My old shop had only 130 Sq Ft. It was very small place, but so cozy. When I decided to build a new one at 700 Sq Ft, I wanted this shop to be nice and cozy as well. It’s still in progress now :)

In late autumn I started to prepare a wooden structure and believe me it was a race against time to finish it before winter. I made it all of wood (outside and inside). Roof structure supported by trusses gives a very nice visual effect. Slip plywood floor provides comfort and extra insulation. No window, just 2 doors, one of normal size and the second is wider so you can drive a forklift truck in.

I have a couple of Felder’s wood machines:
- B3 – Winner Comfort (dimension saw + spindle moulder)
- A341 – Planer & thicknesser with silent power cutter head
- N4400 – Bandsaw
- RL125 – Great dust extractor and air cleaner
and of course a lot of Festool stuff and hand tools as well. I can spend whole days at my workshop…of course with my wife Lidia :)

Since I posted my last shop tour I have moved shops twice. I left the garage shop almost a year ago for 1100 sq ft of commercial bliss, or so I thought. After getting moved in and working in there for 6 months I realized that there was just not enough room to complete some larger projects, or a few small ones for that matter. I started looking for a new space and stumbled quickly upon my current shop. It is 1800 sq ft with 16′ ceilings and a 12′ by 12′ overhead door. So let the moving process begin…again. Thanks to the help of family and friends, two of which are WTO members, CT Proctor and Duckkisser, the move went off without a hitch. The shop is primarily set up for furniture and cabinet making. There are 2 cabinet saws, the Saw Stop is for general use and the Unisaw is dedicated for dados. The rest is all pretty standard with an 8″ Delta jointer, 13″ planer, 2 router tables and a Jet shaper, Rikon bandsaw and a Porter Cable pocket hole machine. In the back of the shop is an Italian made coral spray booth accompanied by 2 air assisted airless sprayers, one for pigmented lacquer and one for clear finishes.

My focus when setting up this shop was to have as much open floor space as possible while maintaining an efficient work flow. I hope you all enjoy.

It’s been almost 30 years since my first wood shop and I’m finally able to have the nice shop that I’ve always dreamed of. The shop is approximately 900 sf and is connected to the back of a large two car garage. The entire building took 1 ½ years to build before I finally put down the hammer and called it complete. I posted some photos on “Wood Talk Forum” as I was building.

I framed it using 2X6 insulated walls with 5/8” drywall that reaches 11’ for plenty of height. I plumbed the garage and shop for compressed air with iron pipe and have a 60 gal compressor in its own room in the garage. The HVAC is a heat pump that is used only for the wood shop area so I can keep working through the winters here in Ohio. There is plenty of lighting throughout the shop which is controlled by 4 switches which allow me to use only what is needed at the time. In the back corner is a room for the future dust collector but for now it acts as a large closet. The 2X5’ windows are high enough to allow plenty of wall space around the perimeter. The floor is plywood screwed to 2X4 treated lumber with hard foam insulation sandwiched between the sleepers. This was well worth the effort and is great on my knees and back when I’m in the shop all day. If interested, I talk about how I installed the floor in another article “How to Install a Plywood Shop Floor.”

I’ve been grateful over the years to be able to save enough money to purchase all the Jet equipment at one time. Once I was ready, I waited for one of Jet’s yearly sales and since I was purchasing multiple items through my local dealer, they gave me additional savings on top. The combined savings allowed me to purchase two additional pieces of equipment for the same amount.

As you can see the walls are bare so I plan on building each cabinet for tools and storage differently, i.e. raised panel or flat panel doors, different hinges etc. This will help me regain my woodworking skills that have gone dormant plus build in ways that are new to me. I built the cabinet for the router table to house all the bits and accessories and this was the first time I sprayed on paint and water based poly so that was a good experience. The drill cabinet was also going to be painted black since I had leftover paint but I like how the door turned out so I wanted to keep it natural looking.

My finishing skills need updating since the only thing I ever sprayed in the past was lacquer and sanding sealers. I had expected almost no overspray when using my HVLP gun but there was enough to land on the surface of my projects so I took the next step and made a portable spray booth. I used (7) 4X8’ foam boards, 5 for the walls and 2 for the ceiling and some 2X4s to help keep it solid in case I accidentally bump the walls. The filters are 16X25” taped together and inset into the foam board. Scrap lumber was used to build a fan box to mount the fan off the floor. The foam pads seal the fan box to the booth once the fan is operating. The entire booth is about 11” thick when all the walls are folded together and is covered in a blanket against the wall in one of the pictures. I may end up only using 3 walls instead of 5, it will all depend on how much space is available once I build an actual bench or two.

The next project will be to build a bench for the miter saw which will store much of my smaller lumber and some lumber racks on the wall above the door and jointer so I can have a place to acclimatize lumber to the shop conditions before I start cutting into them. Then I will build an out-feed table/bench to replace my saw horses.

Hello and welcome to my workshop. I am 17 and I live in Durban, South Africa. I starting building up my workshop when I was seven in a small corner of our garage. In 2009 my late grandfather gave me my standalone workshop as a present, and the rest is history.

My shop measures 272 square feet, and for the moment suits me just right. My large machinery includes a Dewalt radial arm saw, Rockwell 8″ table saw, Ryobi lathe and a Ryobi drill press. I also have a wide variety of hand tools i.e. electric planer, circular saw, sanders, grinders, drills, routers, etc.

Along with woodworking as my hobby, I also collect old woodworking tools, my most prized possession being a original Stewart Spiers Coffin Plane.

In 2010 I started up a small business call Wood-Works and since then it has really grown. I make cheese boards, cutting boards, knife blocks, boxes, and many other novelties. I have recently started building larger furniture and I am loving the experience.

I trust you enjoyed my shop review and I hope that I will inspire many other young people to take up this amazing hobby. Thanks for reading, now go out into your shop and make some sawdust!

I started woodworking at our old house in the basement. It was a decent set-up, but it was cramped, loud, and dusty for the house. When my wife and I decided that our house was too small for our growing family, it was understood that we also needed a garage and space for my shop. After a year in our current house my wife gave me a home depot gift card for my birthday and told me to “Go for it!”

Our garage is about 22′ wide and 24′ long. I built an L shaped divider wall inside the garage to allow space on one side for garage tools and kid toys. Luckily, the previous home owners had built large 2×4 plywood shelves in the back of the garage so I had some storage space already built in. Even better was that the high school where I work was getting rid of some plywood and library bookshelves, so I got those for free. We live in Rochester, NY so I needed to do some work to make it winter working worthy. I insulated all the walls and covered the ones in the shop portion with OSB plywood and put in a door and new windows (I love Craigslist for things like this!). I framed out my divider between the storage space and the workshop and covered that with the plywood from the high school and used a bi-fold door I bought CHEAP from a local outlet store. I raised several rafters in the garage, added support for my overhead air filter, and wired in old fluorescent lights from my school. I put in a wood floor over the concrete, partly to keep my knees comfortable and partly to protect dropped tools and projects. This was the hardest thing to figure out the best way to do. Marc posted his work on his shop floor after I did mine, or I would have copied his ideas. Instead, I used pressure treated decking, Ram Jetted those to the concrete, and covered them with 4′x 8′ OSB sheets and polyurethaned the whole thing.

I used the library bookshelves and wood and turned these into a pegboard storage shelf and a support area and shelf for tools. A fortuitous cabinet find on the side of the road turned into a perfect miter saw stand and another one turned into an outfeed table for my table saw. For my table I was lucky enough to have a friend who happens to own an optics shop and he had just purchased a new 60 inch butcher block table top by accident and he gave that to me. I used it to build a functional workbench with sliders on the bottom so I can move it around. Because I have 2 young kids I also used the top to one of the library bookshelves to make my kids a matching workbench and I hung up the tools their grandparents gave them.

My last big purchase (not from the gift card – that was all gone!) was a new Rigid table saw. I did a lot of searching for the perfect saw to replace my 10 year old $110 Skil saw. This saw is amazing and it is a joy to use. Using different sets of resources I placed most of the stationary items against the outside walls and my movable things against the inside walls. There is a space off the side of the workshop that serves as wood storage and extra tool storage.

Overall I’m really happy with my shop and I’ve already built 2 beautiful projects in it, as well as a few smaller items. My biggest problem this past winter was that I didn’t insulate the ceiling and my little space heater just doesn’t cut it when its 10 degrees outside. I had to add some insulation in the middle of winter just so i could work out there. Next up is a much better heater purchase and finishing the ceiling insulation.

My junked up, low budget garage shop! I’ve only been woodworking for about 10 months but have acquired a decent amount of tools. The structure is 20 x 20, about 70 years old and still needs a lot of cleaning up from the mess the previous owners left behind. As far as equipment, I would say I have “the best of the worst.” Just about everything I own I would recommend to anyone starting out on a tight budget like myself.

Tablesaw – Ridgid R4512 with a built in router table using a Jessum router plate, and about a dozen blades, many sleds and a few leecraft aftermarket inserts
Drill Press – HF 38144 16 speed floor drill press with the HF drill press table
Lathe – HF 65345 10×18 benchtop lathe. HF HSS 8 piece turning tool set, Easy Wood tools Rougher and Finisher
HF 8” Grinder with shop made wolverine style jig
Planer – Craftsman 21758 12 1/2” lunchbox planer
Bandsaw – Craftsman BAS350 14” (Rikon 10-320 clone), Rikon fence with resaw bar, Carter 5 bearing upper and lower guides
Edge/spindle sander – Ridgid Eb4424
Jointer – Craftsman 21789

Routers: Craftsman professional 27680 (x2), Porter Cable 7518 (table), Ridgid R2401 laminate/trim router. Most of my bits are Whiteside with a few Freud quadracut mixed in
Miter saw – old (~10 years) Craftsman 10” CMS (next up for replacement)
Scroll saw – Porter cable 93926 with stand
Power hand tools: Ryobi circular saw; vintage Black and Decker worm drive 8” circular saw; Skil jig saw; Bosch 4” grinder; Milwaukee Magnum corded drill; Milwaukee M12 Fuel impact driver; Milwaukee M12 Fuel Drill/driver; Craftsman C3 Drill/driver; Deremel 4200 rotary tool, Dremel Trio, Dremel multi-max oscillating tool; HF cordless Lithium ion cordless oscillating tool (awesome!); Ryobi ROS; and Dewalt D26453K ROS

Hand Tools: Windsor Design no33 plane; Stanley type 13 #7 jointer; Various vintage rasps and files; Woodriver 6 piece bench chisels

Sharpening: scary sharp for establishing new edges or working out nicks, Norton 1k, 4k, and 8k waterstones for general touch up and honing

Clamps: About 40 Pittsburgh bar clamps ranging from 6” to 4 feet; a few Jorgensen Cabinet masters; some Jorgensen HD bar clamps; and various C clamps and quick grip clamps

I am in the process of building a proper work bench, I just need warmer temps!

This is my new garage workshop that I just moved into the 1st of the year. It’s a big upgrade from my last shop which was 16×18. This is a 2 1/2 car garage with 10 ft ceilings 24′x 24′ with a 6 x 10 nook in the back.

About 3 months ago I found a pickup load of reclaimed western cedar on craigslist that was used in a hotel lobby. They were all 7-12″ wide 1″ thick and 8′long. I used those to panel the walls of the garage since I absolutely hate drywall in the garage. I wound up with only 2 boards leftover, talk about cutting it close. The floors are covered with 4 x 6 livestock mats of 3/4″ rubber. Everything is hardwired in 220v which I ran myself along with 3 extra florescent fixtures. As you can probably tell, everything is Grizzly in my shop.

I’m equipped with the following: 10″ 5hp Sliding Table Saw; 12″ spiral cutter head Jointer; 15″ spiral cutter head Planer; 24″ Dual Drum Sander; 19″ Bandsaw; and a 1 1/2 hp Cyclone Dust Collector.

I just finished putting it all together a few months ago and I’m telling you it wore me out! LOL But anyway, I’m extremely happy with my new shop and am looking forward to refurnishing our new home with custom furniture. Thanks for looking!

The shop is within a 3 bay garage attached to the house with an enclosed breezeway. It started out as a one bay space with a radial arm saw and a drill press, both long gone. I then decided space from a second bay would be a lot more useful as an expanded workshop rather than housing an old beater against the rain. So the shop grew to its present size–23X23–and it is well insulated!

I’ve been retired 5 years. What I build is for family and friends, built-ins, tables, desks but no chairs. Happily going through a Greene & Greene phase.

It is a small shop and everything is on wheels except for the drill press, the Kapex and long work bench. The DC is in the remaining car part of the structure along with most sheet goods, which is great for muffling the sound. The jointer and planner both have the Shelix cutterheads which I have found makes a BIG difference when working with highly figured woods.

Most of the tools have been upgraded within the last few years. I figured, hell, I might as well enjoy my retirement and have no regrets whatsoever about the costs. They have not generated any income but they have generated a lot of fun and joy! The assembly table on wheels also does double duty as a desk and in and out feed surface for the band saw and drill press.

In hindsight, the only thing I would do different is to have the floor heated like the rest of the house.

I just got into woodworking last August 2012. The house I purchased in 2008 came with a ghetto mailbox–a tire rim with cement in it on a post. I finally got around to re-landscaping my yard and I wanted to replace my mailbox with a real one.

After a few weekends of frustrating hours designing what I wanted, I decided I clearly needed better tools to do a decent job. I spent HOURS on forums looking for advice. I found websites like the Wood Whisperer, LumberJocks and Sawmill creek and spent even MORE time there. The mailbox turned out very nice and elicited my favorite comment, “That’s the nicest $2000 mailbox I’ve ever seen!”. From this point I started watching Woodworks with David Marks and I went crazy. Within about 2 months I had transformed the garage into a “shop”.

I started by demolishing the old “shelves” that a previous owner of the house had just tacked on the walls, they were essentially cast-offs from a kitchen remodel. The garage was insulated, so I dry-walled all but the ceiling, put up pegboards, shelves, and a clamp rack. If I had to start over, I might have gone with an all-one-brand setup. Instead, I have been trying to find quality machines in my price range with good reviews and good value. My first “project” will be as many have done, a torsion box assembly table. Then, a workbench since right now all I have are these cobbled-together, wobbly 2×4 tables that I made 10 years ago. I also added extra electrical outlets, 2 new fixtures and a lot of daylight bulbs, plus a heater so I can work during Idaho winters.

As a fortunate boon, I was able to salvage the “tops” of 53 armoires from the hotel I manage, including all the hardware, hinges, knobs, etc. plus enough board feet of veneered MDF to fill an entire room in my house. I just need to get the shop in order so I can cut it down into usable stuff. Which means–torsion box assembly/outfeed table since I don’t have a big table saw. I don’t have a lot of hand tools yet or clamps but I’m working on it.

Equipment:

Bosch 4100-09 10-Inch Table Saw
Makita 2012NB 12-Inch Planer
Shop Fox W1741 8-Inch Jointer
Grizzly G0555X 14″ Bandsaw
Bosch 1617EVSPK 2-1/4-Horsepower Plunge & Fixed Base Router
JobMax Work System
Air Compressor
Ryobi Drill Press
Rigid 16 Gallon Shop-Vac
Hitachi NT32AE2 18-Gauge Brad Nailer
DEWALT D26453K 3 Amp Random Orbit Sander

I originally built this pole barn to store my boat and work on my cars. But after working on airplanes all day the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was to turn more wrenches. So the shop didn’t get much use. And then came the start….

I wanted to buy a shelf for under the TV to hold DVD’s and my wife said you can build something like that. So I started looking into it and got side tracked by plans for a router table and all the things you can do with one. Well that was my first project. It was so much fun, I was officially hooked. I sold my Shelby Mustang and started my wood shop.

The shop is 30′x 32′ with 11 ft. ceiling which gives me lots of room to move sheets of plywood even with the dust collection ducts hanging from the ceiling. I heat the shop with in-floor heating using a hot water heater which I highly recommend to anyone building a shop. Its nice and quiet and keeps my feet warm. I just finished re-doing the shop for the fifth time, hopefully the last! I painted the walls and ceiling, painted the green 6in. drain and sewer pipe that I used for dust collection black, which I think looks a lot better. I just finished building the split-top Roubo workbench using hard maple for the top and walnut for the base (Thanks for the great build, Marc) Anyways hope you enjoy the tour. Oh and by the way, I have yet to build the shelf for under my TV…although I do have some ideas brewing in my head.

I love looking at everyone’s shop! There are great ideas for unique storage solutions, organization methods and floor plans that are helping me plan and build my shop.

My shop’s a 14′x14′ corner of our basement with bulk head access. It is outfitted with a Ridgid chop saw, Milwaukee router and a Ryobi circular saw I bought 10 years ago to repair our first house (a falling apart 1850s era home). For all my home repair needs, which was constant and unrelenting, they did well. When we bought our 2000 era home last year, constant repairs became a task of the past. I decided to spend my new found free time building furniture.

