bye, bye shop, hello mortgage!

mattd

mattd

Joined
Oct 6, 2003
Messages
252
My girlfriend and I are in the final stages of escrow and it looks like I will have to move soon. This means that I will have to give up my shop space at the home I rent now. Our new house is about an hour away from the shop so I'll have to figure something new out. There is room on our new lot for a small shop but It looks like it will be a long time befor I'll be able to build one. I would really appreciate it if my delimma would be pondered by the creative and resourceful minds of my friends here. I just don't want to over look any possibilities as I organize a way to continue my knife making. Thank you.
 
I put my stuff outside when I moved, I cover my anvil and stuff with tarps. I'd like to build a shop eventually, but until then the sky is my shop. Maybe you can share my shop ;) .
 
I don't know about out there but here you can pickup a short or long
tractor trailer box for about 1,500.00 or so

you can use that . just go by tow if you need to after that, you may want to even use it to move .
just hire any trucker with a semi to move it..there are truckers everywhere
willing to make a buck.... :)
 
10X20 portable garage =$100 bucks or so.Side wraps for the tent = another $100 or so.Use a grill cover over your anvil and machines.
Another choice is to build a small Adirondack shelter.You can use it as a smithy now,and as a picnic shelter/storage building later.You can build a nice one about 12X10 for less than $500 in a weekend.You can make two barn doors for it and open it up to work,close it up to keep the elements and kids out when you are done.Doors might add $100.I built one 16X12 at my old house and used it as a car workshop.Send me a private message and I will send you some plans.They are super easy to build.
 
Good idea Dan, I'll keep my eyes open.

Are you saying truckers are always desperate for work? :D

Awp, hopefully I'll temporarly be sharing your shop soon. Escrow sucks :barf
 
mattd said:
Good idea Dan, I'll keep my eyes open.
Are you saying truckers are always desperate for work? :D
Click to expand...

nope just looking not to dead-head it or looking to make an extra buck
can't blame them.. :)
 
My Mother told me that crime and trucking don't pay.

My father told me that he would rather have a sister who was a prostitute than a brother who was a trucker.

As life would have it, I've had my commercial driver's license for about a year now. They still love me, I think. :confused:
 
mattd said:
My Mother told me that crime and trucking don't pay.

My father told me that he would rather have a sister who was a prostitute than a brother who was a trucker.

As life would have it, I've had my commercial driver's license for about a year now. They still love me, I think. :confused:
Click to expand...

I"ve had mine for at least 25 years and only drove a very short while.
just can if I want to now :D
 
AwP, Aww you mean we was working in the same shop all this time and I never knew it? Dang I thought I had the whole outdoors to myself. Haw it happens. I guess good thing he asked about solutions..good ones here I never thought of. Now my biggest question is...why buy a house that didn't have at least a garage or basement you could keep for your own uses?( no, Really! :confused:
 
I've been building a totally enclosed workbench in my backyard. It's a pretty simple idea, powered off of a couple of extension cords, with storage down below the bench. It closes up tight for bad weather and shelters grinder, bandsaws, etc., with no water problems so far. I still keep my wood and metal in the garage where the humidity and temperature is better controlled, but I do all of my work out in the fresh air. The only downside is that my forge isn't covered and its hard to see the color of the metal. I'm still figuring that one out.
 
Sunfish, your right why the heck didn't I buy a house with a shop already there? Believe me, I did my best the the home buying situation here on the Central Coast of California is crazy!!! I did find one house with a shop but it was older and smaller and $60,000 more. I just couldn't do it and I can't shop around for ever. I knew that AWP would lend me space in his shop until I figure out what I'm going to do. You have a very good point, I just couldn't do it.
 
OH man you are caught up in a area thats very crazy. My sister bought a house in Paso Robles in 1990 now she's got a couple in Atascadero. The first one she begged and buggereed them down to just under $100,000.00. She must have been convincing or they were in a hurry to turn it into money. It was an inheritence to them and little more . They were obviously not savvy. I feel for you and I understand..it didn't occur to me. I see some good suggestions like I said before...I like your idea Grawulf. I am going to look into this I usually spend discretionary money on steel, belts or micarta. I have to say the best thing I could do is just quit making and save until I can go to a school and then I could take years off the learning curve for self taught and catch up to the ones making and selling quality. The good news is it wouldn't be hard for you to travel to Visalia, CA and attend Sierra fire and Forge knifemaking college! :D :D :D MattD I hope we can visit each other next time I am down that way ...all my family is there and I am the only one in Idaho, but both sides of my family moved the clans to CALif. back in the '60's before I was born. I'm just bringing the family back :D
 
ssunfish said:
AwP, Aww you mean we was working in the same shop all this time and I never knew it? Dang I thought I had the whole outdoors to myself. Haw it happens. I guess good thing he asked about solutions..good ones here I never thought of. Now my biggest question is...why buy a house that didn't have at least a garage or basement you could keep for your own uses?( no, Really! :confused:
Click to expand...

I thought I noticed someone in one of those corners of the shop I'm not using :D . Where I live garages are pretty rare, most people have to park on the street. I do have a basement for my grinding, but I don't want to forge down there, I think I got a few years left I want to use first.
 
Basement Forging?????? Dang yeah that would be Jackass style knifemaking!
So what do you do when its snowy and subzero to keep from scraping ice till you are late to work? On an aside do you go to Koval Knives alot? I saw they had mill run O1 tool steel but when I ordered and paid for it they said it was no longer avalible. I hate to think of all the bars of mill run O1 that guys bought thinking they'd do something with it and then it is just sitting there rusting :mad:
 
When it's snowy and cold, as long as snow isn't actually falling from the sky at that moment, I just put on a coat until I start getting hot. By the time I'm done for the day I'll usually just be in a longjohn shirt (yes, and pants and shoes before one of you jokers mentions it). I do have a fence that blocks wind though.

I don't go to Koval "alot" but I do go there, mostly for belts and handle material, I get my O1 from toolanddie since they have round stock which I prefer to flat. I did get a short bar of their O1 before I started using toolanddie, and a bar of 1095. I used up most of the O1 but have hardly touched the 1095 yet.
 
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