It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a shop tour, and much has changed. While I did a live stream a few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good time to do a more structured tour. Thanks for watching!
Category: Shop Tour
I Did a Livestream Recently: “Social From Afar” – Hang Out and Informal Shop Tour
So my first live stream had some tech glitches. This was a very informal shop tour, and being live stream is a little rough around the edges. A more produced one is coming! At the end the YouTube chat didn’t refresh for me so I wrapped up thinking no further questions. Thanks John and Josh for letting me know. I got back to them after we wrapped up. Stay safe folks!
Shop Tour 2015 & What’s on the Bench
It’s been quite some time since my last video, and even longer since my last shop tour. As mentioned in my last post, 2015 hasn’t seen much shop time until just the last couple of months.
A lot has changed in the shop in that time. Now that I’ve been getting back into the shop, I wanted to show you around, and give you a quick update on a coffee table I’ve resumed working on.
I changed up the format a bit from my last videos, let me know what you think!
Shop Updates Since The Video Tour
When I posted the Intro and Shop Tour video, I had some plans on how I could improve the shop. Since that video, I’ve been able to do a few things in the shop to get things further organized. I thought now might be a good time to share some of those updates.






Video Introduction & Shop Tour
After doing a couple of “alpha” test videos with the Narex chisel videos I did, I thought it would be cool to start adding video content more consistently to The Wood Lab blog. Here is the introduction to this video series, and then cap it off with a tour of my shop! Let me know what you think!
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!
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.