My father-in-law gave me his grandfather’s old Delta tilt-table, fixed-blade table saw. Absolutely love that machine*! So, as soon as I could, I pushed it into the furnace room, searched Craigslist and bought a well used Ridgid contractor saw from a local woodworker. He told me the table scratched, the base was wobbly and the blade and miter tracks did not align. When I got the saw home I noticed that every bolt was loose! I completely disassembled the saw, hand sanded the top, realigned, reassembled, re-leveled and gave it a good waxing. Now it runs like a champ. (*That statement was dripping in sarcasm – that machine is not safe at any speed. Nader wouldn’t approve.)

The out-feed table is also a router table. It is height adjustable and made from 2x4s and MDF. I used aluminum U channel under the table and some wing nuts allow a router plate be leveled and flushed to the table top. I traded a plumber a 12″w x 12′lx4/4 board of Jarrah for a bench top belt/spindle sander and a old scroll saw. My family spoiled me last holiday season and helped me get a Grizzly 17″ bandsaw. I recently installed the overhead Jet dust collector and built a dust separator from an old trash can, left over plumbing parts and a can of spray foam. It’s a lazy separator and only separates about 1/2 of the dust. I’ve been thinking of laying it off and letting it go, but it just doesn’t feel like the right time. It’s a trusted worker, and has been with me since the beginning, but it is missing the skill set required to move the team forward.

Against the “back” wall we installed an old barn door for access to the rest of the basement. Currently it’s flat wall space where I store all my jigs. The jigs in the photo are for a DJM inspired cocktail table. The lumber photo is parts for more tables – family gifts – in different stages of progress. The lumber pile is Jarrah. Awesome story…4 years ago our porch collapsed. I took a risk and bought 200 bd ft of “construction grade Jarrah decking”, sight unseen, for $4 a bd ft delivered. It arrived and was so beautiful that my wife made me rebuild with douglas fir and paint. The order was awful decking material! About 1/2 the delivery was 4/4×10″x12′ the other half was 8/4×8″x14′. My router, circular saw and I would have never been able to make it into decking. All of the Jarrah is straight grained, furniture worthy, rough sawn lumber. I have since found out what Jarrah is worth and realize how lucky I am. I think the price was a 2008-US-economy-collapsing-panicked-lumber-yard special. After the Jarrah arrived, I impulse bought a Dewalt planer and then realized I needed a jointer. So, for 4 years the planer sat on the lumber pile. I still don’t have a jointer, but two months ago I was introduced to a coworker with a really nice Grizzly jointer. We’ve worked out a Jarrah for Jointer [time] exchange.

Matt Vanderlist might have outgrown peg board (podcast 113) but I haven’t. I have two more sheets to hang! My shop is a wreck and I need to build some storage. I am finding out tools are like rabbits, start with two and before you know it they are everywhere and multiplying out of control. I would love to install a lumber rack similar to the metal adjustable ones I have seen in a lot of the shop photos and Marc’s new shop video. Lastly, after beating up my out-feed table trying to chisel out mortises, I would love to build a work bench. But alas, my wife has me on a 3 project at a time diet!

Even though it is small, it is the best shop I have ever had in 30 years of business relocations. I utilize it for woodworking and writing fiction. I am trying to master all of the facets of the craft.

I bought the Shopsmith and reconditioned it. It was made in 1954. I was made in 1952.

Its not much more than a one car garage. I am running all my tools off of two electrical outlets and a lot of extension cords. Even though its small, its a lot better than what I was previously working out of which was only a car port.

So until the day comes when I can move to a 2 or 3 car garage, this is my shop!

I built this shop from the ground up starting in March of this year, it’s a continual work in progress. It is a well insulated 560 sq. ft. wood framed structure with a closet that has additional insulation to keep paints and glues from freezing in the winter and to keep the decibels from my compressor and dust collector down. I decided to go with a scissor truss sitting on 9’6″ walls to achieve 11’6″ height at center of the shop. It helps with storage and incorporating a bouldering cave my wife and I use for strength training for climbing. It hasn’t been cold enough to test it out yet, but I just finished wiring in a NewAir G73 electric heater that should be just enough to keep it warm during our mild winters.

Now that I have all of my tools organized for my occupation as a home remodeler, I can start to focus on outfitting the shop with some larger/newer equipment starting with upgrading from a bench top planer. I eventually plan on moving my truck outside to make room for larger projects in the winter and a possible finishing area. This has been a huge upgrade for me moving out of the uninsulated, horribly lit, and very small dungeon of a shop I worked out of for 4 years.

Someone once told me that garages are for cars…silly. I use mine for my workshop where I build mostly built-in cabinetry. It’s a 2.5 car garage with insulated walls and ceiling. I’m still working on a dedicated heater/AC unit. Most of the exposed walls are plywood so I can attach anything anywhere it’s needed. The wall of storage cabinets is made from pallet rack bought at a big box and then faced with 1×4′s and MDF doors. My compressed air is coming from above which keeps the shop much safer and tidier while I’m working.

The table saw is a Craftsman with a hand made router table attached. I’m getting better at dust control, but the table saw base doesn’t catch it very well (maybe a Sawstop would solve some of those problems). The miter station is a work-in-progress at the moment. I still need to add an extension table and backstop.
My favorite piece is the wheeled tool cabinet. It holds a ton and everything is easily accessible.

My shop consists of one stall of a 3 car garage plus an addition at the back end of the stall. The addition is 12×15 and the stall is approximately 20x 0 for a total of about 380 square feet. I do have to store kids’ toys, yard equipment and the like in the stall, so I am at present only using about 11×10 of the stall space. I do plan to work into the storage space in the future.

I started this hobby back in 2006/07. I found Marc’s site back when he was just getting it going. I really enjoyed it then and even more now. Love the site and the community that has developed here.

I got frustrated with the old combo saw/jointer I had back then, so I ended up doing very little. I’ve decided to give it a go again and am in the process of setting up shop again. I recently added an 8″ jointer, a dust collector, in addition to a new sub-panel with 240 v lines and added better lighting. I want to create an environment in the shop that I like to be in and want confidence that the equipment will be more accurate than I am. The last piece of equipment I need is a new table saw. Hopefully, that will be coming soon.

I am very much a newbie to the hobby. I am really looking forward to learning and growing as a woodworker. I am trying to get my two sons excited about it as well. I hope the shop becomes a place where we can hang out over the next few years.

Any feedback on the shop is appreciated…and thanks Marc for a great site!!!

This is my Northern California workshop in my home’s garage. My main occupation is a Firefighter/Ladder Truck driver in San Francisco, but my hobby/obsession/side job is woodworker. My wife and I have a business making a product we designed and patented for the quilting industry that keeps my tool collection alive. We sell our product online, at trade shows and in catalogs.

My workshop size is approximately 480 square feet in a generously wide two car garage. The first picture is one of my favorite tools, my Saw Stop. I waited years to purchase this and because of its safety features, it was easier to justify to the wife-–and was a nice business write-off. Still didn’t stop me from almost losing my fingertip last year, but I was cleaning a metal shearer and it sprang back, no fault of the Saw Stop-–but the docs sewed it back on-–good as new!

The second picture is of my Jet Shaper with Power Feeder. I bought this at a going out of business sale at a very nice price and brought it back to good use again. Picture 3 is an outside look into the shop-–sorry no more parking in here! The fourth picture is the side of my shop that houses my Hollow Chisel Mortiser, Sanding Center, Band saw, Router Table (I made using a New Yankee Workshop plan), Kapex (and a CT22) and Dust Collection unit.

In picture #5 you see the back far wall which is home to a wall mounted tool chest that I made from a New Yankee workshop plan. Also on the back wall are my three Festool Sortainers, one holding the all-important first aid kit, essential for every workshop!

The sixth shot is the other side wall that has my workshop hutch I made using a New Yankee Workshop plan. On it is my drill press and it also holds my various workshop necessities-–sandpaper, small tools, plans, etc. The next photo is of my main work surface based on the Wood Whisperer’s assembly table. Next to it is my planer and Festool CT33 with boom arm. I use this for many of my Festool products. At the far end of the garage is my drum sander.

The last pic is of my loyal shop assistant, Rex, our Golden Retriever. He is my workshop companion and when he is not in the house getting warm or wanting to play fetch, he is there just hanging out! My future plan for my workshop is to upgrade the electric and to keep pace with my past record of acquiring a new tool with each project!

Hey guys! I’m 17 and live in New Zealand. Woodworking is my MAJOR hobby and I’ve been into it since I was about 10. I’ve been collecting quality tools for the last 3 years! Marc has been a great inspiration to me :) Here’s my shop!

The shop itself is in a room attached to the garage. It’s 2m x 2m (6.5ft x 6.5ft). Inside is a wall of clamps, most are Irwin. I have my workbench with two vices and underneath are my power tools. I have a Makita chainsaw, Hitachi circular saw, Bosch jigsaw, Makita finishing sander, biscuit jointer, Makita and Hitachi planers, Hitachi belt sander, Makita and Dewalt routers and laminate trimmer, Aeg recip saw, Makita die grinder, Bosch multi tool, Bosch angle grinders, Dewalt cordless circular saw, and dremel, and my Festool collection comprising of ps300 barrel grip jigsaw, cxs drill, and ets 150/3 sander.

Above the bench are nails and screws, etc. and a plane and card scraper rack thingy. To the right is my drill charging station, home to my Festool cxs, Bosch impact driver and drill and Dewalt hammer drill ( which I found :D). Along the side of the garage are my larger machines: Dewalt thicknesser, Dewalt 12″ bandsaw, Trupro 6″ jointer and a Makita mitre saw. They are all on wheels for easy movement. All of my tools are of good quality, i.e., Bosch Dewalt, Makita, Hitachi, Veritas and Festool (I’m fussy like that!).

I included a picture of my latest project (blanket box) made from purple heart, macrocarpa and wenge! Hope you like it!!! And I just wanna say I love Marc and his videos. I’ve seen every one and he has inspired me in making my own projects to a high standard, not to mention he’s very talented and funny :) Cheers!

This is my single car garage turned into full time wood shop. I have maxed my capacity long ago but still able to manage. Hopefully I will soon be able to build a new attached 28 x 32 building for a new shop. The current shop will then be used as a finishing and assembly room. But until then I am making due.

My shop occupies about 3/4 of our garage and is 19′ x 13′. I installed a wall to separate the bikes and toys from my tools and insulated it as well as the ceiling to keep it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. I keep the door open to the house for that. I have a small space heater that I use during the coldest months to keep the temperature above 50.

Most of my tools are spread around the outside edge of the space with the table saw in the middle. They are all on wheels to facilitate moving them as needed. Starting from the door and going counterclockwise, I have a Delta 50-760 dust collector which is connected to the main tools with 4″ hoses. The hoses are attached to the ceiling to keep them out of my way. It’s a longer run but it beats constantly stepping on them as I used to when they were on the floor. I have a Grizzly G7946 radial drill press which I would skip if I had to do it again in favor of a more powerful fixed drill press since I have yet to use any of its flexibility. The workbench is just a generic bench with a top surface made of 2 x 4s and a Delta 14-651 mortiser sitting at one end. There are hand saws hanging here, and a circular saw blade storage unit that I built after seeing it in a magazine.

Continuing on to the next wall, I have a recently purchased Rikon 14″ bandsaw that has been working hard for the last several months re-sawing beams from the old family barn that collapsed a couple of years ago. Next is a Dewalt DW708 12″ sliding compound miter saw of which I am extremely fond. It feels like a do-anything tool, sort of the shop equivalent of my Leatherman. The dust collector is hooked up to the miter saw in two ways. I have a joint with a 2-1/2″ hose connecting directly to the built in “dust collection” point on the saw, and a 4″ hose pointing upward behind the slides in front of a small plywood wall to help direct airflow. The 4″ hose sucks up anything floating around behind the saw. The combination of the two hoses seems to do a good job of containing the dust. Hanging off the mobile base of the miter saw is a grinding wheel. It is on hinges and can be flipped up when I need it. Also on this wall are storage shelves for paints and finishes and a lot of stuff unrelated to woodworking.

Along the third wall I have a Dewalt DW735 13″ planer. It is setup such that I can plane 8′ boards without having to move it. I was impressed with the user interface design of this planer (to borrow a phase from computer land). All parts needed for servicing the unit are contained within it in unique ways. Most notable, the hex wrench for performing blade changes has a magnet in the handle to allow you to remove and install the blades. In addition to the planer, this wall has storage for clamps, fasteners, and a small Porter-Cable air compressor.

Moving to the final wall, there is a rolling toolbox where many of the hand tools are kept. On this wall, there is shelving system for wood storage. In the pictures, one can see the recently cut barn wood drying (I have a fan at one end blowing air through it). In front of the wood rack is a Grizzly G1182HW 6″ jointer.

In the middle of the shop is a Grizzly G0444Z 2 HP contractor table saw. I mounted a router table at the end of it. Although before I purchased the bandsaw, I also mounted a jigsaw in this table so I suppose it’s technically not just a router table. I like the table saw. I have never had problems with it bogging down or losing alignment. I use mostly generic blades and a Freud dado set. I have a Grizzly tenoning jig which is very cool, but it seems to be slightly misaligned, despite my efforts to align it.

On the ceiling, there is a large plywood platform which I can place over the table saw to do assembly work. Also hanging from the ceiling is a blue tarp which together with the platform and a regular fan becomes my spray booth. Can’t really spray nasty stuff given the lack of ventilation and the connection to the house.

As far as hand tools, I have Milwaukee drills and router, a Porter Cable circular saw, and a couple of random orbit sanders. I don’t have any fancy true hand tools. I have generic chisels, one block plane, one cabinet scraper…you get the idea.

My shop is located next to my home in Belize, Central America. As a missionary, I am using my years of experience as a carpenter to teach young men the trade of wood working.This enables them with the skills needed to go out and work to provide for their families while also instilling a good work ethic and Christian values in them.

It has been almost a year since the workshop opened and has grown to the large building you see in the pictures. I am grateful to be able to share this craft with others on a daily basis.

My shop, well let’s see. It’s a 24 x 24 standalone with one overhead door and a man door. As for tools, I have an old Delta drill press with shop made top and fence, 2 table saws, 1 Jet super saw and an old Ryobi as a backup. The Jet has a router table w/lift on one end. I built a down draft sanding table out of an old work bench. Next to it is my 16/32 drum sander. My jointer is a 6″ Ridgid and my planer is a 13″ DeWalt. I have 4 more sanders, a Jet 9 x 36 combo, a Ridgid spindle sander, a Grizzly edge sander (I think I spend too much time sanding!), and last but not least, a 1″ belt sander. My band saw is a 18″ Jet and my chop saw is a DeWalt 12″ slider. My 2nd router table is a Bosch with a Porter Cable 7518 in it. I collect dust with a Jet dc1100. The pipe is 6″ reduced to 4″ at the tools. I build anything from cabinets to architectural details for new homes.

This is my basement woodworking shop. I just moved into this house in July so I’m still working on placement and workflow.

The Makita compound miter saw was the first woodworking tool I purchased. The piece that started the whole thing just 1.5 years ago!

The centerpiece of the shop is my Grizzly 1980′s table saw. That thing is a beast but is held together with duct tape. She’s getting replaced in a couple of weeks with a brand new Saw Stop!

My shop is in a 3 car garage attached to my house. My wife parks in the garage when I’m not working on a project. Everything is on casters so I can easily move my equipment around.

This woodworking season I plan to build an assembly table, miter station and more shop storage.

It’s humble beginnings. My wife has allowed us never to park the car in this garage, and it probably never will!

So a mitre saw to the back of the shop, a basic bench in the centre, the vac moves where I need it and shelf space and clamps to the wall. Lighting is an issue and hopefully getting some solutions soon.

There we go! Enjoy!

I wasn’t sure what to put for “shop type” since my space is a 190 square feet sun room right off the kitchen. This means the Mrs.has an observation window from the kitchen sink. I used to have nearly the whole space taken up by a table saw but this year I switched to a more bandsaw centered process and bought a Festool track saw. I also convert a corner of the basement into a spray booth every now and then.

I didn’t bother to clean up before taking pictures so you can see my boys still working on ‘boats’. I even built an addition onto the workbench at their height. I would make a lot more furniture if not for their help but its not hard to get help vacuuming the floor.

One of the blessings of a sun room is the ability to keep the dust collector outside, saves space and keeps noise to a minimum. I keep the switch on and just plug it in when it’s time to use the stationary tools. However, that means I have to bring the bag in each night so it doesn’t get wet. I use the Festool vac for all the hand held tools. A box fan with a furnace filter in the window over the lathe is my ghetto air cleaner.

Another plus is the very high ceilings allow me to keep 12 foot boards stored vertically in the corner. I can keep about 150 board feet in a pretty tight space. Storage is accomplished by two quickie wall shelves, a converted IKEA kitchen cabinet base unit, and an old filing cabinet nestled under the bench.

The manifest includes
-lunchbox planer
-Rikon 14″ bandsaw
-Festool: TS55, OF1400 router, RO DX 90 sander, CT22 vac
-router table with RE-600 3hp Ryobi router
-Craftsman lathe
-cheap, embarrassing bench top jointer and similar drill press
-Dewalt 717 miter saw
-HF 1/2hp dust collector with cyclone lidded trash can
-a few planes and chisels along with assorted goodies strewn about

Someday I’ll take over the rest of the basement so that I’ll have enough room for a proper jointer and a miter saw station (maybe even a table saw). But for now I’ve got access to the outdoors, lots of natural light, high ceilings, and the ability to keep an eye on my boys while they play in the yard. So for now I’m good.

