The Shop (a first look)

When I moved to Washington, the place we bought had a garage with an attached shop area, and I’d been thinking about setting up a woodshop again, so that quickly became the plan. What I did not expect was for the shop to take almost a year to finally get to the point where it’s usable as a shop, instead of being a shop space that needs to be built out and organized.

The shop is about 13x15, a nice but not huge space. Along one wall is a large built in workbench, and the back wall was covered top to bottom with hardboard pegboard, which I don’t love. It has its own sub-panel and multiple circuits accessible from outlets around the shop.

While I initially thought the shop wouldn’t need much work to make useful, it turns out I was wrong. The electricity was all 220V, and I plan on using 110V machinery. The lighting was poor, also, but these were both fixed by bringing in an electrician, so I now have multiple 20 amp circuits, and bright, modern LED lighting.

I quickly ran into storage issues, where ultimately every flat surface turned into a mass of stuff dumped on it because I had no place to put it. I also came to realize that workbench, while really nice and well built, was built for a taller person and didn’t work for me. This ultimately made me start working towards making it my shop, rather than moving into a shop built for someone else.

To deal with the storage, I bought a couple more rolling storage carts and work stables, including a nice, big one from Husky. That turned out to be its own problem, because delivery was almost two weeks late and with no notice I came home to have it sitting in a driveway, at which point I realized I had a 300 pound thing in a box that was too heavy for me to lift. I did get it into the garage using a box dolly to lift each side and slip a furniture dolly under it, but it then sat in the garage for a few weeks while I tried to figure out how to get it on the side to install the casters without blowing out my back or having it fall on me and kill me.

I ultimately solved the problem with a car jack, which let me lift it to the point I could get it on the end and get the casters installed, and then tilt it back onto its wheels by dropping it the last couple of feet and hoping it was strong enough to handle that (it was). That allowed me to start putting some of the stationary machines in place, and start getting stuff into drawers.

A couple of weeks ago I realized I had hit a point where if I spent time pulling everything out of wherever I’d stuck it to get out of the way, and organize it and start putting stuff into at least their first home, I could make the shop useful — so I’ve spend the last couple of weekends sorting, storing and labelling.

And while there’s still work to do — when is there not? — I am finally at a point where I like the layout and now all I need to do is finish calibrating a couple of the machines and it’ll be ready to actually build something in. To celebrate that, let’s take a quick look at how it’s laid out right now.

At the entrance, I’ve decided the doors will mostly stay open between the shop and garage, so in front of one of the doors is one of the toolboxes I picked up to give me more storage. In it are most of my commonly used hand tools: screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets, pliers, hammers, etc. Attached to the other door is a metal pegboard panel where I’ve placed my PPE and safety gear, so it’s always very easy to get to and in plain view.

You can see the table saw from here, a DeWalt contractor saw. I had to change my original plan for where it lived because the stand it’s on has outriggers that stick out, and I was always worrying about them being a trip hazard. This setup gives me good access to all sides of the saw and good infeed and outfeed clearance to move stock through it, and as a bonus, the dust collector hose can be routed next to the workbench and so isn’t a trip hazard, either.

Looking behind both doors, on one side you get a good look at that workbench, which is big, heavy, solid, and a single monolithic piece. It’s also covered with dowel plugs, and yes, a metal detector confirms under each is a screw. I need to remove that bench since that’s where my workbench and lathe will be living, but I’m still figuring out the best way to chop it into pieces safely because I’m not going to be moving that as a single piece. It pretty clearly was custom built for this shop since I’ve some writing on it that I believe identifies the contractor who did the work in here. I have ideas on how best to handle this, but I haven’t finalized it yet. I do think it’ll ultimately come out in 3-4 pieces but it’s not my next project.

Behind the other door you see the sub-panel, and a nice place for my Wen air filter, which again, isn’t being attached to the ceiling because I’m one person who doesn’t want to die, and on top of it, my air compressor, which isn’t actually functional yet. I’ll be moving the compressor under when I set it up and use the top of the Wen for storage. I do have both a hose reel and an extension core reel in place here so I can move both around the shop as needed.

The left side of the shop is still a work in progress. I’ve pulledd down one side of the pegboard on the back wall and gotten one of two sets of shelves up. I’ve got a rolling rack for parts and tool storage, and yes, I use Sterilite bins to great advantage for storage. Next to that rolling cart is the dust collector, and next to it my band saw, but that isn’t, I don’t think, it’s final home. Still working out what I need to move stock through it cleanly. You also see the nice pellet stove I had installed to replace an old wood stove, and I love it. The shop is about 40F in the winter, and it warms it up nicely, and I can work out there in good comfort in a hoodie most of the dark months.

And here’s the back wall and right side of the shop. The workbench is from Rockler and it’s a nice, basic bench, and that’s where it’s living for now, but definitely not it’s final resting place. I need to pull down that pegboard and that’s where my board lumber racks will go. I’ve got two of those pegboard panels up with two more still to add (and a final sixth in a place undetermined yet). That back corner is where my sheet goods storage will be. The drill press (a Wen) and Miter saw (A Dewalt) will both live on that big Husky set of drawers. Inside those drawers are storage for my hand power tools and supplies, the drills, routers, etc. That red chest seen in the left image is another tool cabinet I’ve owned for > 20 years from craftsman, and it stores lesser used stuff that didn’t fit in the new smaller chest.

Not shown: behind me in the corner of that right picture is a toilet. I fully understand why someone might not want to traipse into the house covered in dust and shavings, but I do not understand why you might add one to the shop (it was clearly part of the building of the garage) but NOT add in a sink for washing up and cleaning. At some point I’ll bring in a plumber to see how we might add a sink in this place, but — someday.

Still to add in the next few months: a Jet lathe, and a planer and jointer, probably DeWalt. I admit to really liking the DeWalt gear, and all my powered tools (except for an old belt sander I’ll eventually replace) is a 20v Dewalt.

Short term tasks: I need to align and calibrate the band saw and table saw. I need to plumb out and get working the compressor, and then I can build stuff. As I build stuff I’ll figure out what about this setup works and doesn’t. I also need to do for my parts (screws, nails, etc) what I did to the tools, which is pull it all apart, and put it all away again with proper labels and organizations. I can’t tell you how much fun that will be.

Mid-term tasks: get up the other shelves in the upper left, get that pegboard down and the lumber racks up. Then figure out how to remove that built in bench in pieces safely.

Longer term: add in the lathe and get it fitted out and operational. I’ll add the planer and jointer when I hit a project where I really want them, or when I decide to not buy surfaced wood… I want to build a rolling table to house the table saw with a router table that doubles as an outfeed table.

There is, it turns out, a rather nice hardwood store about an hour from here in Port Townsend. It’ll keep me well stocked in good wood when I’m not building stuff that only needs wood from the big box stores…

So yeah, it’s nice to finally feel the shop is usable, but it’s far from finished. But at least I’m at a point where I can declare it functional…