer (ironically, the only festool I have aside from a single clamp and the CT36). The systainers are mostly filled with hand tools (planes, rasps, scrapers) with the exception of an orbital sander and sandpaper.

Somehow, I feel like hand tools should be in a wooden enclosure, and that systainers suit power tools more?

I may need to get systainers for my cordless drills (bosch) and jigsaw (bosch).
I'll probably try simply repurposing my existing systainers first.

[Matt Lau]

Oh, and the whole setup comfortably fits in the back seat of my Honda Fit.

It's super liberating to not need to worry too much about dust control, lighting, parking, getting into the workshop.
Now if only I had more time to do it! Lots of work at the office...feels like Sisyphus sometimes.

[Mike Cutler]

Matt

You do what you have to do.
I think a lot of folks here on the board have had to overcome some significant space obstacle to pursue this "craft". I remember working out of one of those 10'x12' tin garden sheds when I lived in Charlotte. There was an old ShopSmith in there and a few saw horses. It worked though.Couldn't work in the rain though, because the extension cord had to come from the house.
I certainly don't have a big shop by any means, but it somehow, or the other, helps me accomplish what I want to do. Most times.

Nice guitar template.

[John K Jordan]

Excellent! But now while waiting when they tell me the dentist will be right in I'll wonder if she's just finishing up a little scraping or working on a fretboard.

45 years ago I worked on a porch, covering tools or carrying them inside when not using them. Now I have a 24x62' shop but probably don't get much more shop time than I had then!

JKJ

[Bradley Potts]

I'm a fan of the Workmates -- much sturdier and more stable than any of the other portable "bench" solutions I've seen and used. For mine, I've fabricated a top with a 2x6 spine that gets clamped in the table's vise, and have drilled 3/4" dog holes as needed in the top itself. Taking a cue from my RAS use, I tacked down a consumable 1/4" MDF top which I happily cut to bits with my tracksaw and drills.

[Charles Lent]

When I first moved here I had no shop for several years, and most of my previous shop except for the most frequently needed hand and hand held power tools remained in boxes in storage. I did a lot of work on my WorkMate with just those most basic tools, including building my present shop. I used a banquet table to hold my tools and the WorkMate as my workbench. Before my shop was finished I had acquired a second WorkMate and built a couple of saw horses. Since this shop is only about 1/2 as large as my former shop it's truly a one man shop, since the aisles are small and I still do some work outside. My 735 planer is mounted to a miter saw/planer stand, so I can roll it outside and set it up for use easily. I have the accessory hose and fabric barrel cover, and keep a 60 gallon plastic barrel behing the shop that I put to use to collect the planer chips. I've also built a cutting table for breaking down sheet stock that is also used outside the shop. It's just a wood frame that's mounted on banquet table legs that I use in place of the saw horses and WorkMates. It holds the sheet stock while I cut it and now neither the large piece nor the off cut ever falls at the end of the cut. I sometimes attach a piece of plywood to this table with a couple of screws and put my miter saw on it if doing outside trim work, etc.

Attached are a few pictures of my cutting table. It is about 30 X 70 inches and made from 1 X 4 and 2 C 4 material. When not in use, the legs fold up inside the frame and it leans on edge against my sheet stock inside my shop.The small pieces of plywood on the one edge can be turned so they extend above the table, then the table is tipped on edge with these down against the driveway. A sheet of material is then placed on these and against the table. Then I reach down and pick up both the sheet and table until the table is sitting upright with the sheet lying flat on top of it. I then turn these tabs down below the table surface and proceed to cut up the sheet stock, making each cut roughly positioned down the middle of the table with the blade set to cut about 1/4" below the sheet. At the end of the cut, nothing falls to the ground. I remove the off cut and then re-position the sheet for the next cut. There is no metal in the table except for the short screws that hold the legs and folding braces on, so no worry about hitting metal with the saw blade. All of the table joints were assembled with biscuits and glue. Between my WorkMates and this cutting table, I almost never use saw horses anymore, except if needed to support a scaffold board. The cutting table with a full sheet of 3/4 plywood on it makes a great picnic table too, when more guests arrive than planned for.

Charley

[Jim Becker]

Charley, that's a nice setup. With a little thought, it could also be designed with shorter, shop-made folding legs to raise it just a little off the floor for more comfortable material handling while using a track saw. Lifting full sheets of thicker stuff is no fun sometimes, but kneeling on the floor is equally no fun.

[Charles Lent]

Jim,

I can no longer kneel or work at floor level. Too hard on my body in earlier life. Fell through a floor in a fire and landed knee first 11 feet down on concrete. I now have metal knees I find that banquet table height is about ideal for breaking up sheet material using my version of a track saw. I'm 5'8" so maybe shorter or taller might find it less than ideal. I made a set of wheels to put on the bottom edge of sheet stock to easily move it out to the table location alone, and I also have a Gorilla Gripper for when they need to be lifted. The plywood tabs let me place the sheet on them and lean the sheet against the tipped on it's side table, then I tip both the table and sheet together until the table is upright with the sheet laying flat on the top of it and ready for cutting. I'm 75 now, and afraid to slow down, but my muscles no longer let me do some of the heavier work that I once could. Attached is a photo of the wheels that I put under the edge of sheets when moving them out to the table. They can go under one end or roughly in the middle. The wheels and stub axles are from an old discarded high wheel mower. Without the wind blowing, a full sheet of 3/4 cabinet birch will stand by itself on the wheels, as seen in the photo. The Gorilla Gripper is on the top of the sheet and used for setting the sheet on the wheels and also transferring it to the tabs on the table. Even full 5' X 5' sheets of Baltic Birch can be managed this way. That's my front yard and driveway in the photo, not the road.

Charley

[andy bessette]

Though I have a very complete shop, much of my work is done on the boats. So I have portable tool kits and have devised a way to hold workpieces in a fast-acting aluminum vise that stores inside of, and mounts instantly to the top of a rather heavy duty plastic tool box, in custom made slides. Where there is no convenient work surface on which to rest the tool box, I work on my knees, on a heavy duty kneeling pad. This has the advantage of great stability while planing or sawing, as there are no tall legs to wobble beneath the work holding device.

[Jim Becker]

That makes sense, Charles...having things at a height that is most comfortable for the individual worker is important!