I bought my house about two years ago, and it was mostly because of this beast in the backyard. The previous owner was a cabinet maker, and this was his shop. I am slowly converting this 800 sq. ft. sauna into a proper woodworking shop.

Some of my tools are new, some are inherited from my grandfather. A cheapo Skil contractor’s table saw for now, but a mid-line CMT blade makes it workable. New Porter Cable Scroll saw does wonders for inlay work. The inherited Craftsman bandsaw is probably older than I am, but with a good blade, custom fence and solid miter, it cuts like a dream. Compound miter saw is a (don’t laugh) Task Force, but again, a mid line CMT blade, plus custom extended fences get the job done. Bench planer is a 12″ Delta that does its job well enough, and the drill press is a Northern Tools special that I picked up from a buddy, cheap. Most of my power tools are Dewalt, and my hand tool collection is unfortunately pretty slim.

I have a workbench that I built out of scrap that does its best to pretend its a woodworking bench. I hope to start building my split-top Roubo soon to replace it!

The Crown Jewel of my collection has to be my jointer. It is an inherited Delta/Rockwell 6″, external belt driven, full body cast iron behemoth. It has a custom cart built by my grandfather to tote it around the shop. It took me a while to figure out how to square and plane it, but once it was set, it cut down even the hard stuff like butter.

This is my 2 car garage shop. I’ve had it for about a year. Its been through a few reworks/re-equips, re-designs etc. but I now have everything the way I like and with the addition of the split roubo its a pleasure to work in.

I insulated the door with R-13.5 insulation and installed an A/C unit which is a necessity here in South Carolina with the high humidity. All of the dust collection runs along the one wall where my sliding table saw, bandsaw and planer are. Everything is either on wheels or has a mobile base so if anything needs to be moved its pretty easy.

I use an 4″x 4″ lift to store small pieces/cut-offs on the ceiling to save space. As you can see, everything is usable without movement with exception to the planer which is wheeled to the center of the room for larger pieces. Thanks for looking!

I’ve been woodworking for about a year and a half. When I started to really enjoy the “sport” my parents renovated the basement under the garage which is why the ceilings are so low. I should probably mention that I am only 16. My father occasionally works in the shop, but most of the time I’m a lone wolf. Almost all of my stationary tools are General International and my hand tools are from Lee Valley (I collect Veritas planes). My shop has very limited floor space. The part of the shop shown in the pictures is the side closest to the door into our basement. The opposing side is a wood storage room also finished to the same standards of the shop side. I store only exotics in there. Domestic hardwoods and plywoods are stored in a unheated building that is 12x 24. On the “wood storage” side of the shop is where my dust collection and air compressor are located to keep shop noise to a minimum! The dust collection is run around the shop in 4″ piping where visible. On the wall where the miter saw is the dust collection is inside the wall.

In the town where I live there is a huge demand for absolutely every thing! So I have been suckered into woodworking as a part time job, which I don’t mind since you can charge basically what ever you want! The economy in which I live is grossly unrealistic! I enjoy it because it gives me the ability to make money off of hand tools instead of always looking for the quickest method. It also the ability to rapidly re-invest money back into my shop because every one loves buying tools!!!

Most of the work I do is custom cabinetry and interior solid wood doors which some times overwhelms the shop! I’m doing more and more furniture as I learn and gain experience from working with my dutch hand tool trainer. (He truthfully knows a few danish people and claims that you actually can’t get danish oil from squeezing danish people!! lol) He found Marc’s comment to be funny! If you are interested in seeing some of my work, please check out my web site. Thanks for viewing my shop!

I am currently in the process of moving my shop to a larger commercial location across town. This is where it all started for my business though…a 470 sq ft. shop in the detached 2 car garage of my house. When we moved to this house 4 years ago, it was nothing more than a run down garage with a rotten wooden door and exposed framing. I re-roofed the garage before I got started on the inside. The entire space was insulated and dry walled. After that I ran 60 amps from the house to a sub panel and a 1 inch gas line for a heater.

The shop has evolved over the last 4 years like most shops do. Shortly after moving in, I replaced my Delta contractor’s saw with a Uni-saw and my 6 inch Craftsman jointer with an 8 inch Delta. The shop is fairly well equipped and for the most part, met all of my needs. While working in this shop, I out sourced my finishing and many completed projects ended up living in the dining room for a few days awaiting delivery, due to the lack of space. My new shop has a spray booth, large air compressor to power the shop, a drum sander, and lots more space for finishing, assembly, and storage.

I plan on keeping the same idea of layout and efficiency that I currently have in the new shop. The cabinets along the back wall are all from sam’s club and are great for hiding away all my hand and power tools. I will post a new shop tour when I get all set up in the new space. Hope you all enjoy!

My shop is approximately 600 square feet in a 2,500 square foot building. There is also an 8′x13′ finishing room on the mezzanine above the shop and two wood racks along the shop and back wall. When needed (like on a recent project where I had a commission for 5 dressers with upper hutches), I spill out to the other 1,900 square feet.

Major power tools are 10” Delta tablesaw with custom wing, 12” Power King bandsaw with the Carter scrolling guide, Jet 14” bandsaw for ripping and resawing, Sommerfeld router table with Triton router, 15” Jet planer, Craftsman 6” belt/9” disc sander, Jet oscillating spindle sander, 12” DeWalt miter saw, Craftsman drill press, 8” Grizzly jointer, Jet 22-44 oscillating drum sander, Oneida cyclone dust collector and Jet DC-650 (that is dedicated to the Jet 22-44ODS, sanding and vacuuming the floor). Tucked away under the stairs to the mezzanine is a 150 gallon compressor. Also present are a Foley-Belsaw circular blade sharpener, belt grinder, Tormek and hand saw filer. You might have also noticed the torsion box top sitting on saw horses and the outfeed table (which has an insert for when I want to use it as a downdraft table.

I have a decent selection of clamps, but honestly need more parallel clamps of the smaller (18” to 24” range) size. Most of the clamps are either in the framing of the mezzanine or hanging along the edge. I also made clamping cauls on the jointer to reduce the number of clamps required for glue ups.

Although I started out as a Normite, I’d say the shop is becoming more and more blended. I have to give Marc credit here. It would likely have been a long time before I knew about or purchased a router plane, for example, but have used it countless times. I know it has improved the quality of my power tool joints. I included a couple of photos of some of the handtools. My #7 and #51 Lie-Nielsen’s were tucked under the bench, as well as my DMT and Shapton sharpening stones.

I’m sure I am missing stuff, so please feel free to ask questions. You can also take a look at the Facebook page. There are more detailed photos there. Also, very quickly about me…I’m an architect by training and started woodworking when I was in my teens (I’m now in mid 30’s) under my grandfather’s watch. Still it’s only very recently that I began pushing to get a shop set-up, tuned up and running in order to make projects for myself, family and commissions.

The images were taken in between projects and originally intended for updating the insurance records, but I thought I’d post them here too. For what it’s worth, since I started vacuuming the shop instead of sweeping, it seems to stay cleaner and also cleans up faster. BUT, for those of you who hate clean shop photos…don’t worry, it is trashed now!

My workshop was bought to life after a long awaited trip around Europe was cut short (4 months short to be precise). Upon my return to Australia, I had a rather generous amount of money still left in the bank and instead of throwing it at something like a new car or using it as a deposit on a house, I decided to invest it in something I had always loved…woodworking!

I aim to create a space that is capable of taking me from being a hobbyist as I am now, to one day becoming a professional woodworker. At age 20, I still have a long way to go but I have plenty of time!

I already had a good selection of handheld power tools, but machinery was something I had to start from scratch with so I started the spending spree with my 10” table saw. Although its not the best table saw in the world, it does a good job and with a bit of a tune, it performs very well.

After my table saw purchase,new tools kept finding their way into my shop. The first of which was a thickness planer. Naturally I would need to get a jointer to accompany my planer. I had heard that the local machinery shop had a special on their 8” long bed jointer, so there I was in the car with the credit card and on my way!

With the jointer, I noticed a huge improvement in the quality of my work and as I got more confident and started tackling bigger projects, I noticed that I started “needing” new tools, so eventually a 14” band saw, drill press, disk/belt sander, drum sander, a second 6” jointer, a scroll saw and an oscillating spindle sander found their way into the shop.

This is where my shop stands at the moment and I am very happy with it. I really enjoy making contemporary chairs and coffee tables. Currently I’m working on a fairly big project, a bent lamination dining room table that I’m documenting on my website. I also do a bit of restoration work here and there and in the future, I hope to get into some projects involving marquetry, oh and possibly I would like to get into making some wooden jewelry too.

Who doesn’t love a lot from a little. So this is my shop; its the corner of the front room of a one bed room apartment in NY. With a little creativity, I have turned it into a full cabinet shop. The space is 8 feet by 10 feet.
1- saw stop
1- Powermatic drill press
1- Powermatic band saw
1- Festool table
1- Powermatic 6″ jointer 52″ bed
1- router table
1- lather
5- sanders
2- Festool vacuums attached to 2 cyclone filtration canisters inline for max suction and dust removal
1- air filter
1- tool chest, and all the festoons you can imagine as well as a planer (I roll that outside) and a compound miter saw.

Behind the saw is the couch and TV to the living room. So when its work time, I pull that tarp up and turn on the air filter to isolate the room and create a laminar flow into the filter. I’ll tell you for the last 2 years the system has worked! Thanks Marc for the lessons. Time to make some dust!

And check out my walnut coffee table to see what you can really do in a small space.

Not much to say about my shop. Doesn’t get any more basic. I’m not a hand tool guy and can do most anything on machines. The photos were taken shortly after the shop was rebuilt due to a fire. Not much of a story behind the shop. My shop was my place of employment for about 25 years. It burned to the ground in 2011 and was rebuilt. Not all that exciting, all the tools were brought in on a single delivery, so it was an insta-shop. I’ve tried to turn over a new leaf by keeping the shop clutter and dust free. Just tools and supplies that are needed daily, the rest gets stored in the sheds. I think the only things that are not in the photos are the dust collector (cyclone out back) and small power tools like routers , dominoes and sander type tools. I keep those stuffed in the cabinets and drawers. I’ve really tried to become more of a minimalist instead of a tool junkie. As a recovering Festool junkie, its difficult but I seem to be on the road to recovery.

Our shop is set up in a 24′x 24′ garage in a residential neighborhood. The shop is fully insulated including the garage door, with an AC unit in the side door. I say “our” shop, because to my great fortune, my wife enjoys woodworking nearly as much as I do. We mainly build furniture for our house and as gifts for our family.

The main machines are a Felder KF700P saw/shaper (90″distance left of blade with slider/outrigger) and Felder AD 741 16″ jointer/planer. When my wife and I went to the Felder open house a few years back, she saw how easy and safe it was to cut a piece of plywood or heavy plank, and she was sold! The precision and safety of these machines is remarkable. The bandsaw is a PM1800, drum sander is a Jet 22-44 OSC and the Shopsmith, I inherited from my father.

The dust collection is performed by a Delta 50-850 modified with the 4″ restrictor plate removed and Thien baffle installed. The duct is all 6″ tapered to 5″ at the machine drops. The runs are short, and the performance of the Delta is nothing short of miraculous compared to the stock setup with 4 inch ducting. If you have this collector, these modifications are easy and highly recommended.

On a quick note, we recently bought the PM1800 bandsaw after much deliberation and testing of the major European brands in 18-24″ sizes. There is very little out there as to reviews on this machine, so if you are interested about it, let me know. All I will say is that it is really a monster of a bandsaw, with a versatility that few of the other saws offer.

Hope you enjoy the tour, and I just wanted to give a public thanks to my wife for making all of this possible! Also, thanks to all others who have posted shop tours, they are VERY enjoyable to look through.

My shop is a two car garage where no cars live. I have one wall dedicated to lumber storage, one for my work bench area, and one for racks holding equipment. Lots of storage has been squeezed in. All my large equipment is on wheels because most of the year it’s sunny out and the drive apron expands the working space a ton. Great natural light too. At the end of the day, everything gets rolled back in. It works out great!

Thanks to Marc for shop set up tips and ideas on how to get the most out of a small space. Plus the shop machine maintenance and set up guides have really helped. The videos on projects and instruction are awesome!

I decided to start woodworking about two years ago after my wife, Michelle and I went shopping for a new bedroom set. We visited the local furniture mart and Michelle found a set that she liked. It looked nice and each piece was priced around $500. When I asked the salesman what it was made out of, he talked in circles for a minute or two, fed me a line of BS, then walked away to ask his manager. It certainly was not hardwood and didn?t seem any better than the IKEA stuff we had. Frustrated, I left the furniture store and made a decision to start building my own furniture.

I went to my local big box store and loaded up with tools that I thought I needed. I somewhat successfully built my first project–a bookcase for Michelle. I had some real problems with the finishing process. Frustrated with how the bookcase looked, I took a hammer and just start beating the crap out of it. It was literally one of those “tiger got out of the cage” moments. Michelle heard all the pounding and expletives coming from outside and quickly ran to see what was wrong, fearing that I might have already injured myself during my inaugural build. Seeing the look on her face as I was turning her bookcase into kindling, I realized that injuring myself would have been far better than the wrath I was about to endure for ruining her bookcase. Needless to say, I made “nice” and managed to salvage the project and turned it into a bench. From that moment it became clear that it was going to take a lot more time, practice, tools and most of all patience to build furniture!

Over the past couple of years, my shop has gone through a couple progressions. I bought a cheap Delta table saw and Dewalt router from CL and built a couple more projects with some major issues as I continued to struggle. Not happy with the performance of my cheap table saw, I decided to try the all hand tool route. I sold my table saw, router and some of the other unnecessary power tools. Talk about biting off more than I could chew. I loved the idea of working with hand tools, but not the results I was getting. It is a slow, tedious and somewhat difficult process to learn for a new woodworker. It was driving me crazy and I was ready to quit. I took some time off and tried to figure out what it was that I was trying to accomplish. I figured out that I did not have to live in a world with only hand tools or only power tools. I now think of my shop and woodworking as a constant progression and try to enjoy the process as much as the end result. For me there is no finish line, timeline or deadline only enjoying time spent in the shop when I can.

This is my shop in its current state, part of a large one car garage. My workbench is a very basic and inexpensive design. Two IKEA tops laminated together with 3/4? dog holes drilled into it. The top sits on a base built out of 2 X 4?s joined together with pocket holes. Not super sexy, but after I added bench dogs, wonder pups and a couple of Gramercy Holdfasts, it became very functional. I also added a T8 light above the bench that I got from Home Depot for about $40. On the bench are a few of my hand tools. I have two LN independence saws, one filed crosscut and the other rip. I have a Veritas Plow Plane, Router Plane, Spokeshave, LN block plane, Stanley Jack Plane Type (Type 14), Tite Mark and Veritas marking gauges and a Blue Spruce marking knife (worth splurging for). On the back of the bench I have a set of LN chisels, two Buck Brothers pairing chisels (wood handles made in Maine) and a Starrett combination square. Underneath my bench is where I store a very generic version of a tool chest, its actually a footlocker from a deployment I went on a few years ago and has come in very handy for storing my hand tools until I can build a legit tool chest. Inside of it I have a Stanley hand brace, Jennings pattern bits, sliding bevel, winding sticks and a couple other miscellaneous tools.

To the right of my bench is my sharpening station. I use Shapton 1000, 4000, and 8000 grit stones, a DMT duo sharp (coarse/fine) to flatten my stones, a Veritas MKII honing guide and a Rockler LED light courtesy of a monthly drawing on The Wood Whisperer site. The surface is just a piece of 3/4″ MDF bolted on top of what used to be the base for my table saw. The Ridgid jointer is a recent addition found on CL. I was not in the market for a jointer but it was only $100. It was in pretty poor shape–there was a lot of surface rust and it needed some serious TLC. After a couple days of hard work, all the rust was off and it looked pretty good. As far as functionality its okay, but I am not in love with it. The bed is short, its finicky to adjust, its only 6? wide and it I don’t like the amount of tearout I am getting, but it was only $100. Right behind the jointer is where I store my parallel clamps, nothing fancy but it works.

The planer was my first power tool addition. Its a Delta 12 1/2″, 2 knife lunchbox style planer that I got off CL. This was a great find, I bought it from an older guy and it looked like he had only used it once or twice. The manuals where still in plastic unopened and it came with the mobile base. Its only a two-knife plane so I take very little off each pass; it takes little longer but sure is easier to thickness a board with the planer then by hand.

My newest power tool addition is a Grizzly G1022 ProZ, contractor style table saw with a Shop Fox Classic Fence. Another CL find and the one I am most proud of. It was almost a two hour drive to pick it up, but well worth it. The saw is in great shape, with limited use and very well taken care of. It came with a mobile base that the previous owner built, but I added the drawers, which are from Lee Valley and excellent for extra storage in my small shop. I added a couple of accessories–an Infinity Super General Combo blade, Onsrud Rip and Dado blades (eBay finds recommended by Knotscott). I have not used either of the Onsrud blades so I can’t offer any personal experience but from what Knottscott told me about them, some various opinions around the Interwebs and their very reasonable pricing, I am confident they were a good buy. Can’t forget about the safety equipment–3M respirator and a Grr-Ripper, which is a must have, love that thing! Oh and of course a WW push stick!

