How Do I go about closing up my woodshop

[James Mittlefehldt]

Iwill be selling my house later this year and my hand tool woodshop will not be able to go with me, so what I am wondering is how do I deal with the closing of it as I will be going to rental accommodation.

How have any of you guys dealt with this?

I am in South western Ontario by the way. the woodsop is in my garage about 15 by 21 feet, shelving tools tool chests wood etc.

Any ideas?

James

[David Silverson]

A small room in your new home should be enough if you want to carry on with hand tool projects. Little noise or dust.

[Matt Evans]

I ran a small woodworking business out of my dining room for a few years. Cleanest shop I will ever have, I think. The urge to build things keeps going even when you don't have the space you'd like for it.

I'd keep what you can use. Maybe make a few tool chests that would hold your most necessary hand tools, and sell/gift/donate the tools you would rarely, if ever, need. You could even make furniture that doubles as tool storage or work holding/work surface to use in the new rental space.

[James Mittlefehldt]

I ran a small woodworking business out of my dining room for a few years. Cleanest shop I will ever have, I think. The urge to build things keeps going even when you don't have the space you'd like for it.

I'd keep what you can use. Maybe make a few tool chests that would hold your most necessary hand tools, and sell/gift/donate the tools you would rarely, if ever, need. You could even make furniture that doubles as tool storage or work holding/work surface to use in the new rental space.

I do a lot of railway historical research in my living area and in smaller qurters the wood shop even apartment size would be unlikely.

I did already give a tool chest with a set of tools that belonged to my son-in-laws great grandfather he was what would we call here these days a finish carpenter installing and doors and building them on site, along with baseboards window etc. He would have apprenticed around the mid 1890's. I gave his chest and tools to a historic recreation place in Ontario here. They were happy to have that set and chest as they exhibit the pre world war era. I may actually do volunteer work there in their cabinet shop in future
, alonfg with my volunteer work here in a local Railway Museum.

[Peter Christensen]

A long long shot but maybe there is a woodworker in your area that has an extra room or a corner in their shop they would rent or give you cheap. You could keep woodworking and eventually pass the tools on to them. Any woodworking clubs in your area like the one in Durham that have a big shop in the basement of a church? They could also be ones that could put some of the tools to good use.

[John C Cox]

Rent a storage unit. Carefully pack up your stuff and move it there until you get settled in your new place.

I had all my tools + my whole lumber collection in a small storage unit for about 2 years during a series of moves for work..

If you have shelves in your workshop - set them up in the storage unit to use the vertical space more efficiently....

[Scott Winter]

Rent a storage unit. Carefully pack up your stuff and move it there until you get settled in your new place.

I had all my tools + my whole lumber collection in a small storage unit for about 2 years during a series of moves for work..

If you have shelves in your workshop - set them up in the storage unit to use the vertical space more efficiently....

Or just use the storage unit as your new shop

[Matt Lau]

What type of woodworking do you do?

Could you do it outside?

I've been pondering a similar situation, but from the reverse end of slowly building up a workshop that I can take with me...probably to Stan's annoyance, since I've been emailing him :P.

What I ended up doing was putting my tools in systainers, and packing them in my dental office's compressor room for when I need a fix. I'm currently working off a Dewalt portable bench behind my dental office (sometimes)...or a Blum bench horse at my "real workshop."

My dream bench (for now) would be a Underhill style folding bench...which the Blum bench seems patterned off of. While I can't say the Blum never moves...it's much more solid than any Sjoberg's workbench that I've ever seen/used. My only complaint with the Blum is 1.) the pipe clamps can be awkward; 2.) It's plywood, and I like solid wood.

[Robert Hartmann]

I'm in the US Air Force and move every few years. I never know if I will have a good space or just a corner since we usually don't find a place to live until we actually show up at our new location. Having been overseas a few times added to the issues since I can't take any power tools. I've learned to adapt by adjusting to the space. You didn't say if you would have any space to work or not. The first time I went overseas I wasn't in to hand tools yet, so my whole shop was put in climate controlled storage. It was there 5 yrs and came out with no rust. My second time overseas I packed it all up as before, but did the move to hand tools while there.

I ended up with a Schwarz inspired tool chest which holds just about everything I need. That along with a bench and you have the basics. My last assignment was in the Netherlands. I started out working in the living room, but with three small kids I kept having to completely pick/clean everything up. I ended up in the cellar (it was pretty big), but the humidity was an issue (tools were fine, the wood not so much).

My point is, if this is temporary, you could pack it up and put it in a storage unit. If you have some space you may just have to limit your tools to what you really enjoy using.

[John C Cox]

For the OP..

Just to be clear - are we talking about your hobby workshop or are you talking about temporarily closing a business.

On storsge units....
Most have no electrical service available outside of the one lightbulb in the unit.

[William Fretwell]

Finding work space in SW. Ont. is very difficult. There is nothing in my town. If you rent a space just the utilities connection charges are substantial, before you use any gas, electricity or water.
A friend rented space in a farmers barn up near Ottawa for his lathe (30 minutes away) due to noise issues with his wife. That may be one solution. Buy a large old truck and convert the back to a hand tool space? Solar panels on the roof & LED lights!
PM me if you want to visit my space sometime but I'm guessing I'm an hour away.