Scott’s Basement – Shop Tour

Shop Tour -
Added on February 4, 2009

Walking through the shop taking pics for a shop tour submission, I ended taking some video and threw them together as a quick shop tour. In the video I misspeak a couple of times and miss some details so I will include some of these details and corrections. The basic dimensions of the shop are 12’x24′. Power for the shop is a 30 Amp 220V (in the video I misspeak and say 30 Amp 220 Amp) this handles all the power for the shop except for lighting which is run from the main circuit box. Lighting is five 4′ fluorescent fixtures.

For dust collection I have a Harbor Freight ‘2HP’ dust collector and a box fan that I tape furnace filters on as a air cleaner.
I use flexible 4″ hose run one at a time to each machine, I hope sometime in the future to find a way to run some 5″ dedicated lines around the shop but the low ceilings are a problem with clearance.

The large tools in the shop are:
Craftsman Hybrid 10″ table saw
Harbor Freight 14″ band saw
Harbor Freight 12″x36″ lathe
Craftsman 12″ drill press
Dewalt 12″ chop saw
Harbor Freight mortising machine
Delta 12 1/2″ Planer (called it a 12″ in the video)
General International 6″ jointer.

I also have a fairly full complement of Craftsman, Makita, Milwaukee, and Porter Cable, power hand tools. As well as a smattering of older/cheaper hand tools.

My workbench is about 8 years old and needed some shoring up and I am always looking for add more storage to the shop, so I recently added some pegboard and some 1/4″ ply to the back to stiffen the frame up some. This lets me add places for extension cords, drills, air guns, etc…. On the back of the bench I have put my chisels and layout tools, we will see how well things stay there with me hammering on the bench.

Heating during the winter is handled by a kerosine heater and a couple of electric heaters. I will generally use the kerosine heater to get the shop up to a comfortable temp then rely on the electric heaters to maintain the temp. Cooling in the summer is shorts and a couple more box fans.

Discussion

Harley130 February 4, 2009 5:22 pm

Scott, great use of a small space. Yours shop is like all of ours, a work in progress.

Reply
Adam February 4, 2009 9:01 pm

Scott, enjoyed the shop tour…quick question. i noticed a couple of harbor freight tools. i’m mainly wondering about the lathe. is it a pretty decent one? does it run true? i’ve been in the market for a lathe and was wondering about the quality of the harbor freight brand. lemme know some of the pro’s and cons on it if you would.

thanks,
Adam

Reply
- Gary February 5, 2009 6:33 am
  
  Adam,
  I don’t know how good a Harbor Frieght Lath is but I notice that the castings are almost identical to my Jet 1236 which I really like. If you have any doubt get the Jet. Besides the customer support from Jet is fantastic. They have even replaced things for free for me that were not covered in the warranty. No, I don’t work for jet. It was just money well spent.
  
  Reply
Ken F February 4, 2009 10:41 pm

Scott,
Nice collection of tools, i like the size of tools for the space and the workbench i will be building one similar to yours.

Your next project “Clamp Rack”
I can’t see each time pulling a handfull of clamps
to get a sheet of sandpaper from that shelf.

Reply
Scott February 5, 2009 8:04 am

Thanks for the comments.

Adam,
to answer your question on the HF lathe if you are expecting to spend $200 and get a $2000 lathe you will be dissapointed. The castings are a little crude, the milling on the bed is rough, the stand is light, and the point of the drive spur and the tail stock don’t quite line up.

If however you accept that the tool is a little rough around the edges it is a perfectly usable tool. This is a wood lathe not a metal lathe so tolerances don’t need to be as tight. With a little bracing the stand can be stiffened up a little and while the head and tail stock don’t line up exactly its close enough for my work.

I bought the lathe not because I wanted to start turning but because I needed it to finish a project and for the occasional holiday gift. As such I have managed to resist the sirens call of turning :)

If you are truly interested in turning you may be better served by spending a little more on a better lathe, but if you like me simply want to use it as an additional tool in your woodworking arsenal it will probably suffice.