There is a very basic outfeed table behind my table saw. Under the outfeed table is my temporary dust collection system. Its a Dust Right Vortex Dust Separator hooked to a shopvac. The shopvac is loud and not the greatest when it comes to DC but it gets the job done.

Finally, we have what serves as my assembly table. Just a piece of plywood mounted between two beams in my garage. On the table is a Ryobi grinder, storage cabinet for screws and favorite new toy?I mean tool, a Festool CXS drill! Oh yea and a pair of Festool safety glasses.

I have an idea of where I want my shop to go over the course of the next couple of years but nothing is set in stone. I will just let my projects dictate my next couple of shop upgrades and continue to enjoy the process of working wood. I will post all of the shop updates on my blog www.jamscroll.com

Hi folks! I always wanted to build small furniture and musical instruments but I only have about one quarter of my basement available for a shop. Nevertheless, I managed to cram in a contractor table saw with an out feed table and router table attached, a press drill, small belt sander, jointer, portable thickness planer, a mitre saw my brother-in-law gave me (thanks Jean!), a sink, compressor, homemade dust collection system and air filter, and an always-too-small workbench. In order to still be able to work and go around the equipment, I installed some of them (the planer and mitre saw) on slides and the jointer is on casters so I can stash it under the mitre saw. It’s not perfect, but it’s workable!

My shop is located in the lower level of my home. Three years ago we relocated to this home and one of the requirements was to have a dedicated space for a workshop area other than having to share with the car and lawn mower and be able to work in the winter months.

The space is made up up two areas that are separated by double doors. The combined space is 730 square feet. There are double doors that open to the outside for bringing in materials and machinery.

My heavy tools are located in the larger shop area and the other area is used for assembly and finishing. I have all of my tools installed on mobile bases so they can be rolled quickly to where they are needed. I use a Jet roll-around dust collector plus a JDS air filtration unit to reduce dust from getting into the living area. A feature that I never had in my shops until this one is a large utility sink that makes clean-up easier after those finishing projects. When possible, I try to use water base finishes.

My tool storage is in drawers and tool boxes located around the shop area. Storage for clamps is on a Rockler roll-around clamp rack. The Rocker clamp rack has several shelves that I used to store my glue and other items needed when doing a glue-up and has worked much better than a fixed wall-mounted rack. I have reorganized my work areas several times but the current setup works great.

My shop is a work in progress. I enjoy taking a concept drawing for a client and turning it into reality. I also enjoy remaking/duplicating antiques and fixing broken furniture. I use my shop to build custom cabinetry and kitchen cabinets for clients as well.

Currently, I am opening up my shop as a millwork shop for people who need material planed, cut to size or projects glued up & overall general help building projects. To see some of my work please check out my website: johnwhitedesign.com

My workshop is a project in itself. It is a 3 car garage that I had to rewire. My wife’s car and my motorcycle need to sleep in the garage at night. I try to arrange everything in such a manner to accommodate the car and bike but still retain some functionality to it. I have some nice open space if the car is out, so this arrangement works well. I’m a amateur at best and still have tons to learn. Most of my projects are building stuff for the house and shop.

I am in the process of transitioning from cottage builder to joinery shop hobbyist/enthusiast. The majority of my equipment is focused for using on site with far less tolerances than the majority of The Wood Whisperer crowd would be comfortable with.

After haunting some of the forums I have motivated myself enough to start the project of cleaning out years of accumulated junk, tools and projects that lost steam.

The shop is developing in my 20 x 20 garage. The plan is to set up 10 x 20 and leave the other half for my old vehicle to sleep in at night time. There is a space behind my 20 x 20 garage which has a concrete slab, insulated roof and bare frames for walls that will, in time, become the shop proper, conditional on my interest continuing.

I purchased a flat packed steel rolling tool box with laminated hardwood top to help get things moving along quickly and I am very happy with it. The plan is to convert it into a mitre saw station, but at present it is handy for my bench mounted machines. The Dewalt mitre saw stand is what I have been using on work sites and it will probably stay this way for a while. In contrast, the workbench beside it was built by my great grandfather and used by him as a carriage builder for NSW railways, back in the times when railway carriages were built from timber.

I plan on building the torsion box assembly table that Marc showed us and it will sit in a similar way that an island bench does in a kitchen. You can see the difference the new lights make. There were two 36 watt tubes in this area. They were replaced with 6 twin 36 watt tubes that are also diffused and fitted with 5000 kelvin tubes instead of the 4000 kelvin, which were a bit warm for my old eyes. This shop will be a work in progress as responsibilities get in the way–but hey, you only have one shot at life, so why not enjoy it?

The shop started as a stand alone garage with attached office. I added a 20 x 36 addition to it. The new for our Yorkies, office for wife’s craft room and garage for me, or so I though. Yorkies got new plus office, the wife got 1/3 of garage, me what was left. As my space got smaller her’s got larger. So I added a 18 x 20 addition off the garage door for a new shop.The router table, drill press, small belt sander and scroll saw remain in the old shop, for now.

I have a 24 year background in construction and the last 13 years as a commercial construction superintendent. I have been building furniture and cabinets for the last 12 years and teaching myself new techniques to improve my skills with every project. I have been laid off since last Sept. and haven’t had much luck finding another superintendent position, so I’ve been trying to make a start at my own woodworking business.

The shop is a 26ft. x 40ft. pole building that I built in 2005. I framed in the walls to insulate and drywall. I also decided to frame and sheet the floor instead of concrete. It has a 200 amp independant service. It’s location is about 100′ from my back door. Equipment is as follows. 5hp Delta unisaw, 15″ Delta planer, 14″ Powermatic bandsaw, 18″ 3hp Jet bandsaw, 36″ vintage Crescent bandsaw, Powermatic 719T mortiser, Delta 8″ jointer, Performax 2244 drum sander, Jet 6″x108″ edge sander, Shopfox spindle sander, Delta 6×48 belt/disc sander, Delta/Rockwell 24″ scroll saw, Delta 12×36 wood lathe and too many hand tools to list.

This is my shop. It is just under 800 square feet. Dust collection runs to another room. I also store my lumber in this room. Yes, that’s carpet on the floor. It was there when I moved in. I didn’t bother to pull it up. I figured it would be easier on my feet than the concrete. This is my home away from home!

Hi All, I mainly make Islamic calligraphy out of exotic and tropical woods. Just thought I would share my workshop with everyone as Marc has inspired me so much in woodworking. I am a British born Asian Muslim.

I rent a unit in a warehouse. Would love to have it in my basement or a garage but l don’t have either! The shop is in a bit of a mess as l am working on a few projects. I bought most of my tools from Axminister. Here in the UK it is quite popular, a bit like your Grizzly’s. Just a run down with the equipment l use:

*Scheppach Deco 450 Scroll saw – I wouldn’t be able to do what l do without this! German made with cast iron top. Solid and beautiful machine to use. I was thinking of getting an Excalibur but this does the job extremely well.

*Jet JTS-10 Bench Top Saw Bench – At the moment being used as a worktop.

*Axminster AWHBS310N Bandsaw – Mid range bandsaw. I do a lot of re-sawing on this and it does an exceptional job.

*Axminster MB9020 Bench Top Planer Thicknesser – Does the job, would like to have the standalone systems when I get more space.

*Axminster WD13L Pillar Drill – Really cheap worktop pillar drill, does the job.

*Dakota Deluxe Full Size Router Table – Love this router table and got it half price from Rutlands £99! Attached is a Titan router.

*Axminster AWEDE2 Dust Extractor – When I got this extractor I thought it would be powerful and keep the dust in, heck was I wrong! This is not the best but I have converted it into a cyclone, and it works pretty well now and the dust surprisingly stays in.

I have been doing woodworking for the past year, but properly got into it in the past 6 months after watching Marc’s tutorials and works from other members.

Well it is a rainy day here in Vancouver (like everyday LOL). So I figured I would upload a tour of my little shop. It is a 7 foot by 7 foot shed with a bag room that I built not too long ago. And yes, a paint job is on the way. As a 16 year old, woodworking is my hobby, like a lot of people. I still have to focus on my school work, so everyday after school, I spend around 2 hours in the shop. All of my tools were collected in a short amount of time. they were bought by me or my dad and some were given to me by friends.

Of course, this is a very small shop, but I can manage quite well. I tend to work on smaller projects. I like to do a lot of my sanding outside as well as my table saw work because of my very limited space.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the tour of my shop and hopefully it has helped you feel as though you have a bigger shop than you thought. Lol, because I always get a good laugh when someone is giving a shop tour saying “this is my small workshop”. Take a look here eh! I hope to make woodworking a good career someday like Marc and Norm Abrams.

Hi, I’m Boj and I am 16 and this is my shop. Above is a front view of my shop. The first photo below is my Snap-on kra2212a toolbox (I call it my Roles-Royce). The next photo is my router with a new router bit purchased to build the Guild Shaker Table. The third photo shows some of my planes and chisels. Then there is a shot of my Lie-Nielsen low angle 102 block plane (its a must have!!!)

The fifth photo is of my workbench with my shaker table in progress. And lastly is my new router table and my new metabo bandsaw. Its not a very big workshop with very good tools (some are) like Marc’s beautiful workshop, but for now it works.

Since I was sending these photos off to family, I thought I would send you a set as well, especially since it’s the Wood Whisperer lumber rack, plywood/sheet good bin design that I used to help get my shop in order! I wish I had thought to take pictures of the shop before the re-arrangement and show just how much family crap was stored in the garage. I finally got the wife, her daughters and the ex-husband to go through the crap and as I suspected, most of it ended up in the trash. After all if you haven’t used it, looked for it, or wanted it in over 6 years then odds are you don’t need it and it can go bye-bye.

With the garden paraphernalia and the camping gear moved back into the back “cubby” area of the garage and the stuff off the wall where I wanted the lumber rack built, I finally had the space I was looking for to get shop equipment placed more efficiently. I now feel like my 2 car garage has room to move around in and that I have plenty of space. I no longer have to do the juggling act of moving tools around for each step in a project and then invariably having to pull something back out for that missed-operation or to fix something along the way that needs that tool pushed off into a corner. I really hope that the space means less use of the mobile bases (though the band saw and drill press will still sometimes have to be pulled away from wall when doing stuff on longer pieces, but I consider that somewhat minor).

Two major future additions still need to occur. DUST COLLECTOR and air filter needs to happen sooner rather than later (I am trying to get that worked into the budget). The other addition is to get the Roubo workbench finished. The legs and stretches have all their tennons and mortises chopped/cut, I just need to get the large SYP beams resawn and milled and glued together and do all the final build of that and mount vise hardware (most of the wood for the Roubo bench is stored in the lumber rack over the plywood storage bin).

So right now I am a pretty happy woodworker with a shop that has a pleasant atmosphere and room to move around in!

My basement shop is a little more than 1,500 sq. ft. including a dust collection room and bathroom. There is a large laundry sink in the bathroom. I also have a 240 sq. ft. finishing room at the rear of the garage. The finishing room and basement workshop are connected by double doors and a 6′ wide stairway. This is great for bringing materials in and taking projects out. The finishing room is also used to store a 5′ x 10′ trailer for getting materials. There is also a traditional stairway from the shop to the living area of the house.

Some of the unique features of the shop include six 3′ x 5′ daylight windows and a 9′ foot ceiling. The shop has color correcting fluorescent lights like those used in paint shops. A dedicated electrical panel provides power to the 110V and 220V outlets that are spaced about every 3′ and 50″ off the floor. The shop stays about 60 to 70 degrees year around. Anti-fatigue mats cover the floor. The ceiling and walls have two layers of drywall with sound resilient channel between the layers. There is blown cellulous insulation in the walls and ceiling. The dust collection room has additional sound proofing and also houses the air compressor. All this creates a good sound barrier to the living area of the house above. The shop has a 37″ flat screen TV connected to a stereo. The sound can be transmitted via a long range FM transmitter so that I can listen to music or TV thru my headphones even with equipment running.

My primary equipment includes a Steel City 3HP granite top cabinet table saw, Festool Kapex miter saw, Grizzly 2HP 17î bandsaw, Dewalt 20″ scroll saw, Grizzly 3HP oscillating edge sander, Grizzly floor standing oscillating spindle sander, Grizzly 12″ baby drum sander, 5HP 38″ Woodmaster drum sander, Delta bench top disc sander, Delta 17″ drill press, Jet 2HP full size lathe, 3HP router table, Grizzly 3HP 15″ spiral head planer, and a Grizzly 3HP 8″ spiral head jointer. A collection of Festool power tools compliments the stationary tools. There is a 4′ x 8′ vacuum press for veneering. The dust collection and air filtration for the shop is an Oneida 5HP cyclone dust collector and two Jet overhead air cleaners.

The work tables include a 20″ x 40″ sanding table, 4′ x 8′ worktable with a shelf underneath for storing the current project, a 38 x 76 traditional hardwood workbench with more project storage underneath, a miter saw station with two 8′ wings and ruled stops for quick and repeatable cuts, 7′ x 4′ table saw out feed table with offcut storage underneath, two 48î x 26î rolling cabinets, and 3 Festool multifunction tables. The Festool MFTs are the most used work surfaces in the shop. In all there are 55 shop made drawers plus a few cabinets for storing hand tools and supplies. A couple of long shelves are used for storing veneer. The clamp rack holds over a hundred clamps of varying sizes. The 4′ x 8′ lumber rack holds stick lumber, sheet goods and two large rolls of waxed and unwaxed paper.

I have a 2 car (attached) garage w/ an insulated door, natural gas heat, window AC unit, and all walls and ceiling FINALLY insulated!!! I mainly modify guitar related electronic devices. This means that much of my work is with metal. Guitar parts, pedal chassis’ and what not. The electrical modifications I do to the guitars are typically pretty intense and almost always require massive changes to the control cavity. This demands creating a template and flush trim routing a new cavity. Lately it seems that most of my woodworking is building shop stuff. I only get to use the full shop in the spring/summer months since my wife thinks it is still a garage. I plan on building all new kitchen cabinets in the next year or two.

My shop is in a two car garage which also shares some space with the mower (sigh). I hope to eventually build a storage shed in the backyard in order to remove all of the lawn junk… My little piece of serenity.

I’ve been a woodworker for years (my dad has a nice shop), but recently decided to set up a shop of my own in my 12′ x 24′ garage, which I’m sharing with yard tools, bikes, and camping gear. So far I have a table saw and a planer, a few smaller hand-held power tools, and a few hand tools–it’s a good start (and there’s not a lot of space for much more). I like the window next to the workbench, and even though there’s no heat or A/C, I love to be in there.

I read Marc’s article about moving back to his old shop, and I couldn’t help feeling a little zealous. That’s because I built my dream shop in early 2010 and was then transferred for work from Western to Eastern Canada. Fortunately, I built it on my parents property where my wife and I intend to retire, but I don’t get to use it very often at this time.

The shop (26 feet by 36 feet) occupies half of the main floor of a Ponderosa pine barn that I built on the property in 2009. The remainder of the main floor of the barn is a metal and car shop and in the loft there is a one bedroom suite and a large party area.

Features include: 12 foot ceiling; six 3 foot by 3 foot windows for plenty of natural light; infloor heating; sliding doors and loading dock to move wood in and project pieces out; built-in air supplied by a 5 HP stationary compressor; 6 inch galvanized steel vacuum piping; and purpose-installed electrical system.

I upgraded and purchased almost all of my power tools from Grizzly in the Fall of 2009 which includes:
- 5 HP 12 inch G0605X Table Saw with tool boxes
- 3HP 19 inch G0514X2B Band Saw
- 3 HP 8 inch G0490X Jointer
- 5 HP 20 inch G0454Z Planer
- 3 HP G1026 Shaper
- 3/4 HP G1495 Lathe
- 1 HP G0610 Dovetail Machine
- 1 1/2 HP 20 inch G7948 Drill Press
- 5 HP 24 inch G1066Z Drum Sander
- 3/4 HP G1014ZX Combination Sander
- 1 1/2 HP G1140 Edge Sander
- 1 HP G1071 Oscillating Spindle Sander
- 2 Hp G0532 Spray Booth
- 2 HP G4814 Mortise Machine
- 5 HP Cyclone Dust Collector
- 3/4 HP 12 inch Dewault Mitre Saw

There are numerous other power and hand tools as you might imagine.

I haven’t had the opportunity to run all the equipment through the paces since I have been using the shop to finish the barn and not build too much furniture. I’ve also got a few more tools to purchase including a track saw, domino cutter, and portable dust collector.

I can hardly wait to move back like Marc has done. There is no place like home and a great shop!

My shop is a decent size but I wish I had more space. Its just a hobby shop, but someday I hope to make a little $$$ with all the tools I have. I recently upgraded the shop with some new machinery and 200 amp electrical service to power them. All machinery is Laguna, except for the table saw and small dust collector which is Woodtek. I have a 16HD band saw, 16? 5hp planer, 8? 3hp jointer, 12? 5hp table saw, 3hp cyclone dust collector and a 1.5hp dust collector.

