Updated Shop Tour – Detailed

Since well before Christmas, I’ve been working on a background project.  Making my work areas more efficient.  In the couple of little projects that I’ve done since this Summer, I’ve realized that a few things needed to be moved to a better location.  Here is the results:

Main Workbench:

Rather than building a bench from scratch, I bought one.  Many of the inexpensive benches are very light so I’ve anchored it to the floor for stability during planing and such.  With the bench, I’ve made various bench hooks and such which have proven very useful.

Next a Dedicated Sharpening Bench:

This bench was my quick and dirty attempt at bench building.  Rather than get rid of it, I’ve turned it into my dedicated sharpening station with my Tormek, water stones, and granite stations.  I love having this set up all the time.  I’ve already been more inclined to sharpen blades when they start cutting funky.

Tool Cabinet:

I designed and built this tool cabinet with scraps from my shop.  It has turned out very well to house my chisels, measuring tools, and hand planes.  On the outside, I’ve got magnets holding my measuring tools.

On the inside are my chisels, hand planes, files, marking gauges, and mallets.

Hand Saws:

Next to the tool cabinet, I have my various hand saws.  This is a collection that is still being developed.  Based on reviews and trials, I’ve selected some of the basic saws I need.  I’m really focusing on Western saws though I have a few pull/japanese saws.

Next to the main saws, I have more saws along with my brace and hand drill.  This is also the port to the dust collection shed (see later in this post).

Sanding Station

I have a Rigid sanding station sitting on top of my Craftsman toolbox which holds hammers, screw drivers, wrenches, plyers, and such.

Router Table and Planer:

I have a cabinet (originally a flip top but I found that it didn’t work nearly as well as my fantasy) which houses my power planer and my router table (again I chose to go for a kit from Benchdog instead of designing and making one of my own).

Drill Press:

I have a Delta bench top drill press on a shop made cabinet.

Bandsaw:

Here is my Delta 14″ bandsaw.  I need to get a new blade and tune it up.

Festool:

Here is a shop made bench with a Festool work surface on top.  In the cabinet is my routers and bits and other non-Festool hand power tools.

Here are my Festool tools including a vacuum, circular saw, sander, jig saw, Domino.  I love my Festools (including the rail guides which I have in various sides).

The rest of the shop:

Notice that my dust collection is outside the shop.  Dust collection includes a floor sweep and 2 flex hoses on either side of the shop that can connect to the router table, bandsaw, planer, sander.

Basically, I’ve optimized my 12′x16′ shop space for hand tools and some limited power tool usage.