Jeff’s Basement Workshop

Shop Tour - Submitted by Jeff from L
Added on January 17, 2012

Hi folks! I always wanted to build small furniture and musical instruments but I only have about one quarter of my basement available for a shop. Nevertheless, I managed to cram in a contractor table saw with an out feed table and router table attached, a press drill, small belt sander, jointer, portable thickness planer, a mitre saw my brother-in-law gave me (thanks Jean!), a sink, compressor, homemade dust collection system and air filter, and an always-too-small workbench. In order to still be able to work and go around the equipment, I installed some of them (the planer and mitre saw) on slides and the jointer is on casters so I can stash it under the mitre saw. It’s not perfect, but it’s workable!

Discussion

Doug McPherson January 17, 2012 9:25 am

Looks good. Ingenuity and making due is the name of the game. Oldest tool that I noticed was the Apple Macintosh.

Reply
- Jeff January 17, 2012 7:52 pm
  
  Yeah, I turned the Mac into a Maquarium. But it needs fixin’
  
  Reply
Steve K January 17, 2012 9:31 am

Very nice job. You’ve have all the basic tools for furniture making in a compact area.

I see you made a cyclone dust collector. Where did you obtain the blue plastic collection bin?

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- Jeff January 17, 2012 7:57 pm
  
  Got it from my brother-in-law (thanks again, Jean).It was a rust protection oil container. Cleaning it turned into a two hours nightmare… Good thing though is it’s plastic and cylindrical. Easier to fit with the top. Got the plans from Phil Thien’s site (http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm)
  
  Reply
Mike E January 17, 2012 9:48 am

Way to make use of the small shop space you have. I really like that PC on the workbench…classic. :-). Does your air filtration system work well?

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- Jeff January 17, 2012 8:00 pm
  
  It works OK. It cleans part of the remaining airborne small particles. Rebuilding it, I would try to find bigger fans (or a big squirel-cage one) to get more air flow. Having two filters (one in, one out) was a plus.
  
  Reply
Hugheser January 17, 2012 12:40 pm

Nice shop. I would love to see more of that outfeed table. I hope to eventually upgrade to something like that instead of the junk rollers I currently use.

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- Jeff January 17, 2012 8:03 pm
  
  Send me your e-mail at [email protected] and I’ll send you more pictures. I do not have a plan, as I bought the table saw with it and only had to shorten it to fit. Did I say I have a small place ? :-)
  
  Reply
  - John White February 4, 2012 10:26 am
    
    Nice shop! Way to go on utilization of space! If you check out my shop on here, or my website: http://www.johnwhitedesign.com ive made a outfeed table using a 4×8 sheet of melamine and 2×4’s. It gives me space underneath and ive put power outlets just under the top for sanders, drills and I keep a pancack compressor underneath whicb powers my nailers. It keeps hoses off the ground. I figured out where the slots are for the tablesaw and used a skillsaw to extend the slots in the table in the event you use the mitre gauge. If you would like pics and more details, email me at [email protected] also on my website is a link to taking the mystery out of dust collection.
    
    Reply
Bob January 17, 2012 1:01 pm

Wow, and I thought my shop was small. Well done.

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John Verreault January 17, 2012 2:28 pm

Very nice layout and it seems to work. I noticed the Apple museum piece on the far left of your bench…nice touch.

Salut.

John

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MikeM January 17, 2012 3:09 pm

Very nice shop setup! Getting good tools setup in a small area is always a challenge, and you have done well with that!

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nateswoodworks January 18, 2012 12:06 am

Thanks for sharing, I like how you mounted your ms and planer on glides for useability. Thanks for inviting us in!

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cdeobald January 18, 2012 6:43 am

Kudos for making the most of limited space. Thank God for Canadian Tire, eh?

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- Jeff January 18, 2012 7:36 pm
  
  Canadian Tire, and RONA, and Home Hardware, and Canac, and Home D
  
  Reply
Dave Stanton January 18, 2012 5:59 pm

Nice space and tools well adapted to fit.

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Dan Drabek January 19, 2012 12:44 pm

Good things can come out of small packages. Actually, I think my little shop is a bit smaller than yours. Plenty of room for building stringed instruments. (well, maybe not plenty of room, but enough room)

DD

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- Jeff January 20, 2012 8:46 am
  
  Dan, let’s not play “mine is smaller than yours”, OK ? :-))
  Building stringed instruments, hey ? What kind ? I’m interested in building an electric guitar in the near future. Any info/links/ints you can give me ?
  
  Thxs
  
  Jf.
  
