No shop, little room, Ideas?

N

NewbieKnifeGuy

Joined
May 4, 2015
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20
As the title says, I have run into life, marriage and a kid, owning my own home.
Sadly this has left me with little time for knife making and I am getting the itch, but I have still very few tools, and even less space to work in.
I am looking for ideas of portable work space, A table build from collapsible saw horses or something of the like. I need to be able to mount a small vise, and work with mostly hand tools. If I make another few knives and make any money at all I might invest in some power tools or a belt sander/grinder.
But as for now I will have limited space to work with and mostly be on my front porch, so I need something I can work off of and put away without taking up lots of space.

Anyone ever build a table/work top out of those cheap saw horses with the metal clamps from lowes/home depot? Maybe just using 3 or so to have a stable surface with something interlock them underneath?

Anyway if anyones done anything like this before I waste time and money please give me some tips or pointers about portable work space.
 
It's not about knife size, just work space. I will have no workshop and will have to setup and tear down with each work session. So I am looking for ideas on how to make it as efficient as I can be.
 
There are as many ways to make portable workstations as there are knife makers. I think you will not be very happy with the sawhorse Idea. The workstation can be portable but it should also be sturdy.
 
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I feel your pain!

I’ve got a small work bench set up in the garage, it’s about 1 x 3’ and I do all my knife making, gunsmithing and reloading on the same bench. All the pieces live in different cabinets around the garage, and under the bench.
My girlfriend parks her car in the garage, so when she’s not home I break it all out and work, then clean up and put it all away again.
It’s not much fun. I need a barn.
 
I can't help, I have a similar problem. Everything fits into my water heater closet and I drag out what is needed for every operation. I bought small versions of every piece of equipment so limited on how much I can do but I still get work done.
 
OK, ok
enough fooling around. I actually have some small contribution to make :
If you are going to hammer on steel / peen rivets what not put the vise and or small anvil like surface on top of a pedestal or a stump so you aren't hammering on a springy surface other wise you will just be wasting energy and MAKING A LOT OF NOISE for your family and neighbors. One of my vises is mounted on top of a length of steam pipe but you could use a four by four hunk of wood or as I said a stump of a tree.
I shoulda made these braces longer.JPG

For sawing and filing anchor the vise pedestal to the porch railing or wall and to the porch deck. You can't see it in the photo but there are holes in the base. In some shops I have anchored it to the concrete floor but it still needs a beam over to the wall to keep it from micro oscillations while hack sawing like a mad man.
Note the vise jaws in the above metal working vise. I made aluminum jaws for the vise and that prevents marring of steel parts held in the jaws.
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This vise is made form a gigantic Bessy brand bar clamp that I bought at Home Depot. I added a large soft wood jaw. This allows clamping things like the knife handle without marring it (too much). It is in a very thick bench top made from two by fours up on edge and through bolted. I used this for my first wood working face vise and using it I made a Scandinavian style full size woodworking bench but this is still my highly portable rig.
This is better than that.JPG
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It can go into the next thing I would recommend getting and that would be at least one (but two is better) Work Mate Brand folding work benches. Buy the best one you can find don't skimp.

images.jpeg
For "grinding" very hard metal without power tools I would recommend a super coarse diamond file
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And to smooth out the damage from that, er . . . I mean scratches, get a super coarse water stone like this Shapton Pro 120
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And really . . . you will find those so slow going that you will want some sort of power grinder like the next day. Here you get into problems because it is easy to start fires from the hot metal coming off it and totally destroy the temper of the hardened steel.
They make water bath grinders like the Delta brand water bath sharpener / grinder. . . super slow going but fairly safe for the steel and not so fire hazardy.

Or this super cool (to the metal) blue wheel that I added to one of my several bench grinders (the other wheel is a paper sharpening wheel).
IMG_4137.jpg

For what little I do (mostly modding and reshaping edges) the round grind wheel is all I need and it lasts for ever.
The next step up and it is a giant step better is a belt grinder; I'm sure these more serious knife makers can fill you in on those. I have just one small bench mounted belt sander and it sucks. I have lots of hand held, high quality belt sanders but not for knife making.

The advantage of the previously mentioned Delta water grinder is that it already comes with cool running white wheels.
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I have a few more things to add but I think I will make another post in a while for those.
 
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best advice, find a local knife maker who will let you use their shop from time to time for a little money. Can get more done in less time, and added perk of possibly learning from the maker as well.

2nd best option, find a used shed on craigslist, lot of em pop up for free in the 60-120sq ft range. Set it up in the back yard, and run an extension cord for lighting and simple power tools. Least make it so you can have a dedicated workspace.

If that doesn't float your boat, anything sturdy with castors should do the trick. Lot of knife makers set their machinery up to be mobile. even just 20sq ft of dedicated storage space in the garage can hold a lot of stuff to move outdoors when working. I started out with 60sq ft of my garage that held my 2x72, a bandsaw, drill press, vises and foredom, and anvil, forge and post vise in the middle of them both to be dragged outdoors each time. Sucked, but it worked for the time being. Heck, even now at 1k sq ft in my 2 story shop, i move my hydraulic press and forge just outside the shop doors anytime i forge as i still need to build a proper vent system for indoor forging in the shop. It's all about makin the space ya got work.
 
