My shop makes me smile!

A

Alden Sherrodd

Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
241
Does anyone elses share my feelings? Whenever I enter my shop I feel delighted.:thumbup: After many years of improvised situations I built my dream shop in recent years. When I go in there I am surrounded by most of the inanimate objects I have gathered in my lifetime that make me happy. :)
When I am not able to spend time in there, when I enter I feel like that is where I should be.
I have been curious lately whether others experience this?
I really love my shop, and thank my wife for allowing me to indulge myself.:thumbup:
Alden
 
Funny that you should post this as I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I look forward every day to getting out to my shop and plotting out what I want to do next.

I think I like the fact that I get to decide what I want to do next and when I start and finish the day.

After earning 37.5 years of service credit I look back at that huge investment of years as the payment for the love I have from my wife and kids and the down payment for many, many years of being able to do what I want to do instead of what I have to do.

I have never gone back to any of the Post Offices I worked in as a Manager or really associated with any past employees. That was work and I was a much different person at work than I really was inside. At times I didn't think I would survive until I got to retire. The nightmares about having to go back to work have nearly stopped....
 
My shop is far from what I would love it to be....Time and money will fix that. I love what I have right now though and enjoy just about every minute I spend in there, even when I burn some flesh or remove some at the grinder.
 
glad im not the only wierdo out there:D

when i used to walk in to my forge shop, it was like i just left the world as i new it and went off to some distant land,the dark little 1 windowed building, had the smell of the old coal fire from the eve before, charred wood that i used to build the coal fire, wet damp dirt floor, even when i went to propane those smells still lingered. I truley miss that smell and the feeling i got walking into that building.

Only thing i dont miss about thatforge shop was opening my vermiculite in the winter and finding little field mice all huddled up in the corner of the box to stay warm.(sometimes that'll really scare the he!! outta ya:eek:)

And for the finishing shop, it was the same way, i could loose my self out there in the evenings, and next thing ya know.....oh sh** i got to get ready for work, and it would be the next day already, and i'd be scrambeling to shower up and get out the door.

I havent been alive long enough to claim i have had my equiptment for 20-30 yrs, but the years that i have owned a lot of my equiptment, i have formed a very close bond with. as strange as it may seem, and when i work amongst these lifeless hunks of iron and steel, i feel so at ease, and content with life , no matter whats going on outside the shop walls.

sorry i guess i could have summed it up with a quick "i agree", but i get carried away at times.......andrew
 
My "shop" isn't going to impress any of ya'll but I know the feeling. The best news is that it's an attached heated garage and here in Michigan, that's a very good thing.
And with the TV, iPod, and beer, it's where I spend most of my waking hours after work and on week-ends....and the very best news is the wife don't mind at all....she knows where I am.:thumbup:
 
I'm with you guys, and I don't think it's weird at all. It's good for any person to have a safe place where they can have some control of what goes on, and escape from the other worries of life for a bit.

As Reddrummd said, we spend so much of our lives struggling to do what we have to do, from school to work to chores, etc. If we have free time, we owe it to ourselves to do something constructive that helps us feel a bit more at peace. I know so many people whose entire lives go like this: work, supper, stare at the TV or sit in the tavern, sleep, repeat. I honestly feel a bit sorry for them. If I couldn't play guitar, write, draw or make something with my hands I think I would lose my mind...
 
It may sound weird and specific, but the florescent task light over the work bench really brings back nice nostalgic memories of working on little projects with my dad in the basement as a child. Maybe if cleaned it the rest of the shop will make me feel that way too :)
 
I remember my first shop that was really actually mine. It was a tiny little building next to the trailer I lived in while going to school. I liked to go in there.

Soon after I assembled a maintenance shop for the company I worked for as an intern (I never served an apprenticeship, I was technically an intern) and I spent most of my time in there, in a deserted part of the building, working alone and being left alone, a young hack machinist. Do you ever feel uncomfortable when you're in front of a lot of people and feel self-conscious? Kinda makes you walk stiff? When that happens to me I imagine I'm back in that shop, my first real machine shop (though it wasn't really mine of course) and I feel comfortable again.

My wife and I built my next shop when we moved down to Georgia. Before it was built I had my first mill in a little barn near the house. After it was built I got my first CNC. I still have it, in fact it is out there running this very minute. I have a picture of me, still in my early 20s, out there leaning against my shiny new (to me) mill sitting on the concrete in a half dirt floor shop.

