Shop Tour

 

Greetings and welcome to my shop. I am a hobbyist woodworker that enjoys many aspects of working with my hand making things out of wood. Thanks for stopping in and taking a tour of my shop. It’s not very clean or neat most of the time as I usually have various projects in the making for family, friends, and customers that want a custom piece made from time to time.  I don’t take on too many things for hire as I also value my time with my wife and four children, so my time in the shop is my way of relaxing when I’m not making something for a “customer”.

Take your time and enjoy the visit to my shop. I always want folks to feel as if they are at home in their own shops when anyone comes to visit and the visit here on the web is no different.

I live on 3 acres of land in Conway, Arkansas. Our home is a single story brick rancher and my shop is situated slightly to the right-rear side of the house. The shop was already on the property when we purchased the house in May of 2000 and was a large deciding factor for us buying the house. The shop has a 100 Amp electrical server ran to it and is fed from the main house to a separate panel inside the shop. I had to wire the shop for 110 Volt and 220 Volt power ran in conduit and dust proof switches. Boy, that was sure fun....!!!!!

The building is 30 feet by 60 feet and is a metal building comprised of 3 “bays” that are roughly 20 feet by 30 feet each. The building was once used by a previous owner to build race cars in. The cleanup of all the stuff left in the building was a chore in itself. There are two floor drains in two of the bays and those come in handy when I need to pour out some water from when the roof leaks in a heavy rain storm. I don’t know who put the building up, but from the looks of things, the previous owner did it himself and the roof shows signs of not getting it all laid out correctly during the construction phase of the building. I’ve sealed up most of the leaks, but I still have about 6 leaks left in the building and have plastic containers up near the ceiling to catch the water when the rain is really coming down.

Now....on to the tour of the shop.

Here are two shots from the outside of the shop. It has a bathroom, telephone, natural gas heat, and is cooled with two separate window type air conditioning units. You NEED air conditioning in the summer time here as it gets “HOT” and Humid in June, July, August, and most of September.
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Another view of the shop on the outside.

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As we enter the side entrance where the single standard door is, we enter into what is currently a kids playroom and storage room. This pic was taken long before it became a storage room. This room is 12 feet by 22 feet and will one day become my finishing room.

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We now proceed toward the doorway that leads into the main shop area. It is a narrow hallway 1st that I use for an area for my air compressor, some tool storage, and peg board for screw storage.

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The first tool we come to after walking through the doorway is my trusty air compressor. This has been a wonderful addition to my shop. I had a smaller air compressor to begin with and I soon wore it out. This one should last me a while.

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We now walk through the doorway into the "hallway" that was formed by framing up the "playroom/finishing room" and a small room of 7 feet by 22 feet that I am using for my tool room. This hallway has my air compressor and pegboard that holds a lot of my hand tools, screws and nails. And behind you is the bathroom. Boy, it sure is nice having a bathroom in the shop. The kids get to use it while they are outside playing. The first tool you see is my Delta mortiser.

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As we proceed further down the "hallway" we enter the main shop area. The next tool we encounter is my DeWalt 12" compound miter saw. You will see an occasional "5 gallon bucket" scattered around the shop, this is where the roof leaks and I haven't found a way to stop the leaks without spending some major MONEY to put a new roof on it. Buckets work fine for now.

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As we venture on into the shop area and along that same wall space you will find my sandpaper storage on the end of the bench where my CMS is located. Peg board holding tools and various items is a great way to organize smaller items.

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A little further down the same wall is my newly reorganized "lathe area". I decided to move my bench grinder and Tormek to this area so that I would have the sharpening tools closer to the lathe while turning.

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Moving further down the same wall you will find my Dust Eliminator Cyclone Dust Collector system. Works really great!

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Moving to the north side of the shop you will see the storage shelves, my clamp storage and the natural gas heater. I really need to take some new pics of the shop, but these will do for now.

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Looking further to the right from the North wall towards the East, you'll see more storage area and of course my John Deere garden tractor. There is also the 2nd of two garage doors on that side of the shop.

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Moving over to the East wall of the shop area is my Laguna LT16SEC bandsaw, my blast gate tree, my Performax 16/32 Drum Sander and part of my Jet 10" Left Tilt tablesaw.

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The final wall of the main shop area is where my lumber storage rack used to be. I have reorganized that area and have put my drill press, shop made air cleaner and a Sears Craftsman RAS there. I like it better this way. BTW, the RAS is not in the pic and I will update that later on. I also no longer own the Grizzly jointer.

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......and the final shot of the last wall. You can see my Drill Press, the Griz jointer, my 24" floor fan and the entrance door to my "tool room".

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Turning to the center part of the main shop area is where you will find my two newest tool added to my shop. A Powermatic Parallelogram Jointer and a Powermatic 15” spiral head planer. These boys are sure NICE!!!!

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Needless to say that my daughter and two youngest sons are trying their muscles at moving the 510 pound planer!!!

Just to the right side of the new Jointer and Planer is my Jet 10" Left Tilt Cabinet Saw. This is a really nice saw and is the main workhorse in my shop.

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This is what it looks like standing in the doorway of my tool room. This is a really nice space to house all my hand tools, hand power tools and a small general work area. I also store my homemade jigs and templates in here to better protect them for future use.

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Entering the tool room is a small workbench that I seem to keep covered in "stuff", more shelves and storage space

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Here is moving around the room back towards the entry door. I have pegboard there to store more of my smaller hand tools, measuring tools, levels and such.

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Last but not least is the final shot of the shop tour. This is where my chisels are stored, various squares, mallets and my handy screw and nail chart.

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Well....that's it for my shop tour. I hope you have enjoyed walking through my shop. This is my home away from home and where most of my LOML's To-Do List resides and gets accomplished. Thank You for looking and taking my shop tour.
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