Festool is my new found choice for portable power tools so I?ve added a few of those too! I?ve spent countless hours arranging and rearranging, making shop modifications, a few new jigs and accessories, and putting in a wood stove to heat it. It?s soooo cold in Wyoming!!! I hope to start on some new projects soon now that I?ve got the shop the way I want it, for now anyway!!! The assembly table is still in the works, doors and drawer fronts to come soon. Thanks Marc for a great website and all the tutorials!!!

Here’s my shop for posting should it be worthy having just done a clean-up and rearranging the layout. (we’re not worthy! we’re not worthy!) … ahem, sorry about the Wayne’s World moment.

My shop is a single car garage 12′ x 26′. A bit longer than a standard 1 car garage, but a little on the narrow side, but we all work with what we’re given eh? I have to share the garage with some other domestic stuff (garden/lawn equipment, bikes etc.) and in the winter, my wife is currently still wanting to ‘share’ the garage. Seeing as I don’t have a proper dust collection system in place yet, we’ll see how that works for her ;-P

I’m just getting started this year into woodworking (The shaker table was my first completed project) and have a mastercraft 10″ TS and the rest of my tools are benchtop models (Ryobi planer & mitre saw, Craftsman drillpress, delta bandsaw). I have invested in a couple of decent hand planes (Veritas) though.

This year I want to make a proper workbench as the I’m currently using 3/4″ plywood on 2 sawhorsed. I have 2 separate sheets so that I can remove one and step into use one that I made into a makeshift router table. The project on the bench is a Slat style clock that I’m working on as a wedding present for my cousin.

This workbench is built out of hard maple. For a long time I couldn’t decide what kind of workbench to build. I was thinking about a MDF top and some less expensive legs. The inspiration was Fine Woodworking magazine (workshop solution). Their’s was little different. I used screws covered with nice wenge plugs instead of dovetails. The legs are mortise and tenon joints, through tenon is reinforced with walnut wedges. The size: 63″ long, 26″ wide, 34″ tall. There are two workbench vises from grizzly, top slab 1 3/4 thick (on sale at woodcraft) front and side apron 1 3/4″ x 5.5″. The total cost was around $450 for materials.

Walled off the single car side of a three car garage. All cabinets are MDF that I painted with paint I had left over from years of honey “do” projects.

Dark…dank…sometimes refered to as the Mines of Moria (although no trolls are to be found). My shop is filled with all the essentials and few of the extras. All my bigger stuff including the table saw is on wheels. The ceiling in my shop is exactly 6′ high.

This shop has built a desk, cabinets, and one queen size mission style bed. I started the shop 6 years ago out of frustration, when my steuart sauder desk (200.00 and 2 yrs old), fell apart when we moved it to paint a wall. I figured I could build a better desk out of wood for less than that. I was wrong! It cost about $300 to build one out of pine, but it is 5 years old and is still as sturdy as the day it was built!!!!

I am an amateur woodworker in the greater Pittsburgh area. I use to work for a custom high end furniture shop. I want to eventually do it on my own.

My shop is approximately 720 sq. ft. located in the basement of my home. I am blessed with a lot more space than most woodworkers, but still crave for more. My shop is still evolving. I am constantly making upgrades, jigs and modifications to the shop and tools. I, like many woodworkers, spend more time on the shop than on actual projects. Looking to get some projects in the shop soon.

My latest project is a modified design of Marc’s torsion box work bench.

My shop is 21 x 27 with a stairwell out of it to a one bedroom apartment above which I have converted to my office. I started turning the garage into a woodshop about a year and a half ago. When I started, it had one plug-in and two light bulbs. I have replaced both doors with insulated doors, replaced the old fuse box with a breaker box and wired it both for 110 and 220. I added a Jet 1 ½ hp dust collector and ran pipe to most of my machines. I have a utility sink that I need to plumb in so I don’t have to run upstairs all the time. The furnace and AC for my office is in the garage so it never gets too hot or too cold and when I need it, I have a vent that I can open in the garage. I am still working on tool and wood storage and some shop furniture. I have a bathroom and kitchen upstairs in my office and I am thinking about making the bedroom a finishing room for things small enough to get up there.

My tools include a Delta Unisaw, Delta drill press, Delta band saw with a Kreg fence, a Powermatic hollow chisel mortiser, a Powermatic 15? planer, a Delta DJ20 8? jointer, a Jet slow speed wet sharpener, a Dewalt compound miter saw, an 8? bench grinder with a wolverine jig, an Earlex 5000 series HVLP spray station. We are getting there but we still have a long way to go.

My shop is in a prefab 12′ x 16′ building. It’s insulated but I still haven’t got around to putting in A/C or heating. I build cabinets as a side job in this shop, and it is comical to see me manhandling 4′ x 8′ sheets of ply on to my table saw. So, any way I hope that you enjoy the tour.

My shop is small, so I use all available space as efficiently as possible, especially wall space.  I have plenty of storage for the small hardware that usually sits on the table in the way.  I use the empty space under tables and benches and also under my table saw out feed table.  The shop is 20′ x 24′ and I have all the room I need, but it took me a year to get it there.  I also have a garage door for getting stuff in and out.  As you will notice in the pictures, there isn’t ANY wall space (at floor level) that is not used.  I still have plenty of room to move around.  I have an open area which is about 10′ x 15′ and when I want to use a piece of equipment, I roll it out there, use it and then roll it back, that way it doesn’t sit out in the middle of the floor for me to walk around, trip over or use for a table to store things on like Marc does.  Gotcha Marc!!

And did ya notice the boards on the table? Those are for my new torsion box I’m making!! Thanks to Marc!! I made the out feed table myself.  It is two sets of rollers and it really works great. It took several changes in layout and a year working at it, but I think I got it now. Also, if you notice, I even have my roll around tool boxes in the shop! The layout table will be real nice when it’s done. I like things nice and neat and clean. I sweep the shop every time I use it, which makes for a better attitude. My shop is also heated and air conditioned and I have hot and cold water and soon it will have cable tv and telephone. Guess where I go when the wife’s mad? Thanks for looking at my shop and I hope you enjoyed it!

Some of you may already know our good friend Tom Buhl. Check out some of his creations here and here. All that finely-crafted work comes out of a cozy two-car garage. Check it out.

A two-car garage is home to the Tom Buhl Workshop, an amateur endeavor. As you see in the first photo, that two-car garage also houses treasures, precious and otherwise, from combining two households five years ago into a 950 square foot home. When I married the lovely Ms. Gastil, she had a old, but serviceable contractor?s saw. So I made some shelves and storage devices from scraps and several raised garden beds. First furniture project, almost four years ago, was a set of bedside tables using plans purchased online. I was hooked. I play in the shop pretty much every day unless rain descends on our little corner of paradise.

Obviously, I work in a well-ventilated area with plenty of natural light. After opening the garage door, I roll out the carts. Even to use semi-stationary, I have to clear access space. As tight as things are, I?ve always managed to find a storage pattern to add another tool. I added the Jet 16-32 early this year and didn?t know how it could possibly fit, but somehow a formula was developed. When unexpected rain occurs it is a scramble to tuck everything safely away.

The PM2000 (a CraigsList find) has built-in wheels but stays put. Drill press and Grizzly 18-inch band saw are also used inside, but I will position to suit size of work. Wood cart on left wall was the first shop project?it has served me well. Holds scraps, cut offs and sheet goods. The Sj

My wife and I bought our house in Nov 2008, it is such a huge step up from our old, very small house. I love my new garage but still have to share it with the family. We park cars in it over winter and bikes, skate boards and lawn equipment share space in the summer.

I have some lower end power tools that get the job done and everything moves around pretty easily when I need to work on my car or something. I do have a nice out building with wood floors that I am hoping to move the wood shop into but I have to clean it out and find other places to store all of our junk, you know, the totes full stuff that you have not laid eyes on in over 3 years but still feel you might need it someday.

I hope you enjoy the pics, I just recently built a new work bench with a shelf, I have wall installed shelving around the perimeter and I also just got done mounting a PC at my work bench that connects to my internet via wireless.

My shop is in a 3 car garage. My center stall has a door leading to the outside. My son in law has the third stall with roll up door. The other side will have a wall with an Apartment. Most tools are Craftsman, Ryobi Drills, Planer, and the Table Saw is Ryobi/Sears, with a sliding Miter Table.

This shop is in a one car garage set off from the main 2 car garage. I added a door between the two to keep dust (and heat) contained in the shop portion. This is what it looks like between major projects, after all of the flat surfaces have been cleared of the tools, sandpaper, wood scraps, finish containers and all the miscellaneous stuff that accumulates during a project.

The equipment has been acquired over many years, some items are replacements of early items (Craftsman Hybrid table saw to replace original Ryobi, Dewalt planer to replace original Delta) and some have been in the shop quite a while (Delta drill press and small jointer). The dust collection system was upgraded a couple years ago and really creates a much more pleasant (and safer) work environment, it goes to all major tools and can connect to the random orbit sander as well.

Over the past couple of years I built new cabinet bases for many of the tools, trying to find logical groupings of tools to share a base (drill press/jointer, planer/miter saw) and all on wheels so they can be tucked away when not needed. The large white built-in cabinets hold finishing supplies, hardware, hand tools (jig saw, biscuit cutter, drills etc).

The main limit of the shop size is dealing with larger stock – ripping an 8 foot board is a bit of a challenge requiring moving the table saw and working with full plywood panels requires rough cuts with a circular saw to get down to sizes the can be managed on the table saw without a large in or out feed surface. But I am not complaining – I know I am fortunate to have this much space to work with, less than some, but more than most.

Originally intended as a small upgrade to the wiring and to build a small work bench, I discovered a huge carpenter ant problem. After tearing out the entire back wall and rebuilding, I decided it was time to go all the way. So I refinished the entire shop inside and out, as well as a new roof and overhang. I then proceeded to purchase as much new equipment and gadgets as I could muster to fill it up.These are pics of the now finished shop, as well as a pic of my first Morris chair.

Hi Marc, I figured this would be a good time to photograph my shop and send to you since I did a much needed pre-spring spring cleaning.

My workshop is located near Grand Rapids Michigan. It is about 25×25 and was divided in half with a wall which I tore out and installed a large beam to hold the garage up. In the center of the shop is a 10″ Jet contractor table saw with shop built extension wing and out feed table/work table.

Along the south wall is my 14″ Delta band saw, 6″ Jet Jointer, 12-1/2 Delta planer where I store my Delta scroll saw and have a over head lumber rack and keep sheets of plywood against the wall. Along the west wall is where my Delta 10″ compound miter saw lives, Porter Cable 15 gallon air compressor, Delta drill press and where I store clamps on the wall and various jigs. On the north wall is where all my power tools and hand tool are stored. This is the first time I’ve seen my bench top in about a year… lol. Along the east wall is where I store various items, garage heaters and projects in waiting and where my router table is located. Well I hope you enjoyed my shop tour!

Well, I have finished my shop (are you ever really finished?), and I thought I would share with all. We bought a small piece of land and I tell family and friends that we built a shop with a house attached. The stand alone shop is close and connected but no dust in the house. It is 24 by 28, I wish I had made it bigger. I have been heavily influenced by your advice and I have used a lot of Norm’s ideas in the outfitting of the shop. You can see his stuff in the pictures. It has heat and air so I can work year round. The roof is quite high so I can add an upper loft later. The walls are lined with CDX so I can screw and nail to the walls without looking for studs. The builders splashed paint on the walls while using the space for painting so they had to paint the CDX. I have pretty much all the tools I need. Not visible are the scroll saw and mortise.

The shop is now producing projects as you can see. I am using the roll around dust collector and some day may put in a cyclone but the high ceilings will make it difficult. I am pleased with it and I am thoroughly enjoying working in it.

My shop is a work in progress but its constantly developing so I guess that’s good. I share space with lawn & garden, bicycles, camping gear, a canoe, and of course, a LARGE BBQ smoker and a couple of smaller grills.

My major equipment list won’t impress many, but it works well for me so I guess that’s all that counts. The folks who can build fine furniture with a circular saw and a cutting guide without a doubt get TONS of respect from me. My entire shop was/is put together with “bang for the buck” a primary concern. Since this is just a hobby and not my living, not a single woodworking tool I own is what anyone would consider the top of the line, (As opposed to the Snap On stuff I bought when I was a mechanic years ago) it is all VERY effective, and does exactly what I want.

The list:
Ryobi BT3100-1 fully loaded up with wide table, router accessory, Shark Guard, custom dust collection improvements, etc. I am working on a wide table top to fill the space between the rails and provide a miter slot for the router accessory table. Primary blade is a Freud Diablo 40T general purpose blade. Also have 24T ripping and 80T Diablo blades. Dado stack is an Oshlun SDS-0630. The saw was used and I got it and all the goodies for it cheap. The blades were on sale (I try to never pay full price for anything). The lumber for the wide table legs was Hurricane Ike debris and the table top was scrap ply from the shop.

-Black & Decker Firestorm FS1000L compound miter saw and Firestorm folding miter saw stand. As lousy as the Firestorm router is, it amazes me how well this CMS and stand works. While missing some features of its Yellow cousins, accuracy wise, it is right there with the DeWalt. I have it fitted with an 80T Freud Diablo crosscutting blade. LOVE it. The CMS was on clearance, the Diablo blade I paid full price for, but it was reasonable.

Central Machinery #32208 4 speed wood cutting bandsaw with riser block, micro adjustable roller bearing blade guides, Craftsman band saw fence and a variety of Timberwolf blades. 1/2″ 3TPI lives on it most of the time. Another HF gem. Again, sale and coupon. A shop built dust collection chute that will tie into the 4″ line, and mostly surround the blade and lower blade guide. A Grizzly GO555 tension release modification is on the way too. I have mine mounted up on a Central Machinery universal mobile base which keeps it easy to move on that rare occasion. This in turn keeps me from getting a hernia.

- Old Skil 14 amp circular saw. (Circa 1993). Assortment of blades including plywood blades, Hardi blades etc. I have this all housed in a heavy ballistics nylon tool bag for organizational sanity purposes.

- Ryobi variable speed reciprocating saw with an assortment of the decent Bi-Metal blades from Milwaukee.

- Old Skil jig saw. Not the best saw, but fitted with some decent Bosch blades, it cuts acceptably for a jig saw. This was a WalMart special back when I was in college, and WalMart was proud to be selling “Made in America”.

- 2 @ Hitachi KM12VC routers, 1 fixed base in the router wing on the table saw. Got both of them on DEEP sale. The second one was an Amazon lightning sale at $99.00.

- Black and Decker Firestorm plunge router. Unreliable non-standard pile of junk. I messed up and paid for this. This is one of those tools that has me wondering what I was thinking.

Wide assortment of router bits and accessories including MLCS 66pc 1/2” shank bit set, mitered frame raised panel bit set, Rabbeting bit set, and Skil 30 piece 1/4″ shank bit set. I also have a few Freud, Amana, and Rockler specialty profile bits in there. I cant say enough good about the MLCS bits and the service from the company though. I wish all WW companies treated their customers this well.

Northern Tool 16 speed floor model drill press. Basically the same thing as the Central Machinery #43378 but with Burgundy and black paint. This is fitted with a Grizzly drill press table, Rockler DP accessory tray, and Rockler DP chuck key retractor thingamajig. The Grizzly table is great for the $$, but it leaves a LOT to be desired. Specifically the table material is melamine coated MDF, and it receives the mounting clamps with simple wood screws. Not exactly a good recipe. I plan on redoing this soon with a combination MDF, tempered hardboard, sanded plywood, SYP trim, and Rockler T-track. Too many other irons in the fire for now, and this works fine. The DP was a CraigsList special that was dirt cheap, the table came from a fellow member of BT3Central.

- Craftsman 3/8″ VSR corded drill with case. Not sure of the model. I got this after I burned up an old B&D my dad gave me. Ive probably had it for 20 years now.

- Ryobi 3/8″ VSR clutch driver drill with cord. I had the Craftsman dedicated to a Vermont American drill press jig for the longest time. I got the Ryobi because it didnt overdrive screws. A deep sale Father’s Day kind of thing as I recall”¦ Love this drill. Not as powerful as the Craftsman, but I haven’t blown out any screws with it yet either.

Central Machinery #34706 lathe with shop built tool shelf and ballast box/shelf. Wood River Chuck, Benjamins Best lathe tools. The shop built tool shelf has holes that SNUGLY hold the tools without cases like the knockout bar, faceplate, spanners, etc. I know Harbor Freight gets a lot of flack, but this thing is a total gem. Been a hoot learning on it, and have no plans to sell it even if/when I upgrade to a bigger/better lathe. Its cheap enough I will pass it on to a woodworking friend or relative that wants to start turning. I got this lathe on sale and combined that with the HF 20% off coupon. The turning tools and chuck were also on sale. The ballast box is really no box though, I just have a couple of bags of concrete on the plywood shelf to hold it down.

