Mike in Arizona - Shop of the Week

July 2, 2008 | Filed Under Blog, Shop of the Week 

This week’s shop belongs to Mike, let’s check it out:

Here are a few shop pictures, we finished it’s construction about 6 months ago. It is about 1400sf inside and has a 200a 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.


Comments

22 Responses to “Mike in Arizona - Shop of the Week”

  1. Wayne on July 2nd, 2008 2:25 pm

    Maybe Marc should have you as a guest on some of these Festool videos he makes. Nice setup.

  2. Shannon on July 2nd, 2008 3:55 pm

    Seriously, you have more Festool than Marc. What a great space. My shop is longer than wide too and your right it allows you to put the machine on one end for dust collection. Works great. Really, really nice space!

  3. Charles on July 2nd, 2008 4:13 pm

    Based on these pictures and the description I think I pretty much hate Mike (out of pure jealousy of course). All that’s needed is the pool and grotto to finish it off!

    Hey Marc, I love these shop tours. When I’m looking at these shops I often wonder if the owner is a hobbyist, full-time woodworker, or somewhere in between. Looking at Mike’s shop, it appears that he’s setup for some sort of production type workflow. I guess I’m always interested to know what type of work and even volume of work goes on in each particular shop (e.g. part-time cabinetmaking, etc…). I think it gives a helpful context to the tool choices and layouts that we are looking at. Just a thought…

  4. Eric on July 2nd, 2008 4:51 pm

    You make me sick… ;)

  5. Vic on July 2nd, 2008 9:28 pm

    Charles, with a table saw that runs around 10 grand, I think you can guess that he’s either a successful professional woodworker or whatever he does do professionally, he does very well! NICE , MIKE!!!!

  6. muddler mike on July 2nd, 2008 10:46 pm

    um……….wow.

    Sweet shop, Mike!

  7. Joe R on July 3rd, 2008 12:19 am

    Now that’s a shop! Great tools, dust collection, safety items, stereo sound, good lighting, nicely organized, a bathroom, and lots of Festool. It’s so nice, I even like the coffee cup on the floor!

  8. Ken F on July 3rd, 2008 1:49 am

    Mike,
    Some nice equipment,

    Well, this is what I see from the pictures

    Woodworking for sale – sure
    Woodworking for hobby – of course
    Woodworking production – no (or not without a struggle)
    The clamp frame is throwing me off – Cabinets?

    Finishing is a big part of production, my customers that I sell cabinets to requires
    A high quality finish that I can only produce in my spray booth (I don’t see one in the pictures). Let’s not talk about the permit to have one.

    Mike the shop is cool
    Good luck

  9. Jeff Jackson on July 3rd, 2008 5:52 am

    I was going to send my pics in of my shop, but after seeing his shop I just hit delete on the email. Good lord what a nice and very expensive shop. I hope it is fully insured!!

  10. Jim on July 3rd, 2008 7:53 am

    Geeez, Mike I think you have more money in Festool than I have in my whole shop…LOL Great space!

  11. Rickey LoDico on July 3rd, 2008 8:13 am

    Awesome! Although it looks a bit too crowded for that Felder. Ship that to Jersey and I’ll send you my PM66. You’ll be much better off.

  12. kentuckybill on July 3rd, 2008 8:30 am

    Nice shop, looks just like mine. Only mine is smaller with crappy tools.

  13. Charger1966 on July 3rd, 2008 8:56 am

    Great looking shop. It must be nice hitting the Lottery.

    No really it looks great.

  14. gatorbait on July 3rd, 2008 11:23 am

    Holy cow. I’ve died and gone to Festool heaven. Thanks for the post. I want to show my wife your MFT pit row. I only want one so this should be good leverage to getting that :-) Very nice space.

  15. Paul-Marcel St-Onge on July 3rd, 2008 5:41 pm

    Completely impressed. Likely some ideas to “borrow” in those pictures once I wipe the FesDrool off my keyboard. I considered doing what you did to the 1080s: jacking them up. Germans are seriously short. I’d like to know what Mike does, too if it’s commercial.

  16. whaleplane on July 3rd, 2008 8:57 pm

    Mike - Wow. I thought I was cool when I upgraded my saw blade and miter gage but… Are you a major league hobbiest or is this for professional use?

  17. Mike B on July 4th, 2008 10:42 am

    Well I guess it is time for me to end the speculation…. This IS a hobby shop. I am sorry if that makes anyone depressed, no fear though i am a psychiatrist. Which is what I do “on the side” so I can afford my tool addiction. When I was in residency I sold a lot of furniture to other physicians and was able to buy a majority of the tools that you see. That was the deal I had with my wife, the shop had to be somewhat self sufficient. I sold many picture frames, casework, small decorative accessories etc… Now that I am out of residency I only make furniture for sale if I can get the price I think is worth my time. I also have two young boys now and I really don’t have the same amount of time to spend in the shop, so I prefer to make furniture for my boys or our family. Marc and I are planning a video tour of my shop in the next few months, which should be very fun. I am happy to answer any other questions about the shop or tools I have….. Thanks everyone for the nice comments.

  18. Keith on July 4th, 2008 8:43 pm

    So if we asked your wife, would she say it was self sufficient?

  19. Kevin Thomas on July 5th, 2008 7:13 pm

    Congrats on the garage space. I tore down a little one car garage to make room for a three car. Ended up starting a construction company and the rest is history! Looks great!

  20. Jim Lynde, North Hollywood,CA on July 8th, 2008 11:21 pm

    Mike, Being a psychiatrist, maybe you could tell us if there is a cure for TOOL ADDICTION.
    You have a beautiful shop and well equipped. Only thing you need
    there is a couch in case a few of your furniture customers need a little counseling.
    Great job. I’ll be looking forward to a video tour of your shop with Marc

  21. Todd Proctor on July 25th, 2008 8:24 am

    Very nice shop! I wish I had the space!

    I believe I have the exact same saw that you do down to the table length. I bought mine used and am still figuring it out. Have you had any trouble with the outrigger and keeping it lined up so that your long crosscut fence stays parallel to the sliding table?

  22. Mike B on July 28th, 2008 8:00 pm

    Todd,
    I did not buy the outrigger, if you are not a member of the Felder Owners Group (FOG) yet, I strongly advise it. It is an online yahoo forum, with over 1000 members who can answer anything about Felder’s and most other tools out there.

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