I don’t have any real shop space to call my own. I don’t even have a garage, or a place to put one. For the moment, I plan to do any simple shop tasks at my Dad’s place, snaking extension cords in his old ‘cold storage.’ Despite the name, a space heater will make for ‘warm workspace.’
The setup is far from ideal, and Dad isn’t 100% enthusiastic about the idea of me comandeering his temperature-controlled storage space, and getting it all dusty.
I’m thinking of looking for a house with a large lot in a bad part of town and building something in the back yard. Time will tell.
What was your first shop?
Edited 1/7/2008 8:58 pm ET by Biff_Loman
Replies
10'x12' steel shed in a trailer park when I was 12.
Had a sears 7 1/2" yes, half inch, circ saw plunged through a hunk of ply wood and a clamped on 1x3 for a fence. A stanley 60 1/2 block plane and a 3/4" stubby chisel. A 1/4 sears drill and I was all set.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
"Success is not spontaneous combustion, you have to set yourself on Fire"
"Had a sears 7 1/2" yes, half inch, circ saw plunged through a hunk of ply wood and a clamped on 1x3 for a fence."
Hey! So that's where MY table saw went!
LOL -- Same as me. Even down to the Craftstman "guts". Had strips of black electrical tape on the top to give me a reference for parallel to the blade so I could clamp the fence without binding the blade.
Actually, worked OK for what I needed it for -- ripping a ton of sheet goods.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I don't know about "first", but my Dad and I turned out a lot of cabinets and countertops from a basement shop. When it was worm, we built countertops in the back yard on horses (or whatever other horizontal surface was handy).
Don't fall for magazine/media hype. The issue is not how fancy your shop is. The focus is what the work looks like that comes out of the "shop". Nobody's going to ask for photos of the shop if the work looks good.
What do you really need? Protection from the elements. Source of power. Solid, flat work surface. Place to store tools, supplies and material. Peace and quiet? As far as going to a less desirable part of town, I think you should be careful. Tools are hard to replace and if you are not part of the community, they disappear, forever, too often.
Good luck.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
A 14' box truck, with a long extension cord ( or two)
I lived in a trailer, two bedroom.
Slept in the smaller one so the "shop" could be bigger.
It was a major step up from living in a Ford Mustang. -;)
At this point, I'll play the "net worth" game with anyone.
Lost alot of nose to the grindstone - ;)
Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
I too am still waiting for my first shop. My shop has been my driveway where I have built several kitchens, furniture, built-in cabinets and stairs. I want a shop. Tell my wife I deserve a shop.
Pop's garage and Grandma's basement.
30 x 40 shop that built beside the house in the early seventies. I would kill to have it now. The place I have now, the lot isn't big enough and if I built it in the only possible spot it would completely block the view of the ocean and the mountains and no shop is worth that.
roger
You all know my first (and only shop).
"I'd rather be a hammer than a nail"
In 1976 I found a house that had been empty for a few years. I made an offer and wound up trading improvements to the house for roughly four years rent.
There was an old barn that I turned into a shop. The space was about 600 sqr ft, stone cold on a cold day, and I had to run cords to have any power. But hey, it had a roof and was out of the wind.
"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."
~ Voltaire
Is there any place that you could rent as opposed to moving into the bad part of town? Nothing good will come of that.
Is there any co-op type shops around? Shops that you can join others and share the costs? Rent space from a large shop?
Don't know what your situation is but I built a lot of cabinets and assorted other things in my basement starting out, is that an option?
Doug
depends on the bad part of town and Biff.
my bud the mechanic ... stopped renting his multibay garage because the better his business got, the higher his rent went.
he moved out and we built a 2 car garage right off his house.
he still lives in the town I grew up in ... it was always bad ... now it's ghetto.
but it suits him just fine ... 'cause U can't run an autobody / mechanic's shop outta yer house in the subburbs!
anywhere else he'd be shut down ...
in the ghetto ... he's an upstanding businessman and asset to the community.
as a bonus ... when the crack house directly across from his garage doors burned ...
he bought the property for a nickle and fenced it in as overflow storage.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
depends on the bad part of town .........
Yea, makes sense! What I think of as the bad part of town may not be the same for Biff.
Doug
driveway and two sawhorses. Current shop is in the barn, which is attached to the house. Twenty steps from the kitchen and I'm at work. Problem is sometimes it's TO close. Hard to get things done when the kids and their friends are coming in every half hour and asking "Watcha doin', can we help?". "We need some wood", "Do you have any duct tape?", and my favorite (my mistake for showing them this), "Can we race your belt sanders again?"
Yeah, you guys are getting me to see the light. I think I'll push the cold storage idea as far as Dad will let me. Compared to what you're describing, it's a palace. I still can't figure out why he's so hesitant.
" I still can't figure out why he's so hesitant. "
Maybe because it is his and not yours.
I have always been shop heavy. And usually have owned more than one. Even as a hobby my brother and I have a 2k SF machine and weld shop.
