I have been busy, SHOP PICs

D

Dixieblade57

Joined
Jun 20, 2007
Messages
1,361
The title of the thread more or less says it all but, let me explain in detail.

So my whole shop is in my one car garage! I have never had a car in it for the 17 years we have lived here! :eek: A fact that sometimes has not made my wife too happy! For years it was set-up to do carpentry work out of, there has been many a custom cabinet or piece of furniture been turned out in this tiny shop. After I got my back hurt I begin to put everything on wheels so I could deal with the lack of space. It allowed me too move things outside when needed.

As I got into building knives I have struggled with a shop that was set-up mostly for carpentry! I have made a lot of changes since I started building knives. Lately I have been busy making more benches and changes to make the shop more efficient for knife making! So over the last coouple of years it has gone through a big transformation. The last few months I have completed a lot of that transformtion. It is still way too small but, I am now beginning to get too the point of having things where I need them for knife making. I still have to do the shuffle at time with tools but pretty much everything is on wheels, so when the weather is good I can roll things outside when the need arises.

Here is a few pics of what I have been doing!
Click thumbnails for larger view:

When I was doing carpentry out of the garage I really had no need for benches. So this was one of the first benches I built.



As you can see it quickly filled up and the bandsaw begin to be a problem where it was. This was the solution to that.



Now my bandsaw has it's own bench/table, all I have to do is run in a new power source to that side of the garage as there is no power outlets on that side. I also need some more lighting on that side of the garage. Never enough light when your eyes get my age!

To the left of the bandsaw sits my toolbox on a rolling cart.

Directly in front of it resides my planer, not a good position but I have run out of room for the time being, and it's on wheels so easily moved if I need to.

Too the right of the bandsaw is where I like to park my forge/grinder cart.

It is in the process of reworking it with PID controlled solenoid so it is in pieces, part of it is laying on the tablesaw as you will see in the pic of the tablesaw!

Here is one of the few items that is not on wheels but is easily picked up with a dolly and moved around. This my 120# HayBudden anvil.



Now as we turn to the other side of the garage. Here is my welder it has a heavy duty extension cord that allows me too go all the way to the end of the driveway, (28)' if need be. And of course it is set-up on a wheeled cart!

I didn't get a real good pic of it but to the right of the welder you can see my floor model drill press, it is one of the few items that is not on wheels!

Somewhere under this mess is my 12" table saw. It too can be wheeled around and out the door if need be.

This is my newest bench for assembly and clean space!




So this is why I haven't been turning out any knives lately. I hope you enjoy the pics of my shop, crowded and small as it is, it's where I work!

Cliff
C Craft Customs
Milton, Fl.
 
Last edited:
Looking good Cliff. We love shop pics.
If you are like me, working on the shop is as satisfying as working on the knives...well almost. ;)
 
There is just never enough bench/floor space, power outlets or lights. I imagine if most of us had 1,000 sq ft we'd fill it up pretty quick :p
 
Cool, a better shop leads to better knives and more enjoyment in the process for me.

I spend as much time or more, on the shop as I do on knives, wish I could have started 30 yrs. ago.

Your space is looking good :thumbup:
 
Pat, sometimes I spend too much time on the shop and tools for knife making, but yeah I enjoy doing things for the shop! It is especially gratifying when the next knife I am working on and what I built comes in to play when working on a knife, whether it is a new bench or some new tool it makes the process I am doing that much easier! Kind of makes you wonder why I hadn't done this sooner!

James how true but right now I would love just too have enough room that I ain't always bumping in to something.:D

I hear that Mark! The tools are good the space................ well lets just say I could use about twice what I got right now!

The lighting thing is a battle with my eyes. They were good till about 45 and now I don't hardly work at night anymore, especially on intricate things. I just can't seem to get enough light on the subject! And forget doing anything fine or reading something without my reading glasses. Oh and lets not get into how lovely those damn things (glasses) are, constantly sliding down your nose, fogging up or sweat running across the lenses, it is enough to make you say real bad things!

The funny thing I still see great at a distance, I can still shoot a rifle out to 150yds+ with iron sights and usually hit what I am wanting too!

Anyway back too the shop thanks for the kind words guys. It's amazing what you can do with a few pieces of scrap. The metal part of the bench the bandsaw sits on use to be an old Nortatrack ski/glider machine. I was passing a dumpster one day and there it sit sticking out of the dumpster. I had a heck of a time getting it out of there by myself but I just couldn't let all that good steel go to waste. The legs are electrical conduit off a commercial job. My wife calls me a packrat but I don't know why!:eek::D
 
Nice pics, Cliff! I'm with Patrice, working on the shop is pretty fun all by itself. Not QUITE as good as making blades, but close :) I love seeing where other makers work, thanks for sharing!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top