One thing I will say though is to not skimp on your tooling.

Reply
Scott February 5, 2009 8:05 am

Ken,

Yes pulling the clamps off to get at the sand paper is a pain but I have a couple more projects to finish for SWMBO before I can get around to a new clamp rack :)

Reply
Jason February 5, 2009 9:40 am

Nice shop Scott. It seems very efficient for the size and number of tools you have.

Reply
Scott February 5, 2009 2:19 pm

I find Marks choice of splash frame for the video to be interesting.

We have a woodworking shop full of tools and he focuses on the Ford 400ci motor. :)

Is he quietly singing ‘One of these things is not like the other’ and pointing out that not many wood working shops have something like this in it.

Or is he really secretly a ‘Tim the toolman Taylor’ kind of guy and is wondering what size pulleys it would take to hook it up to the table saw? ;)

Scott,

Reply
- thewoodwhisperer February 5, 2009 2:28 pm
  
  lol. Actually I didn’t select a splash screen. That one was auto-generated by Blip. Although I like the conspiracy theory better. ;)
  
  Reply
Dave H February 5, 2009 3:21 pm

Scott,

I am doing the same 20×20 allergen filter duct taped to a box fan trick for an air cleaner, but I keep mine of the floor. I like the ceiling mount idea though. Especially when resawing on the bandsaw. (I have the same saw but hot rodded a bunch with a riser block, different guides, blades etc…). You cut away from the view of that pretty quickly. Is there any way I can convince you to post more details on how that is set up? It looks like you just flipped the fan over, screwed it through the bottom of the fan, the finished ceiling, and into a floor joist…

Reply
- Scott February 5, 2009 8:26 pm
  
  Nothing fancy really,
  
  I have a series of J hooks I have screwed into the ceiling/floor joists where I hang an extension cord from the wall outlet to over the workbench.
  
  To hang the fan I took some picture frame wire and created a couple of loops where the holes are for the feet of the fan.
  
  This let me hang the fan from a couple of the J hooks close to the outlet, and lets me easily take it down to clean/replace the filter when I need to.
  
  Easy, simple, and gets the job done.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  Scott
  
  Reply
Tom Buhl February 6, 2009 11:45 am

I’d second the motion to add a clamp rack (probably on wheels). My “shop” is actually larger, a double car garage. HOWEVER, besides my wood toys it houses, no, no cars, but the life accumulations of combining two households into a 950 sq ft home when I recently married, as well as the many, many treasures of my young adult daughter who is on her own, but without storage. So to work I have to roll most tools, work surfaces out of the garage. Mostly I work in the driveway. Been doing this for two years. Big clamps were hanging on studs behind drill press. Convenient when you don’t need them. But to use I had to drag them out. Even worse was when removing clamps I’d place them on surfaces which I’d be needing cleared a few moments later. Not a good system. Was going to build clamp rack but like you had other projects more compelling. Bought one from Rocker (about $150). How wonderful. Now the clamps are rolled next to where needed without taking up work surface. And put back when removed. Then rolled away. Very satisfying. And seemed not a lot more $$ than cost of decent set of wheels. Thanks for sharing.

Reply
dbhost April 27, 2009 8:58 pm

Scott,

Nice shop you’ve got there! Your tool collection looks awfully familiar with all that HF green… Looks like you are a bang for the buck kind of guy.

I keep coming back to this video because I always feel like I missed SOMETHING in regards to how you stash stuff. I love the way you included storage on the ends of the workbench…

Maybe once I get a few of my projects out, I will have to whip the camcorder out and do a video tour of my shop for y’all…

Reply
F. McMillan January 10, 2016 9:28 am

OH, HOW I WISH I COULD SEE THE VIDEO!

Reply

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Scott’s Basement – Shop Tour

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