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.

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.

Also, David recently released his Scrapers DVD. It contains everything you need to know to properly sharpen card scrapers, cabinet scrapers, and gooseneck scrapers. I watched the DVD a few weeks ago and I instantly felt like I was watching a new episode of Woodworks (only more REAL!) You can pick the DVD up here.

Want to see more from David Marks? Check these out:

David & Victoria Marks Interview
David Marks Shop Tour
David Marks Project in Progress
A Guild Chat with David Marks

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.

I used to have my shop in just one bay of the 3 car garage, but since we never park in one of the other ones, I started eyeing the combination of two bays. So after getting the green light to switch the garage around, I finally have a nice functional space. I was able to make some built-in bench space that allowed me to rid myself of a few annoying stands. I gained a great deal of storage space to boot. And as a bonus, our workout area is separated enough that I won’t be tempted to start assembling large furniture in that space.

I added one more light, but I have a total of 4 units in the whole garage. Each one has 4 T8 bulbs. I think I need to add one more and I will be satisfied. I painted the whole garage several months ago and it is amazing what it does for the space. It really gives the light something nice to reflect off of. It has become a very inspirational space. Looking back from the drill press area, there’s the workbench and my thinking area for planning and drawing. I even do my homework in here. (I was taking courses for an MBA at the time- Future Marc)

Looking toward the front of the shop. You can see my jointer and the exercise equipment in the background. The Jet air cleaner does a really good job of keeping the air clean. But then again, most of my tools are connected to the dust collector or shop vac during use so very little hits the air to begin with. Overall I am very satisfied with its performance.

There is a closer view of my drill press, as well as my miter saw and my oscillating spindle sander. Also note the table saw top. What you can’t see in the pictures is the small pin that serves as the splitter. It is just as effective as the full size units and has proved its worth many times over (especially when I recently ripped a 6ft maple board that started to bow as I cut it. Without the pin the wood would have pinched the blade…yikes. For now, I forgo the guard until I can get the overarm style. Unfortunately there aren’t any aftermarket, easy on/off standard models that work on my saw.

I do feel lucky to have this much room. But as we all know, we always find a way to make it messy, so what it looks like here is no guarantee of what it will look like when the next project gets going. I almost always have the TV on while I am working, but rarely do I watch it. Its kind of annoying to others because I will watch the same movies like 3-4 times in a row just because I like the background noise. But usually I put in my DVD recordings of Woodworks and Norm. It is very handy when I need to copy a technique or idea.

Here’s my shop photos. I built this shop about 3 years ago after working out of a single car garage for a few years before that. The shop is 24 x 36 and has an interior dividing wall at 22 feet. On the garage side I house my dust collection and do my finishing (when the dust settles). I installed in-floor heating for the cold Canadian winters and I have A/C for the summer months to keep it quite comfortable. The nice thing about the in-floor heat is there is no open flame. My ceilings are at 10′ high which is handy for those long boards or sheet goods. Hope everyone likes it as much as I enjoy it.