Losing your shop, what would you do, how would you feel?

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
5,060
What if you were faced with losing your shop, having to pack up all your tools and put them away for an unknown amount of time. What would you do? How would you feel?

It's your man cave, your fortress of smithitude, studio, shop, barn, workshop,


home.
 
Would be upset to say the least!!

I have to move almost every 2 years as part of myjob so I have to make do with whatever I can get. Just part of the military life for me.
 
I do it about once a year. I'm in the military so I live shop to shop, some are better than others. The current one sucks! I have a bunch of stuff in storage. Next month I'll move again, and see my beloved storage stuff just long enough to put it back in storage and go to Iraq! I think I'm going to bring a C clamp, file and a few blanks with me to Iraq. Gotta have a shop, right?
 
Whit said:
I do it about once a year. I'm in the military so I live shop to shop, some are better than others. The current one sucks! I have a bunch of stuff in storage. Next month I'll move again, and see my beloved storage stuff just long enough to put it back in storage and go to Iraq! I think I'm going to bring a C clamp, file and a few blanks with me to Iraq. Gotta have a shop, right?
Click to expand...

Whit, see if someone can give you some plans for a forge using diesel/JP8 as a fuel!!! Get clay from the locals and find am anvil or something and go to town!! Your terps can help get the stuff for you!!
 
This is just theoretical, right, Sam? It's blasphemy I tell you but after my divorce I did just that. Packed all my stuff and gave it to a buddy to "store". He still has all my old tools, never got around to getting them back. But that was before my knifemaking days, most of that stuff was for wood and auto. Would like to have my hydraulic press and table saw back though...hmmmm. Might have to make a call tomorrow.
 
Being down like I have been for the last couple of years has been a drag.I get the bug to get in the shop and at least I am lucky enough to still have it set up so I can go itch that bug.Complete shut down would suck.Whit,bet you will still enjoy the knife work even with the primitive set up,Thanks for your service to our country.

Bruce
 
Sam,
Why do you ask? I hope it is a theoritical question.....
Loose my shop? OK and loose the fly tying stuff and area also....what the heck...and loose the only woman I completely have loved and been married to for very close to 40 years.......
I'd rather die than loose the lady.....and be almost, at least partially upset if I lost the shop/in house shop/ fly tying area and supplies.....
I hope your question is completely theoritical!!!!!!!!
 
I would make sure to keep a few files and a pile of sand paper out! Where theres a will theres a way!
 
Make miniatures !! Sam, There's plenty of room where you work ,even if you had to put the forge outside !
 
my shop is basically a garage that was expanded and turned into a guest house , then into a woodworking shop and now a knifemaking / machine shop. Last summer I made my mother in law an offer , she could move from PA and I would convert the shop back into a guest house. Would I miss it , sure , but somethings are just more important in the grand scheme of life. She declined , but she knows it's still an open offer.

I still would find a way to make knives though... :)
 
Last year I did lose my house and shop. Skyrocketing taxes, oil and gas prices combined with employeers that would not give raises finally took it's toll. One of the last ditch efforts to avoid foreclosure was to sell some of my shop tools. Foreclosure was avoided (sale went through days before the deadline) but now I am starting from the beginning, again.

I guess I lost my shop months before the house. The need to work two full time jobs hours away from my house outweighed the desire to forge and grind. It did not take the sting away when tools had to be sold and packed away.

The loss of the shop, house, hobby and everything else finally took it's toll on the move to Maine. I had no desire to do anything, read anything, visit Bladeforums or anything else. I had given knifeloving up.

This story does have a happy ending in the works:

Life did turn around in a couple of months when I found a job that paid twice as much as I was making before, we moved again into an apartment next to where I work and bills started to get paid. We got a refund check that we weren't expecting and my fantastic, beautiful and extremely smart wife had found a friend that would let me set up shop in his garage. That is when she asked if I'd like to buy a new grinder specifically for knifemaking.

Now, the bug is back with a better grinder. More steel is on it's way and the new workshop is almost ready to wire 220v. There is alot of work before knives can be forged again but I now see the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming at me.
 
