This Old Shop ~ Circa 1962 – Shop Tour
This week’s shop comes from Robert in Boise. Let’s check out what he has to say:
“With all the “new” shops that we have seen, I thought some of you might be interested in a wood shop that was built by my father in the basement of our Long Island, New York home around 1962. I still remember, as a young boy, holding a star drill as my dad manually pounded holes in the concrete basement floor to set the footers for framing the shop walls. I don’t know if I was really “helping” but my dad let me think I was!”
“The first picture shows my dad’s Craftsman table saw in the center of the shop. The saw had a “big” 7″ blade and “gravity feed” dust collection. (Sawdust just dropped into a big drawer in the cabinet base he constructed for the saw.)”
“As you can see from Pic 2, every tool in the shop had a place and my dad could always tell if a tool was not placed back where it was supposed to be! The chisels consisted of a large array of different sized flat chisels and gouges. Along the top were a number of “braces” for drilling holes as well as some antique specialized molding planes and spoke shaves. The “bits” available for the “braces” were located in drawers as seen in the Pic 3.”
“My father was primarily a “hand tool” guy, but did have a few power tools as seen inthe next Pic. Note how all the tools, with the exception of a router acquired in later years, are all constructed with metal casesâ€â€no plastic! Other power tools (Pic 5) consisted of a bench drill press, a grinder, a Unimat metal lathe, and a homemade disc sander.”
“In another corner of the shop (Pic 6) you can see a 1930s version of a multipurpose power tool. This combination tool was given to my father when he was a teenager. You can see the wood lathe and a removable “jigsaw” (now called a scrollsaw). This jigsaw could be removed and replaced with a very small table saw when needed. My father was still using this lathe in the 60s and 70s as you can see by the number of turning tools he acquired and maintained. To the right you can see his set of handsaws and block planes.”
“In the final work area of the shop is what he called his “metalworking” area (Pic 7). This area consisted of a variety of rasps, files, metal cutting tools, pliers, and hammers.”
“Many of my father’s older tools were inherited from his high school wood shop teacher. They formed a strong friendship when my dad was in high school and became lifelong friends. Many of these tools were originally stored in a tool chest (Pic 8) passed down from his family. The outside this tool chest looks pretty old and worn. Once opened you can see the entire inside was beautifully constructed of inlaid diamond shaped pieces of wood with the owner’s name dated 1890. Within the chest are several sliding panels and compartments which held an entire set of “wood” molding planes (not shown). The story is that this chest used to be hauled around New York City by wagon for custom cabinet work by the owner.”
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Wow! That’s an awesome shop. Please tell me it’s still there. That collection (and the meticulous storage) is a treasure. Thanks for sharing.
Wow.
That was cool.
WOW –
The organization of the shop is fabulous… that is awesome.
What a nice, clean, well maintained work area. No dust and no vacuum system, he must have had a great wife!!!
WOW!! A great set of vintage pics. Sure wish my shop was that organized. Robert’s dad was more productive in his shop than I ever can be because I spend half my time looking for the right tool to do the job. These pics reinforce the old saying “A place for everything, and everything in it’s place.”
Neat pics. If I knew someone with a shop like that, I’d give them a new chisel set, just to see them blow a sprocket as they tried to figure out where to place it.
So where did he do most of his hand tool work? I saw a machinists vise and one face vise, but the face vise station looked like it might have some limitations in use.
Magnificent! The description of each picture is almost better than the pictures themselves. I’m sure I am not the only one envious of that shop. If only we could travel back in time!
Thanks much Robert for sharing.
Wonderful shop!!
What a great history. I hope you too will be able to pass down this kind of legacy. I am sure future little woodwhisperers will post their pictures of your shop on their blogs and websites. I wonder how much tools will have changed by then?
Wow! This is very nice. I hope those tools are still use somewhere. Claude
My cousin sent me these pictures because…….The owner of this wonderful shop was my uncle. And that great wife of his was my mother’s sister!!!!
I remember as a child going to their house and what a good time I had. It seems at the time I was there Uncle Johnny was building a ship of some kind. I will have to ask my cousin Rob if I’m correct.
This was great-made me feel like a litle girl again (whoops-now I’m 57 just like Rob by the way)
Blessings, Deborah
Deborah,
Rob has inherited a great treasure!!! Hopefully, his Dad instilled the great skill of organization, also. Unfortunately, being organized does not come naturally to me. Luckily my wife will help, if I ask. It makes life so much more productive and less stressful to have everything neat and tidy. By the way, NO, Sylvia will not help clean the shop…only organize me.
Wow great recessed tool storage. This is like a tool candy store too. I think I would just sit in there and sigh contentedly.
I like it a lot! -Jim Carrey-
I really like the recessed tool cabinets. I’m having one of those why didn’t I think of that before moments now.
Nice thing about wooworking shops and tools, if you didn’t mention it was a 1962 era shop, I would say it’s fairly modern looking.
Norman
What a wonderful space. This is the essential workplace. It is so thoughtfully conceived; I can only imagine how many hours of planning it must have taken.
Mark
Very nice, and a great balance between hand and power tools.
This shop could eaily be a showroom for a tool manufacturer.
Thanks for sharing.
I enjoyed the shop but my 12-inch table saw may be older than either one of us! And how does it handle dust collection? The sawdust falls to the floor or into the saw!
WOW!!!
That is a great shop. What an excellent use of the space! Thanks for sharing that with us!
John
This shop is impressive by any standard. It is well organized, as many have said. It was complete in it’s breadth of tool sizes for each tool. It was state of the art of the 60′ and 70’s. It shows careful thought went into the design and layout. It shows great use of space – notice the shelving unit between the windows. It shows a respect for the old tools – notice the 1930’s multipurpose tool. And, most of all, it reflects the continuing respect the family has had to keep and maintain it.
To some, his legacy may be this work shop. To others it may be in the woodworking he did in the shop. To me, I think it is probably most strongly reflected in his impact on his family.
JJ
greit shop. my grandfather have a shop like that.
Nice shop. We would have gotten along nicely! I tend to be a bit of a neat freak too – not inherited from my dad. Actually, I think it was just the opposite…I remember helping him on projects and spending half the time looking for tools! I notice in picture 8 that the hacksaw on the right should probably be rotated 180 degrees to match the other one. LOL!
Love the vintage tools, very nice collection.
I love this shop! I’m just starting to get heavily into handtools after years of machine work, and boy would I love to have those tools. The shop’s probably not around anymore, but I hope the tools are.
Thanks for the pictures.
WOW, GREAT SHOP, BUT, TO MAINTAIN A SHOP THAT CLEAN ITS IMPOSIBLE.. EVEN IF I FOLLOW THE TEN-THINGS-PICK-UP BY MARK I STILL HAVE CHAOS!