Don’s Workshop – Viewer Shop
Here is a nicely organized shop for a modest space. Let’s check it out:
I’ve really been enjoying your videos. I appreciate that you take time to talk about pitfalls and how to avoid them. Thanks for the effort.
Every shop I ever see has lots of room, great tools, sturdy work table, and a dust collection system. I wish I had one too. How about featuring a guy like me who is limited to part of a one car garage? All of my heavy power tools are on two wheeled carts. When I want to cut or plane wood for a project, I have to move the riding mower outside. Then I roll the carts around or move them outside. My work table is two saw horses or my work bench. Most of my power tools are Craftsman which suits my purposes. This sure isn’t a great shop but it’s all I can do for now. It’s not easy to make anything and takes a lot of determination and sometimes good weather.
As Don’s shop illustrates, workshops come in all sizes, filled with tools from the Harbor Freight Specials to the latest in fancy Euro machines. As woodworkers, we are just fascinated by other people’s setups! So share your shops with us. We would love to see your ingenious ideas for tool arrangement, storage, and mobility.
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It might be small, but it looks well organized.
I have more room, but it looks like it was organized by a tornado. :(
That being said, it *is* getting better.
That is alot like my shop except you have nicer equipment than I do and more. I am still acquiring items on a very small budget.
That is a nice Gerstner chest in the corner, right? Such a beautiful and useful piece of furniture, worthy for own article. Mark, maybe you should build one for yourself and publish a nice series of podcasts. What do you think? How do you transfer your basic tools when going for simple repairs somewhere?
Gerstner: Do you mean the small toolbox on the bench? It has another name on it. That was my fathers and is from the 50’s or earlier. I’ve debated refinishing it but then it would not be the same box.
Thanks for sharing. I’m in a similar boat. My portable DW table saw and other tools sit stacked in a corner by the back door of my 1000 sqft apartment. Weather permitting, my “shop” gets set up on the small concrete patio behind my apartment every Sunday afternoon or anytime I have a few free hours to work on a project. It works, but the hassle of setting up the equipment every time I want to get some work done is making me think I should acquire more handtools/handtool skills.
Thanks for sharing. You are equipped to handle a good array of projects there. I especially love the hurricane lanterns along the ceiling. (Not sure what they call them elsewhere in the country).
I didn’t notice, do you have a shop vac? If so you can have reasonably effective dust collection. Just add a HEPA filter to it, and put together a trash can cyclone and you’ll have a nice dust sucking system on the cheap!
There is a beat up Craftsman shop vac under the saw horses. I have some fittings to attach it to my tools and in one or two cases I have to use 2″ masking tape. Someday I will make adapters from wood.
The lantern globes may be a hurricane style but they are not called that. The really odd looking ones were for roadside markings and come from the 40’s and 50’s. There is also a railroad lantern there.
My shop is bigger and a bit more filled with tools, but that is not what it is all about. It is what we gain from our tools and how it brings us together here. We can tell that you take pride in your shop and that is better than any rich person that just buys to have and never even uses them. Thanks for sharing and it looks nice. What is your current project.
Nate
Thanks for the response. I’m making Christmas gifts right now. I made a nice “in box” with finger joints and am working on a small lazy Susan with octagonal edges. Not sure what is coming next. Generally I’m trying to start small and build skills as I go.
He also made me a nice three shelf bookcase with nicely rounded edges.
Don’s Workshop looks a lot like Barecycles Workshop! The only difference being I have to also move motorcycle parts around when I start a new project. Glad you you took the time to share it with us.
Nicely organized shop. I have a shop in my garage and dust collection has always been a challenge. Check out the Dust Deputy from Oneida Air systems. It connects to a five gallon bucket and any sized shop vac. It’s pretty amazing how well it works. With mine, I empty the bucket when it’s full and rarely have to do anything with the shop vac. They now make a plastic version with buckets and accessories included for about $60.
I work in a similar situation to you. I share a 2 car garage (I get half) with my wife and most of my larger tools are on wheels. To be honest I don’t know what the big deal with dust systems is. I remember as a kid going into my Dad’s shop and the smell of sawdust and the wood shavings laying on the floor. A lot of shops I see these days are a little too much on the antiseptic side. Having a dust free finishing area is fine but having the whole shop spotless somehow just doesn’t seem right. It’s kind of like going into a mechanics garage and there’s no grease on anything.
I use a shop vac when working inside. Outside I tend to let the dust fly and sweep and vacuum up what I can. The rest goes to my neighbors via leaf blower – though I’m trying to be a better neighbor lately.
I got over hating a dusty shop. But I do worry about inhaling the stuff.
I couldn’t agree more. My father and grandfather have worked on cars their whole lives and there is something about an old garage or even a newer but used shop. The smell, the worn tools, the used parts and the people who make it their hangout. Good times.
Thank you Don for sharing your shop with us and thanks to Marc for giving us this community to enjoy.
Don, I know it is not free, but maybe you can build a small storage shed outside the garage area that you can move your riding mower and any other non-woodworking items to. Your shop looks well equipped, but the pictures seem to show the shop in the compacted mode. I can see why you have to move things out of the garage to get any work done!
