Dan’s Work Shop – Shop Tour
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.
Here’s 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.
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thats the most impressive shop i’ve seen on this site. Kudos for the beautiful work.
Pretty Cool!
Dan? Dan who? Might it be one of the Dans that I already know of? Can’t tell.
It would be a very good thing to know more than a person’s first name. Who is Dan? Does he have a blog of his own, or another we presence? If we wanted to contact him about some of his gorgeous work, how can we? etc., etc.
It’s great seeing these neat postings, but they’re sort of hangin’ loose in space with no supporting context.
Dan, Those banjos are BEAUTIFUL!!!! Where can we see more of your fine work?
Well, many folks are not quite comfortable giving their location information and last name. This is the internet afterall. Add to it the fact that they are posting images of their most prized (and expensive) possessions.
Every time I make a post like this, I contact the person who made the submission to let them know and to remind them to monitor the comments in case someone has a question. If you look at some of the other posts, you’ll see that the person usually comes in to answer them.
In general, I only post the information that is given to me.
Very creative Dan. Kudos for proving once again the old cliche` “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
And a 17′ cabin cruiser is impressive, small shop or large.
Thanks to everyone for your kind words.
I’m afraid I don’t have a web site or blog. I’m a graphic designer by trade, and woodworking is my hobby. (one of my hobbies) My last name can be found inlaid on the peghead of the banjo. But I appreciate Marc’s policy of not broadcasting personal contact information on the web. We all get too much junk mail as it is. :->
I’ve made a number of instruments for my own use, and have sold them only to buy materials to make new and better ones. The banjo pictured is number 7. I’m currently working on a classical guitar. Maybe I’ll submit it for “project of the week” when it’s finished. I like Jim’s comment about finding solutions using the tools you have to work with. Some of the finest craftsmanship ever seen was done centuries ago with the simplest of tools. Expensive equipment can certainly save time, but doesn’t necessarily insure quality. Anyone can produce quality work if you take your time, work slowly and methodically, and do your best to avoid errors. Impatience is the enemy. The beautiful thing about woodworking as a hobby, is that you’re not on a time clock. It’s a labor of love, and not money. Better to turn out one quality project than a hundred indifferent ones. I like to think that the things I build will be valued and enjoyed now and long after I’m gone. What more can a woodworker ask?
Dan
You do marvelous work Dan.