My next shop was the nicest. Large, clean with a painted epoxy floor, two AC units, big lathe, four mills (3 cnc), lots of light and well organized. But I didn't hang out in there much, it was work to me and I don't miss it so much.

I do like my current shop, though I haven't formed as much attachment to it as the older ones. But I'm starting to now that I've taken up knifemaking.
 
Alden,

I read your post and felt like we are living paralell lives. I just got my very own shop space after many years of improv' as well. As a matter of fact, the shop space was a major factor in our decision to buy the house we are currently in. I don't think a whole battalion of motivated Marines could pry me loose of this place. Heck, I'm leaning against a 75 year old elm writing this while I enjoy a quiet sunday afternoon just outside my shop. I'm with you, this is an incredible feeling!

Great post! It really made me feel lucky to be where I am right now!

Rick
 
Alden, I remember a couple years ago you were telling me about the cabinets in your shop. It must be spectacular if the rest is as good. Would you mind posting some pictures of it? We need a good drooling session.
 
i wanted to add to my post a little in saying, that I to agree with Keith H, in that working down the shop reminds me also of time spent with my father as a child. He used to build radio controled planes, with lil gas engines and all, and we reloaded tons of shells together, as well as many of my own rediculous projects.

also my first shop was in the house i had bought, i had a bench in the basement, and a couple cabinets, lot of time spent there, but it was no shop, so i decided to use the 10x10 shed that was on the property as a forge shop concrete floors and one dim light bulb.

Then once I out grew that i added another 8x10' onto that and left the floor dirt, and moved the power hammer in. I then added a 20'x30' attached garage, and living space above. I laid claim to one half of that garage for my finishing shop. My surface grinder still sets there, and the 2 work benches i built out of all the left over wood from the addition. I had a huge wood burner out there that heated the upstairs that i burnt coal mostly in, man i miss that smell!!

I currently work out of the basement of a deplex I rent, with a work area of about 12x14' max, and everything is really crammed together, and my boy has a small bench next to mine. Out front i have an anvil out front on a stump that was there and a gas forge that i built.

It's a very mediocre shop at best, but i guess it's not where the shop is, or what you use inside it that matters, it's what comes out of it that counts.
 
I've got a shop that ain't a shop. I have to travel to get to forges and anvils and grinders and I don't get to go much. I walk into my shop and it's not one. It's a storage room. It could be a shop but it's not finished and only the gods know when that will happen. In one of the corners there is a wood workers bench with a luthiers vise on it (Sarah builds musical instruments). She has let me use it. I've got my stuff stacked all over the floor space near it. I've got me a nice big metal trash can I can turn into a table with some heavy cardboard. The walk to the shop is such a treat. I open the door and there is my corner. I turn on the overhead bench light, click on the work light at the vise and start nosing around for "what do I want to do today?".

Mike
 
Even when my shop was 12'' x 18'' cutting board mounted on set of legs from harbor freight. I was making knives. I smiled every time I seen it. I still us it everyday.
 
My shop is my special place. Sometimes I just go out there and sit. Its the one thing thats mine (you married guys know what I mean).
Its more than a shop. IT'S A MAN CAVE.
 
When you work most of a lifetime collecting tools and supplies to be able to accomplish doing things you love most, yes its a refuge to say the least. To be able to do it for a full time job is something I used to just dream about- and it came true!!
Ken
 
Thanks for replying to my question and comments. I'm glad others feel the same way.
Since Bruce asked I'll post some photos of my shop. It took lots of years of planning and then building. I went a long time without a shop after I built my house. Due to the challenges of the site the building is two story. The upper floor is at street level. That is where the "boss" parks, and where I park my project of many years a '49 Cadillac. I finally painted it last summer. The lower level is 4 rooms, a forging area, auto shop (and carpentry), finish shop and restroom. I don't know how many pics I can post but I'll put some on to show why I like it.
I feel blessed that we have this place. I have used up years building it. If I felt better I would work in the shop all the time, but have to pace myself now and work a fraction of the hours I did 5 years ago.
Enjoy the pictures. I need a website so that I can give a better tour.
The photos are; the shop and house from the street, the back side of shop(2 floors),view from the finishing work bench, looking into the forge area from the finish area, and the "auto" shop- carpentry area. The restroom is behind the door with the yellow sign on it.
Thanks
Alden
 

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