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.

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

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!

Here are the companies we visited:

Leigh, Blum Tool Co., Ex-Factory, DeWalt, Powermatic, Delta, and Laguna.

For more IWF coverage, check out these great resources:
Fine Woodworking Editors Blog
Popular Woodworking Blog

Most of the items featured in this episode are available in The Wood Whisperer Amazon Store. So if you need to pick up a few clamps, that’s a great way to do it.

Update (8/27/10): Seeing the old shop is really surreal. Its amazing how many changes took place in that space over the course of the next few years. Organization, tooling, lighting….these were all eventually overhauled. And now, of course, we are in a totally new space. The coolest thing about this video is that it really marks the start of what I consider to be the “Wood Whisperer-style”. That is, a woodworking show that sheds the stuffiness and isn’t afraid to make fun of itself. I imagine many folks who watched this video were either immediately attracted to, or completely appalled by what we were doing. Education and entertainment for the modern woodworker. That’s what its all about. And while TheWoodWhisperer.com has grown significantly since then, we are still the same goofy fun-loving people we always were. Grass roots to the core! Although this video was probably only seen by a couple hundred people when it was released, it has been viewed over 100,000 times since then. That’s just mind boggling. It was also pretty cool to see my poker chip trays in this video. That article did get published in Woodcraft Magazine and in fact, we made the cover.