I read in Kevin Neelley's
website ( www.turnedwood.com ) that someone said
"a one-car garage is a shop and a two-car garage is a studio". Well, mine
is slightly smaller than a one-car garage but overflows into a two-car garage and I have
plans on taking over the whole thing so I'm calling my Shop a Studio.
Have you ever heard anyone complain that their
shop was too big? I haven't either. Everyone's shop is too small and mine is no
exception. I've had to put everything that's on the floor on casters so they can be
moved into position when in use and moved out of the way when not in use. The only
exception to this are the work and lathe benches and the radial arm saw.
Click on image for larger view.
Dust Collection
In the photos below you can see that all
equipment is connected to a dust collection system with either three or four inch flexible
hose. The hoses are in turn connected via blast gates to a four inch galvanized metal duct
that runs along one side and across the back of the shop. Even though it was more
difficult to install, I chose metal duct work to eliminate the possibility of static
electricity build-up inherent in plastic pipe systems. At a central point in the
duct work, there is a wall feed-through to the dust collection system in an adjacent room
to reduce noise. The system is turned on and off with a wireless remote
control.
The system is comprised of a garbage can with one
of those molded plastic cyclone top thingamajigs that causes the large wood chips to fall
out before they get into the collector bags. It works pretty well until the can gets
about half full. Then the chips just pass though to the collector bag. I need to
check it periodically and empty it as needed.
The system I have is a 1200cfm, 1 1/2 hp dust
collector. I chose this model because it operates on 110 volts as opposed to the 2hp
collector system that requires 220 volts.
This system works fine for everything in my shop
except for the planer. I need to use a shop-vac connected directly to the planner to
handle the volume of wood chips it puts out.
I also have an overhead dust collector installed
which filters the air in the shop about 6 times per hour. Very effective but also
very noisy. If I had it to do over again, I would probably look for a quieter model.
Tools
My shop is equipped with standard, readily
available , medium priced tools. Over the years I've done all sorts of
woodworking so my tools tend to be general purpose in nature. They allow me to do
everything from framing houses to building fine furniture and fairly detailed boxes and
segmented woodturnings. At some point in the near future I will probably replace my
table saw and radial arm saw to give me the ability to do more precise work.
My shop now consists of the following:
A 30+ year old radial arm saw I bought new
that has seen better days. Its was the work-horse in my shop for years but now needs a lot
of TLC to do decent work.
Self made router table with a Jointech fence,
five routers from a laminate trimmer to a 3.25 hp plunge router. It's great for doing all
sorts of precision routing and I use the Jointech Fence for doing dovetails instead of a
dovetail jig.
A six-inch jointer. What can I say
about a jointer? Its a great tool for finishing edges and making boards flat (which
can't be done with the planer or drum sander).
A drum sander. This was a fairly
recent purchase and I don't know how I survived all these years without one. Its
excellent for achieving precise thickness from 1/64th of an inch to 3 inches. Its
especially useful for working burls and multi-directional grained woods where a planer
would cause tear-out.
Another great purchase was my 6 inch x 48 inch
belt sander with a 12 inch disc. I use this tool every day and for a variety of
purposes including sharpening some of my lathe tools.
My 12 inch planer was used more before I
got the drum sander but I still use it quite often since I buy less expensive rough-cut
lumber or use lumber I cut from my property.
I just purchased a
new General 260 lathe. This replaced my 12 X 36 Delta
which has served me well for the past 3 years.
I use the sharpening center primarily for
sharpening lathe tools but I also use it to sharpen chisels and plane blades. Its
located next to the lathe since I sharpen quite often during turning, especially when
turning some of those exotic hardwoods that tend to dull tools quickly. General
grinding is done on a bench grinder elsewhere in the shop.
I've recently added a six-inch riser-block on my 14-inch
band saw tower to allow me to cut 12-inch thick stock. This coupled with a
log transport jig I built lets me re-saw veneers from 12-inch logs or
cut a log down the center to make turning blanks.
Because of tight space, I've opted for a 12-inch
bench mounted drill press. I built an elaborate table/fence system for the
drill press easing repetitive drilling operations and even allowing for boring
applications. Sometimes I would like to have a 16-inch floor model but for most of
what I do, the 12-inch press is sufficient.
The Craftsman 10-inch contractors saw is
fine for general woodworking but for really precision work I'm in the market for something
new. I've done a number of upgrades from installing micro-adjustable trunion bolts,
replacing the cast belt pulleys with precision turned pulleys and the belts with flex-link
belts. These changes made 100% improvement to the saw but it still has about a
10/1000 run-out in the arbor that I can't do anything about.
Shots Around the Shop:
Besides these major tools, I have accumulated
tons of hand and power tools. All sorts of belt, profile, orbital, palm,
reciprocating sanders, power drills, jig saws, chop saws, power plane and rotary tools,
etc.. All this stuff clutters the bottom of the work bench. Its the stuff that never
looks neat no matter how you try to store it short of giving each item it's own shelf
somewhere. You'll notice in one of the photos above, the work bench has no doors on
it and there are three drawers missing. I only built this bench about four years ago
so you can understand why its not completed yet. Some jobs just take a long time.
Jigs
Over the years, out of necessity or convenience,
I've built a number of jigs and fixtures to aid in the building process. Some of
these jigs are pictured and described in the jigs page of this
website.
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