Shop Tour April 2009

One thing I’ve always been bad at in the past is taking “before” shots before starting a project around the house. I figured now though, I would have a shop tour early on in this blog, and down the road as I hopefully update the shop, I could do another shop tour and see the difference between now and later.

One of the biggest challenges of my particular shop is that I have to be creative on where I place my tools. My house was built in 1860, and the basement has plenty of spots where you have to duck your head to avoid ductwork, pipes, etc.

What better way though to start a shop tour with a picture of my “May ‘The Schwarz’ Be With You” shirt!

This is one of the first things I built for the shop when we bought our house in 2002. As the family “IT Guy”, I wanted a bench to be able to open computers and work on them.

Just behind the computer bench is my floor drill press, with a bit of a mess in front of it.

Turning around 180 degrees from the drill press, you see my benchtop bandsaw, workbench and pegboard. On the portable stand to the right of the bench is my mitre saw.

To the right of the workbench and pegboard is the air compressor, with some shelves I am in the process of completing to store tools.

Turning back toward the bandsaw, are some shelves for tool storage as well as a radio with aux input setup for my iPod (gotta have tunes!).

Between the air compressor and the shelves leads to the second half of the basement where the “big tools” are… although that is just a jointer, contractor style table saw, and dust collector. This area has less of the ductwork, etc and therefore has more headroom.

Turning right from the jointer is the table saw and dust collector.

A view from the other end of the second half of the basement. The open area is where I plan to put a planer.

And turning slightly to the left, another shot of the dust collector and table saw.

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