Lets See Your Shop!

[JimDawson]

Great shop Mike! Very good use of space. The only problem that I see is that it's way too clean and uncluttered. :rofl: I wish mine was that neat and clean.

 

[zmotorsports]

Great shop Mike! Very good use of space. The only problem that I see is that it's way too clean and uncluttered. :rofl: I wish mine was that neat and clean.

Thanks Jim. Oh how I hate a messy shop. I hate the looks of it being so "stuffed" too but don't know what to do about that. Wish it was bigger but don't want to go back into debt by moving and building a larger shop. I am sure everyone feels the same way though, our shops are NEVER big enough. Maybe that is a benefit because it forces me to complete a job before starting on another.

 

[tailwind]

Thanks, Sanctifier, for your compliment. I found 2 more photos you might enjoy.View attachment 77111View attachment 77110

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> I found the design for this chest in The Encyclopedia of Furniture Making by Ernest Joyce and the walnut veneer on ebay. I think the swirling grain pattern perfectly compliments the curved front.

For my contribution, I’m most pleased with the cock bead moulding on the drawer fronts. It’s a tiny 1/10” wide bull nose edging of solid wood let into recesses in the edges of the drawer fronts. It was very fussy work to tailor it exactly to the serpentine curve on the top and bottom with fine mitered joints at the corners, the culmination of fine tuning of the shop machinery to work to precision tolerances. It’s common in contemporary work to do these in a contrasting wood so they call attention to themselves, understandable given the time involved; but I thought that would detract from to overall effect of the grain matching. I’m pleased it’s almost invisible.

In my neck of the woods I can get walnut from the bottom lands in Iowa and birch from the northern forest in Michigan. Bits and pieces of your Caribbean woods make their way here--beautiful, exotic, very hard, expensive. I don't get to use them much.

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Very nice piece of workmanship.

 

[Falcon67]

Some views of my playhouse. 24x40 that we built in 2011 after leaving the old house and shop. We manage to keep a lot of things out of the weather. There'd be a little more in here, but some items hide in the 24' race trailer. I'm lucky enough to have AC and heat in both sections. We had the slab poured and everything else was done by my wife and myself. Hauling the lumber, roofing materials, etc. The 2x12x24 joists weigh 100 lbs each and it took both of us to place them. She hoofed OSB sheets up to me on the roof. Team effort for sure. I'll add a shot of the new little rock driveway if I get a chance to take a pic before dark.



One of these days I'll replace the blanket door with a real pocket door. Maybe.


Work room. I'd say "clean room", eh but not always.


Never too much bench surface area.


Before we put in a little drive way this year:


The full construction blog is located here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100482

Very blessed.

 

[zmotorsports]

Great looking shop Chris. I love your shop, so nice and clean/organized.

I know what you mean about the team effort.

We purchased our home in 1991 and I had enough money saved up to build the shop as we were looking for a home with just enough property to build about a 26x30 shop. After purchasing our home, my wife found out we were pregnant so I decided to hold off building the shop until after our son was born. Glad I did because he was pre-mature and the medical bills damn near bankrupted us, even with insurance.

It took me a few years to get some money saved up again and get back on our feet but we finally broke ground on our shop in 1995, weekend after July 4th. We hired out the concrete work and I did the remainder by myself along with some help from my brother-in-law. The agreement was I would help him get his vehicles back into good mechanical condition and help him keep them that way as a barter. I was also able to convince the building commission in our city to let me go a little larger than I originally had planned and now wish I would have even asked to go larger as our shop is only 34'x34'. My "dream" shop would be a 60'x80' divided in half. Half to work in, 40x60, and half to store our coach, trailer and bikes in.

I was moving tools into the shop after completing it Halloween weekend of 1995 and as they say, the rest is history. I don't think that summer my wife and I did anything but work on the shop and save money where we could. She was/is a trooper and I don't think I would be where I am today without her.

 

[drs23]

Really nice set up Chris. Is that a heater or dehumidifier above your bandsaw?

I sometimes wish my shop were adjacent to my home so I could just pop out there when an opportunity presents its self. Seven miles of speed zones and traffic signals puts me out of the mood to make the trip to the shop unless I'm going to work. Maybe I need to build on the 1/2 acre behind the shop. Hmmm...