  Reply
  - Dan Drabek January 20, 2012 6:57 pm
    
    Jeff, I attempted to point you to some sites for info and supplies for guitar making, but I guess the forum won’t allow posting of URL links. I’d suspect that Marc wants to avoid this forum turning into a venue for advertising.
    
    DD
    
    Reply
    - thewoodwhisperer January 20, 2012 7:08 pm
      
      Links have always been allowed. If something is a blatant advertisement it will never make it to the site. But all other legitimate links from users are perfectly fine.
Dan Drabek January 20, 2012 8:24 pm

Interesting. I tried three times, but for some reason it rejected my posts that contained links. The third attempt without the links went through.

I’ll try once more using a different browser.

There is an excellent forum for stringed instrument makers. Lots of great info, and lots of expert luthiers happy to answer any questions. Here’s the link:

http://www.mimf.com/

The following are links to two of the best sources for guitar making materials and supplies:

http://www.lmii.com/

http://www.stewmac.com/

Also, the owner of Grizzly tools is a serious amateur luthier, and devotes a section of his catalog to guitar-making tools and materials at low prices. It’s worth a look.

Finally, Frank Fords site is the best place on the net for tips and tricks on instrument building and repair. Loaded with great info. You can spend weeks exploring it:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPage.....ml#Luthier

DD

DD

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- Jeff January 21, 2012 12:21 pm
  
  Great ! Thanks.
  
  Jf.
  
  Reply
Dan Drabek January 20, 2012 8:25 pm

Interesting. I tried three times, but for some reason it rejected my posts that contained links. The third attempt without the links went through. Let’s see if this one does…

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MolokMot January 26, 2012 8:11 am

Jeff,
The shop looks great! Mine is just about the same size and I have been looking for some good space saving ideas. I am currently working on a plan to build a tool stand that will have the dust collection bin / thine style baffle built in. This will hold my lunch box planner on the back and on a lower shelf in front of that I would have my joiner and a possible cab below. I am now reconsidering after seeing your slide out shelves. Anything you would change about them?

MolokMot

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- Jeff March 27, 2012 6:03 pm
  
  Hi Molok and sorry for the delay. I would certainly use stronger (meening weight-rated) slides. Mine are a bit flimsy. Also, consider making the “drawers” as short as particaly feasible. The one on the mitter saw is too long and it makes it “jam” sometimes because it get easily out of alignment… as the wise say : you learn as you do.
  Jf.
  
  Reply
louis scrivani February 4, 2012 4:58 pm

Hi I am louis, It is excelent great job. I also have a small shop in my basement and my shop is under our bedroom and my wife is been complaining about the dust and itchyy feeling. So I have been extra through on the sweeping and cleaning the filters. But I was thinking of coating my seling with somthing any suggestions and increasing my outdoor vents I have 1 8 inch duct with a 12 inch exhaust fan sending the old air out now.

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Stefan February 12, 2012 12:47 pm

Great stuff Jeff. I think I have the exact same shop size as you and you’ve given me some great ideas for mine. So let me return the favor with a couple of ideas to help you find motors to increase the airflow of your home made air filter system.

If you want to stick with the same style computer fans you are currently using but bigger check out computer or electrical parts sites like DigiKey where you can find larger 120mm fans for fairly cheap.

http://search.digikey.com/ca/e.....dc/1179730

Or if you really want a squirrel cage fan go to the local scrap yard and get one from a car. You could also use the radiator fans. The only drawback to this is both of these option work on a 12V DC system that you would have to modify to work on 120V AC.

Merci et bonne chance!

Stefan

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Matt February 24, 2012 11:49 pm

Jeff I like what you did with your router/table saw. I also have a small amount of space. How did you do it?

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Dan March 20, 2012 5:24 pm

Hey Jeff!
Nice to see the workshop of a fellow woodworker and also a fellow citizen. Is it always that clean? I noticed that your air filter seems to be self-made. What did you put inside? It must be efficient according to the dust-free view…
Merci pour les photos et les id

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Yabbie London May 16, 2012 12:16 am

Excellent utilisation of space, but I did better than you as I used to have a 2 meter by 1 meter workshop in London and to solve the problem of space I moved to Melbourne, Australia and now I have a 12 by 6 meters workshop! But I have not solved the problem of air filtration and I see that you made one. Is it possible to share how to do my own as they are expensive over here?

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Jeff May 17, 2012 1:35 am

Hi Yabbie,

I too just relocated my shop in my sister’s garage because I moved downtown recetlly. For the filtration system I’ll send you pictures and explainations as soon as I come back home, as I am in France for two weeks: What an international exchange we have !

Jeff

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Yabbie London May 17, 2012 3:41 am

Thanks I really would appreciate it.

Reply

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Jeff’s Basement Workshop

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