Central Machinery #97869 2HP Dust collector fitted with Wynn 35A cartridge filter. Plumbing is 4″ (Yeah I know, but 6″ is out of my price range for now). Blast gates are Lee Valley Self Cleaning models. Unfortunately the plumbing for my DC system is scattered throughout the floor of my shop right now. This is one of the in-progress pieces of the shop. Sale and coupon again (see a trend?) and sale on the plumbing fittings and blast gates. For the time being, I am dragging a single long hose to each tool as needed. Sorry I dont have a better picture of it. It is crammed into a back corner of the shop. I have to roll out the toolbox to get to it to change out the lower bag.

Shop built Thien Cyclone pre separator based on plastic 55 gallon drum. I whipped this up in about two hours with lots of distractions. It could be better, but overall, I am happy with it. All I would redo is the baffle, and it works great so who cares? Not like anyone sees inside my dust bin right?

-Ridgid 12 gallon wet/dry vac plumbed to a Thien Baffle equipped trash can separator. Currently this rig is set up using a Shop Vac Sawdust Collection System. One of my shop projects is to migrate as much as I can off the vac, and onto the DC. The vac and separator can are stacked using a shop built cyclone stacker, which was built using debris lumber that was in my yard after Hurricane Ike. This thing works stupendously well. You can almost get by without a real dust collector. Almost, but not quite.

- Cheapo Lasko 20″ box fan with a 3M Filtrete allergen filter duct taped as an air dust cleaner. I am praying it works right, the 4″ hose to my DC slipped out of its clamp while I was cutting some MDF in the shop tonight!

Ryobi AP1301 13″ planer. A great little planer for the money. Knife changes are easy. Very little snipe when used right. This one was a Valentines Day gift from my lovely bride on our first married Valentines Day. I cherish this tool!

Sunhill Machinery SM-150B 6” Bench top Jointer. This appears to be discontinued now. Too bad, this is a nice little benchtop unit. A great piece of gear for a small shop! The same jointer is sold under the Wilton name and is colored gray & blue instead of blue. I got this on the $99.00 sale. I am waiting for a Harbor Freight sale and 20% off coupons to add the stand and mobile base.

Ridgid EB4424 Oscillating belt/spindle sander. Sale again. Fathers Day deal at Home Depot last year. A LOT of folks love these things, and for good reason! They do exactly what they are supposed to do!

Shop built clamp hangers with a dozen each 6, 12, 24, and 36 inch bar clamps (mostly HF, but a few Jorgensons), plus spring clamps, corner clamps, cargo straps with shop built corners, and a few, but not enough hand screws. All those clamps….On sale!

-Ryobi Corner Cat detail sander, Skil Random orbit sander, Ryobi Biscuit Joiner, Ryobi 6″ buffer, and a Ryobi 6″ bench grinder.

On top of this I have and use most all of the obligatory bits, blades, hand tools, personal protective equipment, storage bins etc. that I need. What I don’t have I add as need be, and as money makes itself available.

Heating and cooling in the coastal Texas environment is a bit tricky in this currently uninsulated space. For heat, a standard 1600 watt oil filled electric radiator keeps the shop in the 70s on the rare occasions that the overnight lows dip below freezing. Cooling right now is simply blowing air conditioned air from the house into the shop with a box fan, and working as fast as I can so I can get back inside before I fry my skull off.

I was well on my way to getting approval, and breaking ground on a 12 – 8 foot wall mini barn for a workshop when the economic downturn hit too close to home. So for now I make do, cramped in the garage along with the lawn and garden tools, bicycles, camping gear, and other misc junk.

Several space saving, or at least space maximizing projects are under way. Most of them designed as skill builder projects. A proper woodworking workbench is being built that will double as an outfeed table, and storage for bench top power tools.The existing formerly automotive workbench is getting modified to have uprights on the wall side legs that will support a top tier shelf. The lower shelf will hold the remaining bench top power tools. Those bench top power tools are to be mounted on 3/4″ sanded ply bases, which in turn get clamped to the workbench when needed to be used. I am also in the process of building cabinets to house the plastic small parts cabinets in my shop, as well as hold my measuring and marking tools, router bit cabinets, and other small woodworking items. Lockable cabinets will be built to hold chemical stuff that I do not want youngsters getting into. I am considering replacing the existing shelving system with lockable shop built cabinets for neatness, and juvenile safety sake.

I put off building a workshop and enjoying woodworking during a lousy, uh, prior domestic situation. I have since been blessed with the best wife in the world and she has actually not only allowed, but encouraged me to pursue woodworking.

Upcoming improvements to the shop that are not listed above:
-60 amp sub panel run to the garage; dedicated circuit to the Table saw; a dedicated circuit to the dust collection; and the remainder going to everything else. Lighting will stay on the current 20 amp circuit. Addition of two more 4 foot lighting fixtures, and a few magnetic task lights will help finish up the electrical.
- Spray in foam insulation in the ceiling and walls, and finish insulating the doors.
- Air Conditioning improvements.
- Small non WW stuff that can be put in totes and stored in the attic are on their way.
- Get the canoe and canoe related stuff into storage elsewhere.

I am a novice woodworker. I started acquiring the tools needed before I really knew what I was getting myself into. I traveled with some friends to a Grizzly scratch and dent sale and ended up coming home with my table saw and planer, before I even had a shop to put them in. I slowly started collecting the tools I would need, such as routers, mitre saw, biscuit joiner, drill press, etc. Then I began to build my first shop as an edition to my garage. I had to tear down the 8 X 24 shed attached to the garage, it was starting to fall over; and constructed a 24 x 16 shop in its place.

Over that time I have purchased tools as I found a use for them, like the dust collector, band saw, 6″ jointer, and numerous miscellaneous hand tools. I am currently in the process of selecting projects that are building my skills in different areas, such as work benches, book cases, cast iron radiator covers, etc. My main interests are furniture building, but before I can get there I am trying to find smaller projects that are going to build upon my skills and knowledge.

Located in the Pacific Northwest, the origins of my shop started last March when I decided I needed a separate building for my new woodworking hobby. I selected a 12′ x 18′ shop that matched my home due to neighborhood regulations. I then worked hard on getting the most functionality out of that size shop. The shop itself was one of my first major projects. The entire shop was built by me with a little help from friends and family. I did research on other small shops and tried to take the best of each and incorporate them into my shop. The shop is powered by a 100 amp sub panel with currently 10 of 12 20 amp circuits being used. The shop has electric heat and six 4′ fluorescent lights. This seems to provide all the power, light and heat I need.

The heart of the shop consists of a work station that contains my WoodTek 3 hp cabinet saw with built in router table similar to David Marks’ setup. Behind the table saw I built a version of Marc Spagnuolo’s assembly table. It serves dual functions as an out-feed table and assembly table. I use the space below to store some of my power hand tools. This is also where I set up my bench to plane when needed. The location in the center front third of my shop allows me to rip or plane material up to 8′ by opening the shop’s french doors and sliding my 14″ Grizzly band saw located on the back wall slightly to one side.

The left side of the shop has a 6″ Grizzly jointer and a Christopher Schwarz’s designed La Roubo work bench I just finished. The current jointer location allows me to joint material up to 48″. The jointer is equipped with a mobile base so if the material exceeds 48″ I just pull it away from the wall. The work bench is located next to a window to provide natural light and has most of my hand tools to my front and right.

At the front entrance of the shop is a mobile cabinet that I built to hold a bench top drill press that also has dual function as a isolating spindle sander. The lower section of the cabinet was built to hold my Ryobi 13″ planer, that I just pull out and position on the out-feed table when needed. Everything in the shop is easily connected to my Delta 1.5 hp dust collector located in the front right corner of the shop. I use a system of flexible and metal ducting to provide 3 dust collection hook ups that I switch from tool to tool as necessary. At some point in the future, I’m going to install more permanent ducting so that each tool has a dedicated connection.

On the rear right side of the shop is wood storage and my Makita 10″ sliding miter saw. This allows me to cut material down to more workable sizes efficiently before I have to move them around the shop. The miter saw table is lowered to allow the out-feed table to help support my work. On the back wall of the shop is my clamp storage. I found this design in Fine Woodworking, it allows easy access to all my clamps and I like the way it displays them. Also on the back wall is my 1.5 hp 14″ Grizzly band saw. It also incorporates a mobile base for movement if necessary, the location seems to work well though with the direction of cut across the shop.

All extra space on the walls is used for storage of some sort. Everything has it place so nothing is on my work table unless I’m using it, and because of the small size of the shop its not hard to get things out or put them back. That’s one of the beauties of a small shop everything has its place and that place is only a few steps away. I have really enjoyed working out the functionality of the shop and continue to fine tune it. I have enjoyed having a space to call my own, which is affectionately called The Man Cave.

I had never been able to saw a straight line or even nail a board. About three years ago my son needed my help on his Eagle Scout project. We struggled but with lots of help, built a playhouse on the church playground. Afterwards I took the leftover lumber and made myself a little workbench. I began picking up a tool here and there and before I knew it, I wanted to make a few projects. For fifteen years my life revolved between my two sons. My oldest kept us at the baseball fields 9 months out of the year and my youngest kept me busy as an Assistant Scoutmaster. My extra activities had come to and end and I am so glad I found woodworking. My wife and sons even get into it occasionally. The following are a few photos of my humble little shop.

My first workbench was made from leftover Eagle project. A grinder, sander and drill press are in the background. Also is the pegboard and table saw. With more scraps I made a stand for a hand-me-down miter saw, complete with an old Kirby for dust collection. Also are shelves for sanders, jigsaw and such.

When the wood started piling up I had to make lumber rack, cutoff bin. The router table sits below.

After the projects started, I decided I needed a better workbench. I made this one with a low budget. The large and small shoulder vises came from Highland Woodworking. I started playing around on a lathe and had to have one. I have made several bowls now. Plan to start turning pens soon.

My latest purchase, from Highland Woodworking, is my new 14 inch Steel City band saw. I plan on picking up the riser block and fence later on. I have already cut bowl blanks and attempted a collapsible castle.

Well, thats my little shop. I started off small but I plan to upgrade most of the tools. Over the last couple of years I have made several projects including Adirondack chairs, quilt racks for charity, a cedar chest for my wife among other items. You can check them out at: http://lumberjocks.com/billboard You can check out my shop cam on Ustream or on the Live Cam list. I am live in the shop a couple of days a week. I have been enjoying my new hobby, especially bowl turning. I plan to take the bowl turning classes at Highland Woodworking soon.

I have been watching you from the beginning, the show and your work are great! We here at PCWWC are a family owned and operated custom furniture and cabinetry company. We work out of a single car garage and recently have built a 10×16 dedicated finishing shop. We only spray water born materials and use a Fuji HVLP Q4 spraying system. We upgraded the heart of our shop last year to a PM2000, love it! We roll with a Dewalt planer and a Ridgid 6″ jointer. The jointer is soon to be up graded to a bigger model. As you can see in the pictures I have a 100 bd/ft of red oak for a kitchen refacing job we are working on. You and Matt have gotten me into hand planes, I am trying to hone my skills. We use a 1963 Craftsman 18″ radial arm saw for cross cutting our rough material. We do all of your dovetailing with the Leigh Super 24. We just purchased a CMT 333 for boring hinges. Drilling pocket hole screws are done with the Kreg master system. Enjoy the tour!

This Viewer Shop comes from Joe, who is the communications director for the Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport in Aberdeen, Washington.

The Spar Shop at the Historical Seaport specializes in ship masts and spars, as well as custom columns and poles. We also provide custom milling of gaffs, booms, timbers, beams and cants. Our 10,000-square-foot drive-through shop is one of a kind, featuring the largest tracer-lathe in North America. We can turn logs up to 40 inches in diameter and 122 feet in length. With our two sawmills, we can mill logs as large as six feet in diameter, and create timbers as long as 100 feet or more. Our Job Shop offers custom fabrication of movie set pieces, museum exhibits and thematic elements for custom homes and commercial buildings as well as short-run-production woodworking projects.

You can learn more about the Spar Shop at TheSparShop.org.

Spar Shop Operations Manager Kent Wall checks the diameter of a log in North America’s largest tracer mill, which can handle logs up to 122 feet long.

Spar Shop crew re-position a yard on the tracer lathe, North America’s largest. The Spar Shop turns large logs into masts, spars, booms, and gaffs for sailing ships.

Spar Shop Operations Manager Kent Wall cuts a cedar log into custom-sized planks with a 30-HP Lucas Mill sawmill.

This Viewer Shop comes from Greg. Check it out!

My shop shares a 30′ steel building with a guest suite, laundry area, tractor, 4-wheeler, welder and all the other stuff you would expect to find inside a barn. The shop itself is concentrated in one corner of the barn but, with the exception of the guest suite, I am free to spread out and take over the rest of the space if a project demands it.

Other than hiring crews to pour the slab, bolt the steel together and spray foam the whole thing, we built the barn ourselves which allowed me to get downright picky with the details. For instance, the electrical circuits in the barn are many and the shop area runs off a sub panel that is right next to where I hang my shop apron and ear protectors. The first thing I do to start my day is lift the apron off its hook and flip all the breakers on. The last thing I do is hang my apron up and flip the breakers off. That way I know the various chargers, the radio, air compressor, dust collector, all the large tools, even the shop lights themselves, (Lots of lights with provision for even more!) will not get up to no good and create a mini Chernobyl while no one is there.

In the front corner of the barn where my shop area is concentrated is a 7.5′ storeroom. This gives me 24″ deep shelves on one side and a little bit of bare wall for hanging fixtures and jigs on the other with a comfortable aisle between.

There’s a fixed bench with drawers and overhead cabinet backed up against the outer wall of the storeroom that provides quite a bit of storage as well as work surface. This bench, my rolling workbench, the table saw, and the router station were all built to have a finished surface height of 37″ which makes handling large pieces pretty simple. My faithful tool cabinet, which is the oldest shop-built piece I have, conveniently hangs on the wall next to the fixed bench.

Like everyone, I drool over massive cabinet saws, but like most, don’t have the budget, so I turned my contractors saw into my version of a cabinet saw by building a base with some storage and plenty of extension tables. The whole thing is on 6 heavy locking casters but in practice I dont move it. Placed as is, opposite the fixed bench, I can rip a 10′ board by starting with the far end resting on the fixed bench and placing a couple roller stands or my rolling workbench in between. The swing-up out-feed table is long enough to balance an 8′ cut without needing additional support though I can roll the router station into position to act as even more out-feed table if necessary. I can also make as much as a 52″ cut to the left of the blade by removing the handle on the jointer fence. Just in case I do move the saw, dust collection is arraigned so that I can hook up to either end of the cabinet. In practice a short length of 4′ hose stays permanently attached between the left side and a dedicated port.

My primary work bench is a maple top I purchased and set on a shop built cabinet with locking castors. Usually the rolling bench stays right where it is in the photos, but if I need the space I turn it 90 degrees and roll it between the table saw and fixed bench. When pushed up against the table saw, there’s plenty of room between the two benches to work comfortably.

The jointer might look a little tight, jammed in there between the wall and the table saw, but in practice it works just fine though it is on a roller base so it can be moved if I need to. For small pieces I use the router station right where it is. Larger work requires me to roll it out away from the wall a couple feet. That strange little room beside the router table, houses my air compressor and dust collector. I built this space around a Delta 1hp unit with garbage-can cyclone collector sitting beside it. The Delta was adequate but eventually I decided I needed a larger unit (To quote Tim Allen ?More power! Arh arh arh!”) In order to fit everything in I had to take the new 2hp Grizzly apart and hang the motor/impeller assembly from the wall above the garbage can which now sits in the motor’s rightful place on the mobile base.

I have a number of baking racks on casters that I use as project carts. Just steps from the shop area I have a laundry tub with first aid and eyewash station and the bathroom, with large shower, can be accessed directly from the shop as well as from the guest suite. (We have slide bolts on all the doors to prevent accidental encounters!)

My shop isn’t perfect, I don’t expect any shop ever is, and there are a few self inflicted (Read bone-headed!) design flaws, but every time I open the doors in the morning I can’t stop grinning because I can hardly believe its really mine.

Alan has some great images of his shop. Let’s see what he has to say:

I think I’ve gotten my shop off to a good start, but it still has a long way to go. I got good tools, in the good locations, good lighting, electricity from the ceiling to keep the floor clear, and good dust collection. The next stage is to build some good shop cabinetry and a workbench.

Here is a panoramic shot of from the middle of the shop.

Another pano showcasing my jointer and tablesaw.

A pano of my miscellaneous workbench area.

My workshop computer is in the foreground. The 2 garden basement windows are the main way I get large rough lumber into my basement. You can see my facination with old clocks on the walls. I am also interested in CNC milling among other things.

This is the main woodworking area of my shop. You can see the air compressor line on the ceiling. The air compressor is on the opposite side of the basement.

The back area of the basement. I need to build an outfeed table / workbench at the back of the tablesaw here. I store my stains, glues, shellacs and whatnot here near the basement sink.

The workhorse tools of any shop… the jointer and the tablesaw.

If you want to see a video tour of Alan’s shop, you can check it out directly on his website.