My first business shop was a 25' X 30' 2 story block shop behind a house. I bought the house and rented it out and got the shop for the business. Later I moved to where we are now, 5500 SF and later this month we will be moving to 18k SF. I certainly could do with less. But I like space and rehabbing them is fun too. DanT
I like your way of thinking!
back porch and the yard...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
RAS in the garage, and some hand tools. Circa 1973. RAS can crosscut, rip, cut moldings, do dados, horizontal boring, and scare the #### out of you when doing most of these.
Edited 1/8/2008 8:58 am ET by Gene_Davis
I'm still in it. Single car attached garage. Space is limited and I have to share it with the garbage can and recycling bins, and dog food bin, and excess cases of pop that my wife doesn't want in the house.
Apart from the cramped quarters and the fact that it is always snowing or raining when I working on something that is too big to work on inside the garage, it's great.
I have old kitchen cabinet bases as my bench. No partical board here. The whole thing is made of 5/8" plywood. With a Lazy Susan (also made of plywood) that holds all my stock of screws and nails etc. Peg board all around.
It's organized, just small.
When I was a young buck we were always on the road, so it was usually in the house we were working on. Dad, 1 or 2 of my brothers, 1 or 2 hired men and me in a 24' mobile traveler camper. Prodigious amounts of beer made it tolerable. Never have had a proper shop, my shop space now is our unfinished basement or whatever room I'm working in at the time. O.K. if its a dead end, but a P.I.T.A. if you need to get to the next room to live. This fall I picked up a 14x20 garage and moved it across town to the house, set it on a pad and have high hopes of using it to work in rather than just as storage. Not sure how thats going to work though, when we moved in I moved an old chicken coop to the house to store the mower and yard tools, (no garage) and the only thing that sits outside now is my mower-that doesn't bode well.
A fully equipped cabinet shop, concrete block building about 24 40, with attached but separate office (toilet room as well) and paint room. Came equipped with dust collection, a 12"Parks planer, Comet 12" RAS, Old Delta reversible shaper. First big purchase was a 10" 3 hp. Powermatic table saw.
I was 23 yrs. old, bought it with two partners in 1973 for $12,000. Owned it for 12 years and I never made a set of cabinets!
My first shop like alot of folks was part of a garage and the driveway. My current shop I poured a 30 x 40 slab. I did my first job on the slab and covered my tools and wood with tarps each night. I actually built the shop around my tools and supplies.
I've been planning on having a real shop space for most of my life. In the mean time the shop is wherever me and the tools are, preferably inside a new build on a wood floor but usually in a garage.
Currently I'm set up on a modest sized covered patio with some garage workspace for the mechanical stuff and the alley when needed.
So I guess I've learned to live without a permanent shop space. That's OK for what I do. The idea of paying property taxes and HO insurance on a big hobby shop doesn't really appeal to me anyway.
I'm better off with a garage space that can be converted easily to suit whatever project comes up. Leaving the truck outside isn't a big deal when the tools are all in the garage.
1/2 of a 10'X30 tractor shed that I built out here in '85. Had a damn portable Sears saw, Sears DP, Sears router, and a Jet 6" jointer. Still got the jointer but the others are trot-line weights.
THATS where I learned to use luan slab doors for glue-ups...
Small 1 car garage..I actually got more done there with less then I do now
Been a celler dweller for 26 years.
I do rent a local garage(about a mile away) to store some material and my Harley.
Most of the work I do is on site.
I'd love to have an old barn.
MJC Woodworks
"Gentle to the touch, exquisite to contemplate, tractable in creative hands, stronger by weight than iron, wood was, as William Penn had said,"a substance with a soul.'"
Eric Sloane
Edited 1/8/2008 6:12 pm ET by mjcwoodworks
My first shop was 1300sqft commercial, then moved up to a 2700sqft
Recession hit. Moved into a friends shop and paid rent that he never sent to the landlord. got my tools out just in time.
Then moved it into my 2 car garage. neighbors weren't happy.
Bought a house on 2 1/2 acres. bilt a 26x50 with no permits. three years later added 26x25 Again, with no permits and got nailed a week later by the building dept. The fine was $65.00 Sold it 5 years later
Moved to Washing and built a 27x75 "gagarge" with a 20x14 loft. Sold it 2 years later
Moved back to Calif and bought a house with a 2 car garage with a flat roof that leaks everywhere(not disclosed by seller, but I had an idea it did) Still own it.
moved again to a home with a 3car garage and set up shop there.
Ready to give it all up again, and start over...
Think small, try a '58 IH schoolbus... 30'er. Black and Decker 8" radial arm saw was the heart... sheet of ply just fit through the front door, 16'ers went in through the window, the back out to cut the other end... a couple of rips went through the back of the bus, too!I've gone downhill though, shop is in the crawlspace now... it's not so bad turning at the lathe with kneepads<G> Winterlude, Winterlude, my little daisy,
Winterlude by the telephone wire,
Winterlude, it's makin' me lazy,
Come on, sit by the logs in the fire.
The moonlight reflects from the window
Where the snowflakes, they cover the sand.
Come out tonight, ev'rything will be tight,
Winterlude, this dude thinks you're grand.