Please bear with me as I get going with this blog thing. I’ve found it’s like woodworking; you have to practice in order to get better at it. So I thought I would start with some basic stuff, first off being my shop. Some background information, it is a 21 x 30 foot three car garage. I am using less than that for my shop area because, as you’ll see, I still have all the crap a garage normally has! The first picture is the first thing you see when you walk out of the house onto the landing. This gives a pretty good overview of the shop. I’ve played with the layout several times and finally found one that really works for my needs.

The next shot is taken down by the clamp rack looking back towards the landing. You can definitely see why this is a one person shop! It’s hard to imagine that I was building cabinetry in it for a while.

As you walk down the stairs the first corner is my cabinet making machines and is also where I store my sandpaper. I still use the Kreg machine, and only occasionally the multi-spindle boring machine. Even my mortising machine has seen little usage since I got the Festool Domino and it will see even less when I get the XL June 1st!

Next stop is my miter saw and drill press area. The miter saw stand is kind of weird, but it works. The dresser was left by the previous owners (who also left a dumpster full of trash behind, spread throughout the house!) Anyways, it works for my needs and it has a lot of storage, so I keep it. You may not notice, but behind it are my air compressor, dust collector and Super dust deputy from Oneida (which was a great investment by the way!)

Next to that is my newest purchase and is quickly becoming a shop favorite, Grizzly 21″ Band saw. This thing is a beast! Behind it is my two welders (TIG and MIG), as I was a school trained welder and I used to weld on rocket handling equipment for Lockheed Martin. On top of the MIG welder is my old Makita planer. And next to it is my sanding station and the 14″ band saw. I keep a ¼” blade on it for quick cuts and tight radius curves. Finally is my clamp rack (although I have clamps spread throughout the shop!) and work table. Also you can see that my ceilings are 14 feet tall which is super nice especially for my lumber storage. You can also see my western red cedar workbench I made a few years ago, which has survived amazingly well, considering it is a soft wood.

Next you can see my 6″ jointer (I added an aftermarket carbide spiral cutting head) and over on the far countertop is my sharpening station and general crap collecting area. The “island” is where I get a lot accomplished. On the far side of the island is my router table. The table saw may not be the best out there, but for me, works perfectly. I see no sense in replacing it with something “new” or “safer” just because. My own personal feeling is that more horsepower is not always better, sometimes small horsepower can be a safety mechanism as well!

To the left of the island is my planer (with helix blade that I bought at an auction) and oscillating drum sander (Which I bought at a trade show the day they went on sell!)

Behind the island is my festool corner. Yes I am a festool junkie! If you work for Festool and are reading this, have your people call my people and we’ll do lunch! J I would be a great spokesperson! I’ve really bought into the “work smarter, faster” mantra. Simply fantastic tools! (What you can’t see under the work table is stuffed with systainers; everything outside of it is overflow. Also, I have a CT26 with boom arm hooked up to a dust deputy and a midi vacuum.)

Finally as we come to the end of the tour, this is my hand tool area. The tool chest is stuffed with my hand planes and chisels and various accoutrements (maybe I’ll save that for another post!) and my saw till, which I tweeted about. Last, but certainly not least is my workbench. Sjoberg did a run of benches in 2003 or 2004 for Jet tools, and I happened to get one. I originally got it to take to shows with me, as I liked it better than a plastic table to display things! But I found myself using it more and more so I just decided to keep it in the shop. Is it a great table, well no, but it does work for what I need and if you hadn’t noticed I’m pretty packed in here. I have plans for a shop in the near future and will get a “proper” work bench when that happens (another topic for the future, bought versus built). But until then I love my little table!

I could go into great detail on everything, but really don’t want to bore you any further. If you have questions, comments or would like to see more or something specific, let me know! Thanks for taking the time to read this. I would really appreciate feed back!