Here’s something a bit different. I’ve enjoyed looking at all the dream workshops, but for those of us with extremely limited space and finances, one can still turn out pretty fair work. Here’s my little shop. It’s a 10′x 12′ room off the garage. As you can see from the photo, it’s pretty crammed and rather messy. But a lot of nice stuff has come out of here in the past 20+ years. It may look disorganized, but I can lay my hand on any tool with my eyes closed. (Except a running table saw) The photo was taken from one end of the shop. Behind me is a drill press, disk sander, buffer and cabinet for supplies. There is wood storage overhead, and high shelves for jigs, forms, etc. The portable Rigid table saw was a recent upgrade. I have just room enough to rip 6 foot boards in place, but I can quickly wheel it out into the yard for cutting longer boards. (You can no doubt tell from the picture that a fixed cabinet saw would be impossible in so small a space). If I remove the guard and lower the blade, the saw doubles as an assembly table. In this shop I build banjos, guitars, and other moderately sized projects, as befits the space. I occasionally tackle something bigger. My largest project was a 17 foot cabin cruiser, which was assembled in the back yard–the smaller pieces of which were fabricated in this tiny room.

Recently I decided it would be nice to have a watchmaker’s style bench for small, non-messy projects like guitar repair, inlay work, etc. It would allow me to work in the comfort of the house on cold days. After pricing watchmaker’s benches, I decided to cobble one out of an old solid birch desk I picked up at the Goodwill store for $40. I added a raised top to bring it up to about 36″, and saved myself six or seven hundred dollars. Nine drawers of storage for my hand tools, jeweler’s tools, etc. And a nice neat area for working on items up to guitar size. The Versa-Vise quick releases for removal if I need to get it out of the way. I originally planned to build some drawers to fit under the table top, but I’ve found the space is perfect as-is for stashing tools and other items that tend to clutter the bench top while working.

On the desk is my little Sherline metal lathe showing a saw attachment I recently fabricated. I turned a mandrel to hold a 3″ precision, thin-bladed slitting saw which I can clamp in the lathe chuck. I built it because I wanted a fine-kerf saw for cutting tiny marquetry tiles for classical guitar rosettes and other such finicky stuff. This blade makes a kerf of only .017″. I made a table and fence out of scrap aluminum, which clamps into the lathe vise, to create the miniature table saw. It’s limited to 1/2″ depth of cut, but is very precise with almost no material waste. As a test cut, I sliced off a piece of cedar you can see sitting on the saw table. It measures an even .4mm thick. A perfect, smooth cut. I can even use the lead screw handwheel to make cut adjustments as small as .001″. Should come in handy for fabricating small parts like guitar nuts, saddles, inlay, etc. If you can’t buy the tool you need, you can always make one.

I’ve included an example of one of the instruments I built in the garage workshop. If the projects are not too large, one can do decent work in very modest space.

Walking through the shop taking pics for a shop tour submission, I ended taking some video and threw them together as a quick shop tour. In the video I misspeak a couple of times and miss some details so I will include some of these details and corrections. The basic dimensions of the shop are 12′x24′. Power for the shop is a 30 Amp 220V (in the video I misspeak and say 30 Amp 220 Amp) this handles all the power for the shop except for lighting which is run from the main circuit box. Lighting is five 4′ fluorescent fixtures.

For dust collection I have a Harbor Freight ’2HP’ dust collector and a box fan that I tape furnace filters on as a air cleaner.
I use flexible 4″ hose run one at a time to each machine, I hope sometime in the future to find a way to run some 5″ dedicated lines around the shop but the low ceilings are a problem with clearance.

The large tools in the shop are:
Craftsman Hybrid 10″ table saw
Harbor Freight 14″ band saw
Harbor Freight 12″x36″ lathe
Craftsman 12″ drill press
Dewalt 12″ chop saw
Harbor Freight mortising machine
Delta 12 1/2″ Planer (called it a 12″ in the video)
General International 6″ jointer.

I also have a fairly full complement of Craftsman, Makita, Milwaukee, and Porter Cable, power hand tools. As well as a smattering of older/cheaper hand tools.

My workbench is about 8 years old and needed some shoring up and I am always looking for add more storage to the shop, so I recently added some pegboard and some 1/4″ ply to the back to stiffen the frame up some. This lets me add places for extension cords, drills, air guns, etc…. On the back of the bench I have put my chisels and layout tools, we will see how well things stay there with me hammering on the bench.

Heating during the winter is handled by a kerosine heater and a couple of electric heaters. I will generally use the kerosine heater to get the shop up to a comfortable temp then rely on the electric heaters to maintain the temp. Cooling in the summer is shorts and a couple more box fans.

This week’s we are featuring Ken’s Workshop. Let’s check it out as he gives us the grand tour.

I thought I would send you some shots of my home shop. I have been a hobbyist woodworker for the past 10 or so years. Not only is my shop a wood shop but it is where I fix all the household stuff. Lamps that stop working, bikes, etc. Come on into my shop. It is down two flights of stairs in the basement, it’s the door on the right, photo #1. It is 12′X12′ square with a 7′ ceiling. I have an ongoing battle with the house furnace that takes up about a 3′ square patch of the room. Needless to say I think it would be classified as a “small shop”. I have built a king size bed as well as two large rolling storage cabinets for a school in the shop but most of my work is much smaller. CD/DVD cases, boxes, coffee and side tables, etc.

Photo #2 & 3 are shots looking through the door into the shop. All of my tools are either bench top or able to move around the shop so I can accommodate larger pieces of wood. This includes my Delta contractor saw which I can spin around to face the door and out feed wood through the door using roller stands as out feed support if needed. I have a bench top craftsman drill press that sits on its own shop built rolling stand.

In photo #4 there is my King Canada 6″ jointer, Ryobi bench top belt/disk sander and tucked under my bench is the router table. The cabinet in the corner is an old kitchen corner cabinet that has a lazy susan inside that holds all my finishing products as well as sand paper and household paint. The two wall cabinets (again from our old kitchen) hold miscellaneous parts for machines as well as books and magazines.

Photos 5 & 6 are shots of my bench. It is about the simplest bench that could be made. Using 2X4s and a maple veneered chip board top. When the top gets too beat up, I flip it over and then replace it all together when that side gets destroyed. Hanging on the wall are some of my hand tools. Some “C” and spring clamps as well as a light hanging from a bar above the bench. On the bench are two recently finished CD cases and a lift lid box that are Christmas presents for family. In photo #6 is my Steal City hollow chisel mortiser. It sits on another old kitchen base cabinet. This cabinet holds stuff that I can’t find another place for. Beside that is my Dewalt thickness planer. I have passed lots of board feet through this machine. The chip collection for the planer is a garbage pail inside the shop-built cabinet that the planer sits on.

Photo #7 & 8 are looking from the bench back to the door and the table saw. The wall cabinet holds mostly household stuff, light bulbs etc. My other hobby is mountain biking and the top red tool chest holds all my bike related tools parts. The bottom rolling cabinet holds hand power tools as well as the majority of my hand and marking tools. Hanging on the wall above the table saw is my Ryobi scroll saw. As I don’t have a band saw, the scroll saw doubles as my band saw with major limitations. I hate to throw out any wood except for the smallest pieces. I have my off cuts scattered around the shop and all my larger pieces of lumber stored either in an outdoor shed or in a small storage space under the stairs.

The last photo shows where I store my bar clamps. All my quick grip clamps hang off the cold air return on the furnace. The shop has gone through several makeovers in the last ten years and one of the projects for the New Year is another shop make over. All the old kitchen cabinets are going to go and I am going to build floor to ceiling cabinets to house all the stuff. I am also planning on building a new bench, most likely a torsion box style but I am still working on the plans for that. As you can see it is a small space but one of the things I really like about it is I am only a few steps away form anything in there. Thanks for taking a tour of my shop!

This week’s shop is submitted by Todd. Let’s check his place out and see what he has to say:

“I have a somewhat unusual workshop. I work at a place called 3rd Ward, which is a resource for creative people of many kinds, in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. There’s a woodshop, but there’s also a metal shop, a computer lab, lots of desk spaces for graphic designers and the like, two recording studios, a gallery, and three photo studios (not darkrooms). The woodshop has a very elementary safety primer (which I teach), a furniture design class, a refinishing class, a basic introduction to joinery (which I also teach), and several more classes are developing. The idea is to collect creative people together and build a community so they might collaborate and learn from each other. It’s a good idea, and in practice it has its pros and cons. Here’s a link: http://www.3rdward.com”

“Some of you might be interested in our tools. We’ve got an old 14″ Rockwell Delta table saw that’s a great workhorse with no major issues, and it’s primarily the rip saw. We’ve also got a 14″ Martin sliding saw with 8′ of travel. We have two bandsaws, a 14″ Powermatic, and a big old monster made by IDunnoWho. Two drill presses, a big old one with a head that swings on an arm with two joints (like a shoulder and an elbow, so it has a very deep reach, about 22″ I think), and a small benchtop Ryobi that works just fine for most things. 12″ Dewalt compound chop saw. Combination disk sander/belt sander by Shop Fox that is total crap. Powermatic 8″ jointer, and Enco 15″ thickness planer. 5 workbenches, used for everything from glue-ups to writing documents. You know, workbenches. They’re just 4Ã?â??4 posts with 1 1/2″ slabs of oak on top, and some bracing. They’re not dead flat, but they’re usually fine. There are also some portable power tools people can use, but I have found it easier and more reliable to have my own. I have a small storage space in an adjacent room, where I keep my rolling cart, some vertical sheet goods, some vertical hardwood, and a bunch of other stuff.”

“There are pros and cons, as I said. The biggest pro is that there are plenty of other people around to ask questions of. Several of the other regular shop users are guys with years of professional experience. The shop manager has worked in cabinet shops for 25 years, and he knows all there is to know about cabinetmaking, also a lot about many other areas of woodworking. He’s also not bad with metalworking and electrical and plumbing and etc. I work alone, and I have no employees, but it’s not hard to find someone to help me lift something. I can turn around and say, “Hey Eric, does this look stupid?” or “Do you have any 2″ cabinet screws, San?” or “How come my finish is dripping, Naresh?”

“The next big advantage is that the rent (actually “membership fee”) is reasonable and I don’t have to buy my own machinery. As a young guy (34) starting a business I’m not 100% confident about, it’s nice not to have a large capital investment in overhead. I don’t get scared if I have 3 weeks without paying work. It gives me a chance to do other things that will help me to learn what my own designs actually look like.”

“The third advantage is that once in a while I get work from other people there. Someone will call the front desk and ask if there’s a woodworker in the house who can make something. Or someone will need help with an installation. Or the situation where a guy did a bunch of design work on a project, which took longer than he thought, and then it was time for him to move away. He passed the fabrication to me.”

“In the con department: Chief among these is abuse of the machinery and the facility. It’s often because students or amateurs using the shop (sometimes for only a day or two) don’t know any better. For example, they rip a 12′ piece of 6/4 oak with the crosscut blade, overheating it and warping it. Often people do dangerous things, like crosscutting a long board with the rip fence. Kickbacks are way too common. No one’s hurt themselves yet, in two years, but I think it’s only a matter of time. Some of the regular shop users, professionals and semi-professionals, can be tough on the place too, like when they leave a dusty layer of overspray all over in the spray room. There’s even the factor of non-shop users who borrow things and don’t return them. We used to have dozens of small clamps. Now there are two. The rest, I suspect, are in the tool kits of photographers who have used the photo studios.”

“Another con is that, with people working together, come office politics. You know about this if you’ve ever had a job of any kind. People bicker when they spend time together, and petty issues blow up. Last, we’re out of space. Under financial pressure, the place has had to find space for more users and sell more memberships. It’s more crowded than it was, and it’s getting worse. There are more classes now too. That means teaching opportunities for guys like me, but it also puts a drain on the space.”

“My whole time there, two years, I’ve constantly considered moving out and setting up my own space somewhere. I always settle down to the idea that the pros outweigh the cons, and it’s better right now not to take a risk and burden myself with overhead. Next week I might change my mind, but right now I’m staying where I am.”

This week’s shop comes from Hamish. Let’s see what he has to say:
“Thought you might like to see my little sheds that I use here in New Zealand, I have been really interested in seeing so many different styles and designs of peoples workshops. The thing I have noticed is the passion that people have in designing and building their own space.”

“I started my own business in June 2007, just making work benches and now have expanded to garage and wardrobe systems. I have had no training in joinery or woodworking but have studied in Draughting. Watching The Wood Whisperer has been very interesting. If you noticed I took Marc’s design of the assembly bench to the max size. Its been really handy. Cheers. I will continue to expand into wood working over time. Keep up the good work USA.”

Here is a little more info from Hamish:

The saw is SCM SI-16W Rise & Fall Tilt Arbor Sliding Table Panel Saw
3.2m cut capacity, scorer unit, auto brake. 415v/3ph/50hz.
1500mm rip capacity
3200mm crosscut
5.5hp main motor / 1 hp scriber motor
overhead guard which i have taken off for easier cuting of 2.4 x 1.2 panels

The other big machine is a KD 54 Hot melt Edgebander, this will glue on pvc or wood edging to board or timber, trimmes and cuts egding in one go. very handy. The other machine is a Blum Mini Press which can drill hinge holes into the doors and also has removeable head which can be replaced with a 8 drill spindle head allowing you to drill muiltable holes in a work piece.

The jointer is a toolline 6inch buzzer with 1400mm table good for long pieces of timber only single phase but fine for what i use. I have a little thckness under bench 12inch. handy but only entry level. In the other cabinet shed we have a a horizontial drill press for caming and dowling and compressor and hand tools and very important fridge for lunch. Also as for the question on the legs to by benches I flat pack the benches and send around the country this allows for them to be easily removed the bolted back on. I also have a very Loving and Wise Wife who fully supports me in my work and does keep me from getting to carried away in buying to much stuff. Thanks for the questions hope this helps

This week’s shop comes from Kevin in MA. Let’s check his place out to see why he says its odd:

“My name is Kevin and I’ve been watching your podcast in Worcester MA. I’m sending you these photos of my humble and odd little shop for the shop of the week segment. I’m a beginning woodworker who lives in an old condo building. I love my round living room, but my round storeroom underneath it presents some challenges.”

“I’m trying to use every inch of the weird shaped space I have so I fabricated J-hooks out of scrap to hang stuff from the rafters. there was an inset in the wall where a basement window had been walled off with cinder block, so my Ikea boxes went there. The pegboard is attached to studs that go from the rafters to the workbench. The drill press and scroll saw were purchased when Lowes re-branded everything from Powertech to Kobalt for short money, the Ryobi table saw is usually folded up and has its own nook. The cart I built, a door and two sawhorses are usually dragged into a basement common room that I use for assembly. The Ryobi mitre saw stand and Porter Cable miter saw usually end up in a wide spot in the common hallway. And electrical power is via a long heavy extension cord that I plug in upstairs in my unit. I’m careful to only run one tool at a time.”

“I hate using good wood to make shop fixtures (I’m a Yankee, I’m cheap) and a lot of my tools are from a local used tool store, so the shop fixtures are a little crude, but its all sturdy and mostly recovered lumber or cull lumber pieces from Home Depot.”

“Its dark, dirty, cramped and doesn’t smell great down there, but there are few places I’d rather spend a day off. Thanks for sharing this, and keep the podcasts coming!”

Want your shop posted as shop of the week? Email me your pictures and your story!

This week’s shop belongs to Greg from KY. Let’s see what he has to say:

“Here are some pictures of my shop, formerly known as our two car garage. I am lucky to have a wonderful wife who has let me pursue my hobby and has been willing to park outside for the past sixteen years. Our four kids do have one corner, but the shop has taken over the rest. We moved last year from AL to KY and the moving company wasn’t going to move my lumber which is mostly oak, cherry and walnut because my new company would not pay to move lumber. I finally came to an agreement with the moving company and they moved “312 pieces of garage shelving:)”.

This week’s shop is submitted by Keith. Let’s check it out and see what he has to say:

“The shop is about 13×22, it was a garage that was converted into livable space, then converted to a shop by me. As such, it has a separate heating system from the house. The tricky part about laying out this shop was the size of the tools I own compared to the space. The table saw capacity is limited because it had to be positioned so that the rails go around the DC hose. I didn’t want to cut the rails down, surely this won’t be my last ever shop space. I used the Grizzly shop tool to draw up the shop, then made it happen.”
“I added the 220v service by branching off of the dryer, with what I call my ‘mad scientist switch’, a giant disconnect throw so that you can either run the dryer or the shop. This way the shop tools don’t have power most of the time, helping keep kiddies safe since most of my 220v tools don’t have lock-out features. It’s a bit of overkill, but my wife works for an industrial electrical manufacturer, so it was cheap.”
“The shop is a bit of a mess in the photos as I have about 3 projects going on in there at the moment. I think the only thing I’d like to have is a bigger lathe and some more lumber storage. Other than that, this shop is pretty functional.”

The tools:
PM2000 table saw w/ router table in extension
8″ Jet jointer
1 3/4 hp canister dust collector (also jet)
Performax 16-32 drum sander
Dewalt 13″ planer
el cheapo M Power 1018 mini lathe
Jet 18″ bandsaw
Dewalt 20″ scroll saw
Delta 16″ drill press
Makita LS1013 sliding miter saw
Lots of hand held power tools, and a good number of hand tools.