 

[Falcon67]

Thanks folks. Hah - it does look kinda organized in the pictures. That is the 5kW shop heater. It swivels so I can point it where I need it. 90% of the time, that's all that I need. Backup is a 40K BTU propane turbo heater. Used maybe twice last year. I waffled on the turbo until it went on sale for $99. It works well, but I don't much care for it. Want it-Want it-Got it-Got it...meh. Some day maybe I'll put in a Big Dawg 45K vented as a back up. I filled 4 30 lb propane tanks in the fall of 2012 and still have one full - and one of the 4 was used up by the gas grill. No dehumidifiers needed here. Many time in winter we're boiling water on the stove to get some moisture in the air. 45% RH is "sticky" in this part of the country. In winter we can see days of single digit RH.

 

[zmotorsports]

Really nice set up Chris. Is that a heater or dehumidifier above your bandsaw?

I sometimes wish my shop were adjacent to my home so I could just pop out there when an opportunity presents its self. Seven miles of speed zones and traffic signals puts me out of the mood to make the trip to the shop unless I'm going to work. Maybe I need to build on the 1/2 acre behind the shop. Hmmm...

I know what you mean. I worked at my original little shop on my parents' farm from high school until 1995. I was living at my parents house until 1989 and then the house that my wife and I first rented from my parents in 1989 when we were married, it was nice to walk right out the back of the small rental and hop the fence to my workshop. In 1991 when we purchased our home about 12 miles and 20 minutes away I had to decide whether or not I had enough time to make it worth the drive to the shop to work. It seemed if I didn't have at least 3 hours it almost wasn't worth it. On the flip side, when I got off work and headed directly to the shop I would be there most of the night and return home just in time to go to bed and start all over again. Didn't do well with a newborn baby nor a marriage but we made it work as it was extra money paying off medical bills and funding the future shop at home. Wife said she was ok with it, but I could tell she wasn't fond of it.

Now after having my shop in the back yard for the past 19 years, I can't imagine not being able to walk out the back door and have my entire work shop at my disposal. It is nice to be working in my back yard and being home. For all of my son's school life now I was home working in the shop when he got home from school and was able to greet him and talk to him about his day when he walked in from school. I have been very blessed because I know there are not many who can say that.

Thanks folks. Hah - it does look kinda organized in the pictures. That is the 5kW shop heater. It swivels so I can point it where I need it. 90% of the time, that's all that I need. Backup is a 40K BTU propane turbo heater. Used maybe twice last year. I waffled on the turbo until it went on sale for $99. It works well, but I don't much care for it. Want it-Want it-Got it-Got it...meh. Some day maybe I'll put in a Big Dawg 45K vented as a back up. I filled 4 30 lb propane tanks in the fall of 2012 and still have one full - and one of the 4 was used up by the gas grill.

How would it be to not HAVE to rely on a heater. The heater in my shop runs generally 5+ months of the year. Usually by around mid-November it is starting to cool off enough that I can't work with the shop door open any longer and I am itching by March and excited when I can finally pop the shop door open again and work.

When I built my shop I put a used Reznor 75k btu gas-fired overhead heater in it and it has worked great but recently I had to replace it as it was getting tired and I was having to nurse it along the past couple of years. I was tired of putting time and money into it and was getting worried about it crapping out on me and freezing some of my supplies so I just upgraded to a new Modine Hot Dawg 75k btu heater.

 

[RandyM]

Some views of my playhouse. 24x40 that we built in 2011 after leaving the old house and shop. We manage to keep a lot of things out of the weather. There'd be a little more in here, but some items hide in the 24' race trailer. I'm lucky enough to have AC and heat in both sections. We had the slab poured and everything else was done by my wife and myself. Hauling the lumber, roofing materials, etc. The 2x12x24 joists weigh 100 lbs each and it took both of us to place them. She hoofed OSB sheets up to me on the roof. Team effort for sure. I'll add a shot of the new little rock driveway if I get a chance to take a pic before dark.

One of these days I'll replace the blanket door with a real pocket door. Maybe.

Work room. I'd say "clean room", eh but not always.

Never too much bench surface area.

Before we put in a little drive way this year:

The full construction blog is located here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100482

Very blessed.

Nice Chris, VERY NICE! Definitely something to be proud of. We ALL thank you for sharing your little slice of paradise.

 

[Cheeseking]

Wow you guys have really great looking spaces! Very cool to see how different people set themselves up.