DrPuk2U's Workshop

At long last the shop is more or less complete, so here’s a look at the “finished” project. Of course, no shop is ever done, but it’s pretty complete. However, while all the big stuff is in place lots of little tasks are still out there, as well as “decorating” the walls with my odd collection of jigs, posters and signs. And, believe me, the shop isn’t normally so squeaky clean.

Quick thumbnail of me: semi-retired software engineer. My wife and I moved to western Oregon about 3 years ago. We are lucky to have 5 beautiful acres plus a house and two pole barns. It is one of these barns that I have converted to my shop. Most of the details of the renovation are here.

I’m a really good software engineer but my knowledge and experience at woodworking and shop renovation was minimal. Fortunately, our son is a master carpenter, electrician and building contractor. So he used the project to teach me how to do what we needed. Wonderful!

The barn itself is 50×25, divided into two halves, each 25×25. When we moved in, both sides were filled with junk, 10,000 nails in every surface and some dangerous wiring. We first demoed all the wiring and nails Then Nat showed me how to frame it in and we did that, using 2×6s. We installed 4 new 3×4 windows. After wiring it for 110 and 220 and lights, we then hired a firm to spray an inch and a half of closed cell foam on all the walls. Then R25 batts were laid over the foam and along the roof. Walls were closed up with ½” ACX plywood. The floor is CoreLux vinyl planks went in easily and look and feel great. Windows and baseboards are hemlock.

The shop has its own power (150 amp service). It also manages the well and the power for the other barn and the little greenhouse.

Against the wall below the window is my “machine bench”. It is intended for anything non-woodworking. The drawers are currently a jumble as I work on organization. The bench also acts as the base for my grinder, WorkSharp and drafting table

I built the Holzapfel bench several years ago when we lived in Illinois. See blog here. Turns out I made it a little too low so you can see it is up on some blocks. I hope to teach myself to carve and make some real feet for it.

The drill press station is nothing fantastic, just a Grizzly machine. Works well. I had this ancient (1970s) Ikea set or drawers. I just wrapped the drawers in a rolling cart and mounted the drill press.

The bandsaw is pretty straightforward. More good quality Grizzly machinery.

The dust collection is currently something of a placeholder. I intend to move both my pancake compressor and the dust collection into the garage on the other side of the wall. But I’m not there yet so I’m just running a 25 foot 4” hose around and hooking it up to the dust port on each station. Works pretty well.

The jointer is another Grizzly machine with 8” parallelogram bed and a spiral cutting head. Very nice machine.

The chop saw is a Bosch. Works great. I don’t have good dust collection for it yet. My intent is to add wings on each side and add some form of better dust collection (shroud?).

Lumber storage takes several forms. I have the excellent Lee Valley lumber racks mounted on one wall of the shop. But I have some nice stuff, including a bunch of black oak and mahogany. I also have a rack for odd cutoffs. However, I am now accumulating a lot of small stuff. Not sure how I’ll handle them. In the garage I have another rack for what I call construction lumber.

I built the clamp rack years ago in Illinois. It’s a nice idea and holds most my clamps but the design is flawed. It’s simply too much weight to be hinged and swung around. But it works (with a couple of hidden hacks) so I’m not wasting time replacing it (yet).

The other side of the pole barn has been demoed (all electrical removed), Rewiring and lights are on my list. Currently, I use it mainly for storing power tools, bulk supplies, the construction lumber and my “hardware store” (an old set of kitchen cabinets) – my local outpost of Home Depot…

Machines
Table Saw SawStop 1.75 HP Contractor Saw
Planer DeWalt – 735 Benchtop Planer
Jointer Grizzly G04090 8”
Dust Collector Delta 50-760
Drill Press Grizzly
Bandsaw 14” Grizzly ANV
Miter Saw Bosch 3912B 12-in.
Shop Vac Bosch 3931A-PB
Circular Saw Milwaukee
Routers Festool, Porter-Cable 7518

-- Ric, Western Oregon, "Design thrice, measure twice, cut once... slap forehead, start over"