Hey nice use of space! I am pretty sure that is a craftsman planer. I am going to buy a planer soon and was thinking of this one, a rigid or Jet makes a planer/joinet combo in the same price range. So feed back on the craftsman would be nice!
Mark W – I have the Jet Combo 10″. The in-feed on the jointer can be a bit wiggly as you change depth of cut, but once’s set and locked, it’s good. The planer out-feed on mine dips below the planer bed, so I try to support it by hand if needed, but as a combo for $400, in my small shop, it does fantastic – how many of us get a 10″ jointer?
(sorry for the short review, and now back to this evening’s feature!)
Don,
You have something here and I like it, your tools are
so clean you can eat off of them,
Do you? well don’t (its just a figure of speech).
Well, I need to get to work and organize my shop. I think my space might be a little bit bigger than what you’ve got, but it sure doesn’t look that organized. Your shop looks like a good one to take notes from so I can get things straightened up.
Don. well done always remember it not the size that counts it the way you use it and the organization in your shop is a credit to you in my opinion there is a great need for self discipline when you have to fit out the smaller workshop with tools than the larger working area
well done again thanks for the photos
Harry
I, too, have a small space which to work and must roll everything around AFTER I move the bicycles, tricycles, wagon, scrap wood buckets, tables, (pause to gasp for air) wife’s car, battery operated jeep, hoola hoop, roller stands…I think that’s it. I have to budget time for setup and takedown each time I work on a project since the garage is actively used. Sometimes it gets frustrating but the joy of creation is overriding. Keep on truckin’ and saving for that ‘wonder shop’ that we all dream of.
Thanks for the reply. My hat’s off to you if you have to move that much stuff to have fun.
Of course, a huge consideration is, “what kind of stuff do you want to make?”
If you are making only small things (I.e. – toys, boxes etc.), a shop of bench-top tools will do wondrous things.
But I still find myself doing big stuff, almost construction-type stuff. Maybe it is because I still am working on finishing the total re-do of my shop or maybe because I do the occasional work on expansion or repair of our decks. It just seems like I have the occasional piece of whole plywood or the 12′ 2×8 piece of treated lumber to cut or mill.
I love the philosophy of wood shop layout. I believe that there are some absolutes. There are machines that get the wood run through them … and … there machines that move over stationary wood. The machines that move over stationary wood should be up against a wall if possible … and … the machines that have the wood “run through” should be out in the middle (again if possible).
There are probably a bunch more “absolutes” with regard to shop layout but (I am sure like you) I am still learning.
I think I will be sticking to smaller projects because(1) I don’t have much inside assembly space and (2) I like a fast payoff. I’m too impatient to take on a big bookcase and finish it etc. But that my change over time. I’d like to build an extra counter with cabinets and doors in my small kitchen.
That is a pretty good looking shop for such a small space. I hope to get some photos of my shop up on the site when I get all moved in. We moved from a house with a 600 SQFT shop to one with a 1.5 car garage….. :-(
I feel your pain! I have a similar amount of space, and it isn’t even at my house! I have to drive 15 minutes to my brother-in-law’s garage, where he has kindly allowed me to convert the back end into a shop.
In it, I have my tools (some of which date from the 50’s or 60’s), a basic work table, a homemade mobile rack for small pieces of wood, and two stacks of 12 ft. rough-cut oak, walnut and pine planks.
My children can get in and around things, but I have to move things out into main part of the garage in order to do much.
I was glad to see a fire extinguisher in your shop. I thought that it might be a little hard to get to in a hurry. Perhaps another show on safety is due?
The Europeans have tiny shops also.
I love my Festools, unfortunately I can only swing about one a year.
Nice Shop!
James M
I like the tour, for many reasons. Mostly, because it gives me hope that a lot can be done in a little space.
I have a few questions on some things that seemed out of place (to me, anyway) in the first photo.
#1: What is the mirror hanging on the tool rack used for? (shop or personal)
#2: the switch next to the outlet: is that for shop power or something else?
I especially liked seeing the railroad lantern; it evokes happy memories of my father in law and my grandfather. (the tool chest evokes more happy memories of my grandfather: he has one just like it in his basement.)
Last question: how does the fertilizer affect wood being worked in your shop? Or are the fumes not concentrated enough to affect workpieces given the garage air volume?
Thanks for the inspiration Don. I have a larger garage, but share it with numerous items and the wife’s car in the winter. I know I need to organize everything, but can’t get the lead out of my rear to do it. Seeing the layout you have created in such a small area gets me excited to finally organize my shop/garage.
Don – Let’s start here: AMAZING!! You’ve turned your space into a workable shop that not only makes dust but also makes projects!!
I’m 4 months into a new garage that I’m still setting up, but is much larger than my last one. And I still can’t build a square project.
I’m also a photographer, and I know the comparison is true: It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer. In your case, it’s not the shop – or the tools – it’s the craftsman (no pun intended!)
Nice shop Don! hope to have on like it in the future.