I can guarantee you this, the wife wont like it no matter what. But if saving space is really important, you can make or find a sturdy table and use it to hold plants or something when you arent working out on your porch. Dont cheap out on the table or the wife (and more importantly, you) will really hate its existence. Women tend to like tables with stuff on them, and so something like a distressed table, which they also tend to like, with some plants sitting on it when you arent working, would check 2 boxes.

Then it is a matter of having a tool box that can hold your hand tools and maybe a few power tools. And the forge has to go somewhere. If you have neighbors, be prepared for the stink eye whenever they walk their little foo foo dog in front of your house while you are grinding a cascade of sparks out into the yard.
 
. . . aaaaannnnnnnnnd we're back. All this typing is thirsty work.
Any sort of bench you make is going to need to be anchored (to the wall and or to the surface you are standing on. Sawing a little stick of soft wood on a saw horse like you mentioned is one thing but sawing hard steel and or filing it is a whole 'nother ball game. You need BOTH arms and you need much more strength and rigidity in your work holding thingy (bench and vise).
so
remember
angle bracing is your friend. Note the diagonal bracing tubes added to this metal working / welding table I made. Also note I piled a bunch of heavy crap on the shelf below and it is braced to the wall as well. Not portable but at least it doesn't wear you out wobbling and walking across the floor like your saw horse bench things are going to do.
One Welding Table.jpg

And finally I would recommend cruising the second hand book stores for home shop work shop books from the fifties.
How does the gentleman apartment city dweller deal with a home hobby work space ?
Like this (but it takes a highly skilled craftsman with a work shop to make it). Maybe get into a night course for woodworking or join some woodworking club.
anyway . . . here you go :
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And last but not least for intricate hand sawing I made a thick steel forked thing. The wooden one is more for lighter jewelry work.
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They are used with jeweler saws like these. You hold the saw straight up and down and it cuts on the down stroke. You do this work sitting down.
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Aidenag said:
drill press
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Thanks for reminding me !
I set aside a photo of my small drill press and forgot to post it.
I bought this a life time ago through the want adds for ~$70. I can carry it in one hand but it has been robust enough to do some serious work in steel (not just knife making) and you can use it as a barrel sander as well.
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I am essentially running a knifemaking business out of a closet lol so don't let the lack of shop space hold you back!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWQ9Q0NhrCb/?taken-by=lake_county_knife_and_tool

I started with hand tools in an even smaller and less insulated place and have slowly built all of this up from the profits over the years from knives sold and kydex work/local sharpening. I went to Home Depot and bought their premade fold out ready to go wooden tables. First one was a display piece and was damaged I got for $25 the second one was about $70. Awesome little tables and unless you're working with less space I'd recommend those.

You could always go full Kiku Kazuhiro and work on the ground :P

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeBx3rtlzIY/?taken-by=kikukazuhiro
 
For years I had a 3 by4 bench mounted to the wall with a vice on it. I did have a grinder mounted on a table with 4 by4 legs but on casters. I would open the garage door and roll it out on driveway and lock the wheels, lower the garage door and grind away.
Only things neighbors looked at me strangely and the driveway turned a little reddish but I sold some knives to them.
 
You might want to consider building and using a knife filing jig. Look up Aaron Gaugh or Gaugh Custom on YouTube for a good tutorial. It's a hand tool, and filing the bevel onto a blade will take a lot longer, but it takes up no space, costs next to nothing to make, doesn't make much noise or throw sparks, and you can get a good, even bevel out of it.

I use a Craftsman 2x42 for most of my grinding. It, too, takes up very little space. Craftsman doesn't make it anymore, but you can always find a 2x42 in other brands. I'll build or buy a proper 2x72 when I grow up and become rich and famous, but in the meantime, the 2x42 does the job.

I just recently made a 2-brick forge and am happy with it. It's about the size of a shoe box.

You can get a lot of mileage out of an angle grinder purchased at Harbor Freight.
 
LCKT707 said:
You could always go full Kiku Kazuhiro and work on the ground :p

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeBx3rtlzIY/?taken-by=kikukazuhiro
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I'm currently an apartment dweller and like to keep things grounded... The "ground" being the floor of my balcony. :confused::D

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I clamped a small vise to the breakfast bar indoors though.

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If you want it bad enough, you will figure out a way to make it work. :)

3kOIpPKh.jpg
 
milkbaby said:
I'm currently an apartment dweller and like to keep things grounded... The "ground" being the floor of my balcony. :confused::D

du15osSh.jpg


eaLJYqXh.jpg



I clamped a small vise to the breakfast bar indoors though.

I7eXw8sh.jpg



If you want it bad enough, you will figure out a way to make it work. :)

3kOIpPKh.jpg
Click to expand...

Before i bought my house i lived in probably 20 apartment buildings. Rap music, wild parties, weightlifters upstairs, yelling kids, abusive couples, man i have heard it all. Why couldnt i have had a knifemaker neighbor?
 
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