Shop Tour

My first workshop was the kitchen table. My wife was very forbearing on this but everything had to be done by dinner time! My second workshop was a small contractor's cabin (10 feet square) which had been dragged onto my property. I know everybody says this, but I really did have to open my window to be able to cut long boards. My third workshop was a nice semi-enclosed basement area with tall ceilings and a great covered cement pad outside for fresh-air work. Unfortunately, this was below my wife's office and so often I had to creep about while she was seeing clients upstairs!

We now live on the slopes of Edwards Mountain, just above Cub Creek in Chatham County. My wife was extremely gracious in allowing me to build the shop of my dreams in 2001. I have a 24 by 32 foot shop with one corner enclosed for an office and with sufficient room upstairs for a craft room (where I conduct my annual Toys for Tots workshops and where my wife and I often have neighborhood craft parties). Since I am shop-proud, please bear with me as I show off some details of my shop:

Exterior view of my shop. The builders wanted to cut down the trees flanking my shop, but these trees have had a long and fruitful life and who am I to take that from them?

Dedication Plaque. On the door above the entrance to the shop is a plaque that was signed by everyone that had anything to do with the construction of my shop—a constant reminder of the power of community.

A View to the Outside. This is the down slope side of the shop, looking towards Cub creek. The cabinets for this side bench were from a microbiology laboratory at Duke University that was being renovated. The cabinets were made in the early 1960s, and are made of hard maple. The "secondary wood" in the drawers is bird's eye maple (!). Each bank of cabinets cost $25.

Office Area. The office was an afterthought. As the framers were waiting for additional materials one day, I mentioned that at sometime in the future I would put an office in one corner. By the time I returned, they had framed in this office space using leftover 2X4s! The desk area is constructed using the same stash of microbiology cabinets.

Wall o'planes. This is a view of some of my handplanes. Initially this was plenty of space, but now I am having to jam them up between the ceiling joists and am contemplating more shelf area in my office.

Turning Center. This is a Delta 1642 lathe with a Baldor motor and a 24 position indexing head. Both the headstock and tailstock are adjustable and the headstock can be rotated as well. The cabinetry was designed and built by myself.

Workbench. I built the German style workbench (left) in 1988. Everyone predicted that I would not be able to use it for work but keep it for display. Wrong! I am embarrassed to say that they are some errant router cuts in the top as well as plane and chisel gouges. I built a deadman on one side for long and wide boards, and then added a two-sided set of cabinet drawers below for chisels, spokeshaves, files and rasps. The second workbench (right) is based on the Ruobo bench, with the addition of two antique bench screws that had been in my basement for years. The workbench is designed to be taken down and transported for demonstrations, etc. The undercarriage is assembled with mortise and tenon joinery, and the top fits into dovetail/tenon posts in the legs to draw the whole assembly together. I made this bench out of poplar so that I could easily move it around.

Sharpening Bench. Here I have a dedicated sharpening area, with a granite plate for flattening my stones, storage above and in drawers below for stones and other supplies, and plenty of light and paper towels. I keep a bucket of water to the left for rinsing my stones during sharpening process.

Tablesaw station. Space is at a premium in my shop, so all of my tools roll around. I designed this station so that I could have all of my blades and tablesaw fixtures and accessories at hand, wherever I positioned the tablesaw. The method of attachment of the wings to the tablesaw base was my own design and very effective.

Mitersaw station. I designed this station with fold-up wings so that I could have as much as 8 feet of support for long boards, or as little as 2.5 feet, and be able to roll the station around. Note the numerous adjustable board stops, one with micro adjust. My mitersaw is my workhorse in the shop.

Drillpress station. This drill press table was my own design, adapted from a variety of similar designs I had seen in magazines and in other shops.

Sanding Station. My sanding station is a Grizzly 6" belt/12" disk sander combination, mounted on a mobile base, but in fact always rests here. All of my sanding tools are here, including hand-held power sanders of various sorts, sandpaper, discs and sanding blocks.

Grinding Station. The grinding station is used for my lathe tools, and to shape blades. I have a slow speed grinder on the right side with a Wolverine setup and a high-speed grinder on the left which I have attached to a slide-out base so that I can get the grinder out in front for easy access for whatever I am working on. The drawers contain additional stones, guards and various tool holders. A Veritas grinder rest is positioned in front of one of the slow speed grinder wheels, but can be positioned in front of any of the wheels.

Router Tables. I have two router tables, one of which was grandfathered in from many years ago and has an Elu variable speed router with an Incra fence attachment. The second (my Cadillac!) is a mobile table designed to accommodate my Jessem-designed router table fixtures. I have a 3 hp Porter Cable router in this table. Note that both have dust collection ports and tool-activated switches that I can plug a light and/or a vacuum into.

Spindle Sander (right) and Planing Stations (left). Most of my major tools are on locking wheels so that I can position them to maximum effect. The planer is usually taken outside onto the deck so that the shavings can be swept right out onto my shavings pile.