Joshua’s Garage Shop

When my wife and I started looking for a new home one of my requirements was a 3-car garage so I could have space to set up a shop. When we found our home, I was amazed that it actually had a 4-car garage (almost 1,000 sq.ft). I have been able to set up my shop, park both vehicles and still have plenty of room for kids’ bikes and toys (I don’t know think a 3-car would have been big enough).

The garage is t-shaped with the shop area directly in front of the middle garage bay and is about 250 sq.ft. Unfortunately I’ve spent most of my time setting up the shop instead of working on any projects. I have done a few simple projects for around the house, but nothing too exciting yet.

Over the years I have upgraded my tools. I found my Delta Table-Saw and dust-collector on Craigslist. The saw was in immaculate condition, and the seller included a zero-clearance insert with Micro-jig splitter, two Freud Industrial thin-kerf blades, and an after-market dado-insert all for $350. I had a 220-volt outlet installed in the garage and converted the saw to 220-volt (I plan on purchasing a 3-hp cabinet saw next year). The dust-collector is a 1-hp unit, but easily handles the dust from the table saw and planer. The Dewalt DW735 planer was another CL find and I built a stand/cart for it.

Prior to having all of this space I needed to be able to easily set-up and tear-down all my tools which was a big reason why I purchased the Festool MFT and TS55. This quickly led to buying an ETS 150 sander, a PS 300 jigsaw, an OF1400 router and most recently a CT26 dust extractor. Now that I have the table-saw, the TS55 is primarily used to break-down plywood, and for edge jointing until I get a jointer.

To mill rough-lumber, I skip-plane the board to get it reasonably flat on one face with my Lee-Nielsen jack-place, then I send it through the planer. To get a clean edge I the use the TS55, and then finally run it through the table saw to square the opposing edge. This process works relatively well, but I plan on purchasing an 8-inch jointer in the future.

My drill-press is nothing special, but gets the job done. I custom built the table and stand. I built my bench a few years ago with simple 2×4 and plywood construction. The bench is very solid and works relatively well, but I would like to build a proper woodworker’s bench in the future. Above the bench is a simple cabinet/shelf that I built for my hand-planes.

Finally, the Craftsman tool box on the right holds all wood-working related tools (saws, chisels, router-bits, etc.), the one on the left is for my automotive tools.