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Thread: Post a pic of your favorite shop improvement project

  1. #1
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    Post a pic of your favorite shop improvement project

    What is your most rewarding shop improvement? Or one that you want to be remembered for? Or one that you simply can't live without? Pick just one and post just one or two photos. I'll start: My dust collection system install from ten years ago fits the bill on all accounts. Not the biggest or most elaborate, but I had a ball designing and installing it. It was a 2 horsepower Oneida Super Dust Gorilla with snap lock duct ranging from 3" up to 7". Every time I fire it up, I am reminded of the fun I had with it and the utility it serves.
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    NOW you tell me...

  2. #2
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    I’m building a new shop and I’ve included quite a few ideas that I’ve gather over the years. But using attic trusses and building an elevator is probably the best idea I’ve had. It makes using the attic easy and quick. I don’t have to struggle to get things up a ladder and it takes almost no floor space unlike a set of stairs. I still have to wire the permanent electric and finish the underside but you’ll get the idea from the pic.
    I hope the pic doesn’t rotate but it likely will.
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    The Plane Anarchist

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Leigh Betsch View Post
    I’m building a new shop and I’ve included quite a few ideas that I’ve gather over the years. But using attic trusses and building an elevator is probably the best idea I’ve had. It makes using the attic easy and quick. I don’t have to struggle to get things up a ladder and it takes almost no floor space unlike a set of stairs. I still have to wire the permanent electric and finish the underside but you’ll get the idea from the pic.
    I hope the pic doesn’t rotate but it likely will.
    I have folding stairs to my attic. They work very well & take up no floor space. But getting heavy or awkward stuff up there is a chore. An hoist like you have is something that I've been thinking about building for a while.

  4. #4
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    I also have a foldup ladder for safety. In case the power goes out while I'm upstairs I can push the ladder down and climb down. I'm up and down multiple times a day. I keep all the shop clutter up stairs, the cyclone, air compressor, phase converter. The noisy stuff and the messy stuff.
    Last edited by Leigh Betsch; 11-10-2021 at 9:47 AM.
    The Plane Anarchist

  5. #5
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  6. #6
    Mine is definitely my scissor lift assembly table. Added casters and a MDF torsion box top. 40”x75” and goes from 24” off the ground up to about 60” high. Amazing how nice it is to work with this around!
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    Still waters run deep.

  7. #7
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    Did you build the scissor lift?
    The Plane Anarchist

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Leigh Betsch View Post
    Did you build the scissor lift?
    Good lord, no . I found it used on Facebook marketplace for $500 (!) after looking for one the right one, right time, right place for a year or so. 220V single phase, 2200 lb capacity
    Still waters run deep.

  9. #9
    This is a bit facetious but I am going to say the screened porch. It is a great place to just sit, but it will eventually have a shaving horse and chopping block for chair making.


    EABC05E1-51C2-4887-A5F1-6468357C6498.jpg

  10. #10
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    Setting aside "machinery acquisitions" where my CNC machine would take the price for shop improvement of the century, my adjustable height benches (Noden) with tops customized to my (perceived) needs are probably the best shop improvements I've made.

    Main bench:



    Auxiliary bench:

    Downdraft...


    Pocket screw station



    General utility surface (material handling and small assembly, junk collection , etc)



    Guitar bench (not adjustable height, but optimized for the purpose)



    Runner up goes to switching to clamp-together duct work when I moved into my temporary shop...something I'll continue and expand when I put up a shop building, hopefully in the next year.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  11. #11
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    Rubber mat interlocking tiles flooring across all traffic areas in the shop. Great improvement over the concrete it covers:

    Rubber Mat Flooring.jpg

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Setting aside "machinery acquisitions" where my CNC machine would take the price for shop improvement of the century, my adjustable height benches (Noden) with tops customized to my (perceived) needs are probably the best shop improvements I've made.
    Purple Heart is amazing for shop fixtures -- that was the first special board I bought (monthly sale at woodcraft) before I realized that I wasn't going to use it for household furniture. But it was wonderful as the fences on my table saw sled. I grinned like a fool every time I thought on how well it worked.

    Matt

  13. #13
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    My favorite shop improvement would have to be my outfeed/assembly table.
    tablesaw (2).jpg
    Army Veteran 1968 - 1970
    I Support the Second Amendment of the US Constitution

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Setting aside "machinery acquisitions" where my CNC machine would take the price for shop improvement of the century
    i didnt realize how much you liked your CNC.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Matthew Hills View Post
    Purple Heart is amazing for shop fixtures -- that was the first special board I bought (monthly sale at woodcraft) before I realized that I wasn't going to use it for household furniture. But it was wonderful as the fences on my table saw sled. I grinned like a fool every time I thought on how well it worked.

    Matt
    Yes, it's HARD stuff! The 8/4 purpleheart board I used for the bench was gifted to me by the cabinetmaker/artist across the street from our old property many years ago when he was doing a shop cleanout of odds and ends. I got a bunch of 4/4, too, some I've used and some is still in my inventory plus a bunch of other exotics. Like Wenge, you need to watch out for splinters, however! The rest of the bench was also from material lying about...scraps of 8/4 cherry, maple, oak on the vice end and the fields of the rest were made from a single 5/4+ cherry board I bought in about 2000 from Willard Brothers in Trenton NJ during the first "annual October sale" I went to. I still need to get that benchtop up to the local wood purveyor who has a wide sander to clean up some things, but it's heavy and awkward. Maybe someday...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

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