I currently am without a shop. I had a pretty good shop at my last house but the house was too small for my growing family. We are in a rental house now and the house is great but there isn't a good spot for a shop. The garage is also built into a den. Not having a shop sucks because I get off work at one o'clock in the afternoon and I have plenty of free time. For now, I have taken up collecting slip-joints to ease the pain.
 
Please tell me this is just for grins, right Sam?

I'd be devastated, being that my shop is in the garage attached to my house. However, it is a reality that I have had to contemplate from time to time, as we have been on the economic rollercoaster from hell. If we lose the place, it won't be for lack of trying everything to hold on.

However, I've decided that if things should go soutn and I do lose my shop, and the house attached to it, I'd rent a 10' x 10' storage bin in one of those self storage places, and set up shop in there.

Most of those paces in my area don't have an office or video monitoring, so there isn't going to be anyone around to tell me "hey,. you can't do that in here!"


10 by 10 isn't much of an area, but if I do one step at a time, I can put all of the tools I won't be using today in the corner, and pull out only the essentials for the current operation.

This has the added advantage of running lights and equipment on THEIR electric bill. Which means electric salt tanks might just be in order!
 
Ok for some of you guys with no shop room now or are about to lose shop space....Old school buses are cheap and have lots of room to make a portable shop in and can always be sold again when the new shop is up and running or makes a great storage bulding.If you dont think the neighbors will like a bus in your yard then get a old camp trailer,it can be towed to a camp ground and you can make knives at the lake (hehehe)the neighbors wont say much about a trailer in your driveway if it is cleaned up on the outside.I rent and have had to make sure my shop could be moved and have a bus the main shop is one of theose buildings that they can deliver and thus pick back up and move to a new place and I just pulled in a old airstream trailer to make a clean room out of.The cool thing about using a trailer is that some apartments will even let you park them in the parking lot thus a ectension cord on the way out to it andnot to much noise late at night will keep you working,a portable generator will keep the power on in the shop ( trailer also)...Just some ideas for you guys,I hate the thought of someone loosing the shop completely,I have been having a ruff enough time not being able to use mine much due to health,but I aint giving up yet...
Bruce
 
Bruce (and everyone else) thanks for the advice! I just so happen to have a trailor available to do this in...

Between the wife and I we make a bit over 100k a year but cant seem to keep our heads above water (we currently live in a double wide!) Things have been very depressing for me/us for a long while now... If you are religious (like I am) please say some prayers for us... I have had my second major surgery (stupid back!) in 2 months and its killin us ffinancially..

Thanks everyone! :)

Striga
 
Hope things pick up for you soon....You can just tell the neighbors that your remodeling the trailer and someday it might get finished (LOL) and when you get a new shop then you can actually do the remodel and start camping again.....If you got the will you can always find a way!

Good Luck,
Bruce
 
Whit,

I've been in your shoes! For the last 5-6 years of my military career, the military was always getting in the way of my knifemaking. I was lucky enough to spend my last several years stationed at the same base, but the TDYs were like I was moving every 6 months to a year. When I was at home station I would come in the driveway at the end of the day, taking my uniform off as I walked to the house from the truck, put on my jeans and boots, grab a bologna sandwich, and go to the shop until 10-11pm every night.

The biggest shop move was from Arkansas to Montana. I let "Uncle Sugar" move the household stuff, but when it came to the shop, I rented the largest Uhaul I could find, along with a trailer, loaded the entire shop, and drove it to Montana myself. Once we found a house, and the movers got our stuff delivered, I put each box in the room the wife wanted, and then said "I gotta build a shop!" Its kinda blurry, but I don't think I saw my wife, except to sleep, for the next three weeks. (thats all the time I had before I had to report in). That shop lasted for several years, and the year before I retired, we built a new shop. Now a days I get up in the morning and walk about 20 yards out my back door to my "office". I can't imagine having to pack up the shop and move now....it would take a couple of semi-trucks, a 10k fork lift, and a 1/2 dozen people just to get it loaded.
 
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