This week’s shop comes from Robert in Boise. Let’s check out what he has to say:

“With all the “new” shops that we have seen, I thought some of you might be interested in a wood shop that was built by my father in the basement of our Long Island, New York home around 1962. I still remember, as a young boy, holding a star drill as my dad manually pounded holes in the concrete basement floor to set the footers for framing the shop walls. I don’t know if I was really “helping” but my dad let me think I was!”

“The first picture shows my dad’s Craftsman table saw in the center of the shop. The saw had a “big” 7″ blade and “gravity feed” dust collection. (Sawdust just dropped into a big drawer in the cabinet base he constructed for the saw.)”

“As you can see from Pic 2, every tool in the shop had a place and my dad could always tell if a tool was not placed back where it was supposed to be! The chisels consisted of a large array of different sized flat chisels and gouges. Along the top were a number of “braces” for drilling holes as well as some antique specialized molding planes and spoke shaves. The “bits” available for the “braces” were located in drawers as seen in the Pic 3.”

“My father was primarily a “hand tool” guy, but did have a few power tools as seen inthe next Pic. Note how all the tools, with the exception of a router acquired in later years, are all constructed with metal casesââ?¬â?no plastic! Other power tools (Pic 5) consisted of a bench drill press, a grinder, a Unimat metal lathe, and a homemade disc sander.”

“In another corner of the shop (Pic 6) you can see a 1930s version of a multipurpose power tool. This combination tool was given to my father when he was a teenager. You can see the wood lathe and a removable “jigsaw” (now called a scrollsaw). This jigsaw could be removed and replaced with a very small table saw when needed. My father was still using this lathe in the 60s and 70s as you can see by the number of turning tools he acquired and maintained. To the right you can see his set of handsaws and block planes.”

“In the final work area of the shop is what he called his “metalworking” area (Pic 7). This area consisted of a variety of rasps, files, metal cutting tools, pliers, and hammers.”

“Many of my father’s older tools were inherited from his high school wood shop teacher. They formed a strong friendship when my dad was in high school and became lifelong friends. Many of these tools were originally stored in a tool chest (Pic 8) passed down from his family. The outside this tool chest looks pretty old and worn. Once opened you can see the entire inside was beautifully constructed of inlaid diamond shaped pieces of wood with the owner’s name dated 1890. Within the chest are several sliding panels and compartments which held an entire set of “wood” molding planes (not shown). The story is that this chest used to be hauled around New York City by wagon for custom cabinet work by the owner.”

This week’s shop comes from Mike in Pittsburgh, PA. Let’s check it out!

“It all started in Aught-Five, when my lovely wife and I decided it was time to add on to our 3 bedroom colonial. With two little girls and a whole lotta Fisher Price stuff, we were starting to feel cramped. So I took advantage of my very handy retired-architect dad and we built ourselves a 1,100 sq. ft. three-story addition. During this project, I managed to reserve a 12′x12′ plot of space in the basement that has since been dubbed Mantown.”

“Mantown is on the cozy side and has a very low ceiling. But I put in double doors that open out under the deck. This allows me to get things in and out easily and to cut larger items on the table saw, which rolls into place when I need it. The doors and window also give me plenty of natural light to work with. I even thought ahead and had the window made with tempered glass, for when I accidentally put a pipe clamp through it. Also, rather than drywall, I put pegboard up directly onto the studs, an idea that seemed great at the time, but frankly I’m starting to think pegboard is overrated.”

“Mantown has a long way to go before being complete. Tool-wise, I’m just getting started. Delta 10″ contractor’s saw, Delta drill press, and a Makita sliding compound miter saw are the major tools. I also have been doing a lot with my Kreg pocket hole setup. The wall containing the miter saw is pretty much temporarily thrown together, but I’m working on a master plan for it to improve storage, utility and all-around coolness. I’m also planning to incorporate a router table into the right side of the table saw and am debating dust collection options while currently using a shop vac connected to the tools wherever possible. The alcove next to the interior door is handy for storage as well, though I had to make sure to position the shelves at the right height to allow a 8′ board to be cut on the miter saw.”

“Despite the size and small tool collection, I’ve been quite productive with the space, mostly building what needs to be built for the addition. In the pictures you can see an entire built-in unit and new fireplace mantle, made of a combination of ply and pine with a tile top (and, okay, Dad helped). My most recently completed project is a student desk and bulletin board for my eight year old daughter, with love from daddy.”

“I’ve started work on built-ins for our home office, and have so far put together a desk for my lovely wife, which will eventually become a full wraparound suite of cabinets once we get rid of that gawdawful wallpaper (and yes, a gadget station included!). The desk was actually one of my first projects, during which I learned things like paying attention to grain direction, book-matching panels, and how to stain wood correctly (all after the fact, of course). Building the desk was also a strategic move on my part to convince said lovely wife that Mantown is really “all for you, honey”. So far it seems to have worked. Wait till I tell her I want to knock out that wall behind the miter saw and make it bigger!!! I appreciate any commentary, especially suggestions on how to turn my 7′ ceiling into a 9′ ceiling.”

This week’s shop comes from Ryan in Jacksonville, Florida. Let’s see what he has to say:
Here are some photos of my shop. I claimed the two car garage as my room, and the rest of the house is all my wife’s (it would have been hers anyway). I feel like George Kastanza when I go to this room. I usually say “serenity now” to myself. After working for about a week, I decided to install the HVAC due to the heat and humidity. The room is about 18′ square. I found it very difficult to fit everything in the room, including the yard tools, the water heater (electric), the water softener, and the refrigerator. You will notice Mason, my little shop buddy, in the clamp drawer. He is a huge help.

This week’s shop comes from Pierre-Alexandre who says:Ã?  “Hi Marc, here is my tribute to the small shops. I share my shop with my wife’s car and my bike so every thing must fold away and when I want to produce some sawdust, the same ritual applies:Ã?  Get the car out, put the rolling table saw, get the saw horses and the top of my assembly-toolrest-router-outfeed table. My shopvac and compressor sit under my “workbench” and the little fan is my air supply system for the very hot Florida summers,Ã?  I’ve covered the walls with shelves but I always need more space!”

Setting up the shop : 1/2 hour
Cleaning the garage and putting the car back : 1h
One hour or two of sanding/sawing after work : priceless

This week’s shop comes from Dustin. Let’s see what he has to say:
 

Now that my workshop is sufficiently messy, I figured that it would be a good time to take some pics.  Here is my shop…It used to be a single car garage, but we all know how that goes.  Due to strategic maneuvering akin to the best international politics, I have secured a shop.  Most of the tools are hand me downs/Craigslist restores.  I am in the process of finishing the tablesaw station and several other “workshop” projects before I build a dresser for the coming addition of a daughter to the family.  Hope you enjoy.

This week’s shop comes from AlIen in OH who says,

“I just want to share some pictures of my tiny little “Fortress of Wooditude.”Ã?  I had never actually measured my space to see exactly what I had, so I got out the tape measure and… 190 square feet. Not a lot, but enough for my needs. It would of course be nice to have enough room for a real workbench, to not have to move the planer every time I want to use it and to have a dedicated finishing area but really, I can’t complain. At least I can lock the doors and keep my wife and her scrapbooking stuff out. ;-)”

“Before moving here I had never heard of a “tandem” two-car garage but they are apparently common in older houses in my part of Cincinnati. Since parking end-to-end was a logistical nightmare where someone was always having to back their car out to let the other person exit we used the back half for storage of lawn equipment, snowblower, etc. I put a shed in the back yard and went to work setting up shop. Space is really tight, but I got everything in. Everything, with the exception of the jointer, is on wheels.”

This week’s shop comes from John. Let’s see what he has to say:

My shop is 46′ long and 17′ wide at the widest part of the shop. When I added the shop to our home I had a sub panel installed for the shop. I have four 220 outlets and a bunch of 110 outlets. The lighting is T-8 fixtures and they really light the space up. My situation is ideal as far as basement shops go, as I have a straight shot from the garage right down to the basement. I have no corners to navigate, which is very helpful when moving sheet goods and finished projects. The pictures of the shop were taken after I put the shop back together after a brief lay off, that is why the shop is so clean. I did something crazy….I sold off my old shop tools to get back into the golf business. (Custom Clubs and Club Repair) Well, the itch for my shop did not go away and the golf market is not doing all that well, so, I sold off the golf shop stuff and put the wood shop back together. One good thing about buying tools after you sell everything off is you only buy the tools you are going to use. I had a lot of tools that I sold off that I rarely, if ever, used. I now have a great little shop with a great inventory of tools, and I love getting to spend time in there.
Here is a list of some of my tools:
Delta Unisaw Grizzly 20″ Planer (Man oh Man was it ever fun getting that down the stairs); Delta 13″ two-speed planer; Jet 14″ Band Saw; Yorkcraft 6″ jointer with a spiral head cutter; Delta Drum Sander; HF 2hp Dust Collector; Old Craftsman RAS; Makita Miter Saw; Leigh Dovetail Jig; Quick lift router lift; Lots of Jet clamps (Thanks for the heads up on those Marc!); and lots of other miscellaneous tools and stuff. As you can see from the pictures I have lots of benches and counter space. The assembly table and the outfeed table were just quick and dirty 2×4 tables, until I can make the Assembly table that I watched Marc make, and I would like to do a little better outfeed table that would incorporate some storage into it. I would also like to build a little cabinet for saw blades, dado sets, wrenches, etc. under the right side of the table saw extension table. Currently, I have my router set up in the extension table of my table saw; I would like to build a free standing router table soon. I purchased my workbench from a friend. I plan to make some changes to it. I plan to add an Emmert Clone as a face vise, and a Veritas Twin Screw as a tail vise. A wood shop produces a never ending list of things to do. All of which are a fun part of the hobby.

This week’s featured shop submission comes from John, a novice woodworker on a budget. Let’s see what he has to say:
“I want to give a shout out to all my fellow beginner woodworkers on a tight budget like myself. I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination but I just finished my first project (bunk beds for my 2 daughters) and am totally hooked! I’m finishing college and living in a townhouse so space is kind of tight. It only takes two pictures to completely view my shop which consists of some shelves and a bench that were slapped together with scraps I found around my parents garage (I should also mention that they were made before I knew what joinery even was), Everything I have is small and portable. The bench holds my router and router table, scroll saw, circular saw, miter saw, clamps….well…lets just say everything I have. I know it isn’t as nice as some of the other shops that have been featured, but looking at them gives me something to shoot for in the future. My next project is end grain cutting boards which I am super excited for! I love your site and videos. It is not an exaggeration to say that my entire woodworking knowledge is based on your videos…kind of scary, eh?”

Hehehe…yeah that is scary, John!!

This week’s shop comes from Garry who writes: Your shop of the week has inspired me to take a few pics. I built this place mostly with recycled tropical Hard Woods. This shop, including the front porch and full bath is 35 x 16 and sits on a slope of about 35 degrees. The support posts underneath are TEAK logs some being 9 feet tall and 16 inches in diameter. The floor structure is ALMENDRO. The finish floor is t&g CENISARO. The walls are framed from MELINA and covered with FIBERBOARD on the inside with a wains coat of ROBLE. The exterior walls are covered in Board and batten ROBLE and MELINA with 6 coats of marine varnish. The doors are TEAK. The roof trusses are framed with recycled TEAK poles from a beach Rancho I built years ago Illegally. The government forced me to dismantle it so having a huge stack of TEAK poles became the inspiration for the shop. On top of the TEAK rafters Is CANA BRAVA. On top of that is CLAY BARREL TILES I brought from Nicaragua. Hope you enjoy and I do have guest rooms.

This week’s Shop comes from Bob in GA. This is what he has to say:

When I first met this 12 1/2 X 17 1/2 (ID) block building, it was in shambles. The roof was nearly gone and the unpainted block walls were dirty and moldy from neglect. The inside concrete floor was turning to powder from exposure to the elements from the near missing roof. The door did not function and many of the windows were broken. I almost made the decision to bulldoze it down.

After learning a little history about our property, we found out that this building served as the small town fire house back in the horse and buggy days. The wagon itself was kept in this building and the horses were kept in the stable located nearby. Armed with this knowledge, I decided the building would not be torn down, but rather restored and made to look like a country store which would house my woodworking hobby. Much work went into the building over a 3 year period to bring it to what you see in the pictures. I widened the sidewalk making a platform that allows me to roll my tools outside to work on nice days. This makes clean up really great and adds work space as well. Although the shop is small on space, I keep it well organized which makes it adequate and safe to work in. I have grown to love my little corner in the world and would not trade it for triple the space, even if I had that choice.

This week’s shop comes from Sharon. Check it out:

So this is far from being a “dream shop”, but I still dream about working in it all week long as this is the only “shop” I have to work in these days. Living with a single car garage and no street parking at night, doesn’t give one many options to use that garage for anything else, so everything has to be portable and moved in and out for every project I work on. I would love to have a dedicated shop space once we buy our own place, and I can set something up, but until then it’s at the “you gotta do what you gotta do” stage.

So this is my “shop”, 2 Stanley work horses that have flip-on table tops (these are actually pretty nice for what they are) a set of cordless Dewalt power tools which I used for the longest time, and recently added a table saw to the setup.

So it does take a bit longer to set up shop every morning, and takes a bit longer to cleanup and store everything at the end of the day – but in between, there is wood working that makes you forget about all of that, and I think that’s what it’s all about-creating something that wasn’t there before.

I know that there are many other people with space limitations, and just wanted to give a shout out to everyone that are in a similar situation to mine and say – it’s doable, you just need to find the best setup that works for you, and as long as you get to mold that wood to something new – it’s all good.

Sometimes it feels like we’re obsessed with Shop-building, but you’ve got to remember that it really is all about Woodworking at the end of the day. P.S. yes, I know there’s a gap in that sideboard – the floor is so crooked I’m surprised I was able to level the top on all three carcasses.

Here are some pics of my very small one car garage woodshop! Here I am pictured with my current project, a small bookcase. This is about the largest piece I can handle as you will see in the rest of the pictures, I have very limited space!

The door you see in the first pic leads to a small room that contains a furnace for a 600 sq foot addition we added to the back of our home. While building, I took advantage of the situation and used the furnace to heat and cool the shop. I also use this small room for tool storage and sharpening. The green tool chest holds all of my hand planes, marking tools, chisels, dovetail saws, etc. You can see my jointer, table saw, and work bench are all crammed together on a wall. Believe it or not it actually works quite well! Large pieces of stock or sheet goods are impossible to machine here but that’s where the Festool comes in! If you look closely, under the work bench you can see my router table. (I just pull it out and set it on the bench to use it.)

One pic shows how I share the storage area with the furnace for our addition. When we did the addition I also increased the electrical capacity. My shop went from a few outlets with about 20A total to more than 20 outlets and 100 Amps! The wall to the right is a pegboard wall that I use to store all my templates and some tools.

I absolutely love my Festool, I use it almost exclusively to build my projects. I’m a huge fan of the entire system. I have 2 MFTs, a large one and a smaller one which is folded up and sitting next to the MFT1080. If I could do it over again, my entire shop would be Festool from the beginning! With my limited space, the Festool system is a great fit. Another shot shows the inside of the storage/furnace room. I have a sharpening area set up in there as well as my shop stereo, (with sat radio) and a TV with a DVD for watching instructional videos. I also use this area for tool storage. All four walls are pegboard from floor to ceiling. Thickness planer, miter saw, band saw, dust collection, and wood storage are all very close together. The cool thing is that the dust collector can handle all these stationary machines from where it sits without duct work!

Well that’s my small, but efficient shop! I absolutely love to work in here because everything is just a few steps away. Its warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and thanks to Festool its almost completely dust free! Its a very enjoyable place to spend whatever free time I can manage. I hope you enjoyed my little shop tour as much I enjoyed sharing it with you!

This week’s shop comes from Chuck in Chandler, AZ. He writes:

Here are a few pics of my garage shop as it is every day. We have a three car garage and the third space is all mine and, as you can see, I use every inch. The tall rack by the jointer holds my chop saw, oscillating spindle sander, planer and scrollsaw. All are mounted on plywood bases that I just slide in and out as needed. The rack is an old bakery cooling rack from a grocery store that I repaired after finding it by a dumpster and is probably the most useful thing I have in my shop.

Here are a few shop pictures, we finished it’s construction about 6 months ago. It is about 1400 square feet inside and has a 200 amp service to it. I have a 10hp three phase converter as well. Building it allowed me to carefully place outlets, lights, fans etc. It is basically livable with AC/heat, it has a 1/2 bath and at the end we included a separate guest house (mostly to get the drums out of the house, per my wife’s endless requests). It is pretty full at this point with the recent addition of a JLT panel clamp, which was very worthwhile because having a dedicated clamping area has been well worth the sacrifice of space. As you can see I have a large Festool area set up with 4 MFT’s, which has been where the vast majority of the work takes place.

The shop is very long (65′) so I was able to place all the tools that need dust collection at one end in order to minimize pipe runs. The undersized Oneida 1.5 hp collector I have needs to be replaced but I have not got around to that yet. This has been the first time we have had a garage in about 9 years, when I began woodworking, and it is awesome to have the dedicated space. Thanks for your witty, experienced contribution to our beloved craft.