Shop tour - finally!

[John Keeton]

When I first joined SMC, I had some creekers ask if I was going to do a shop tour. Seemed I always had something going on, and didn’t feel like it was clean enough. And, with the thread I did on the installation of my dust collection system, and a build thread I did on a hutch, much of my shop was shown in those pics.

But, here it is – such as it is. I have seen several of the shop tour threads, and this one is hardly up to par. But, it is my little part of the world that provides me with seclusion and a chance to feel creative.

The shop is a stand-alone building, 24’ x 40’ It is generally situated in a north/south direction, so in many of the various views, I will use compass direction so that orientation is consistent.

This is the view to the south taken from in front of our home. The sliding doors that are on the 16’ x 24’ storage area. My workshop occupies the southern 24’ of the building – the far end from this view. This will take several posts, and I will try to break them down so that they make sense.
SHOP BLDG S VIEW.jpg
The entry door is on the left, or east side of the building.
SIDE ACCESS.jpg
As you enter the shop, this is the entry view, with my work bench along the far wall. Note the high tech window air conditioners.
ENTRY 1.jpg
This is my workbench, and the cabinet above houses some of my planes, chisels, and various tools I have acquired to do dovetails.
BENCH.jpg
Some of you may know that hand tools are a relatively new adventure for me, so nearly everything in this cabinet was acquired over the past year or so.
PLANE-CHISEL CABINET.jpg

[John Keeton]

As you enter the shop, this is the right hand (RH) view, or NW view. Immediately to the right, and out of view in this pic, I have some wall cabinets, and I use the corner to store my jointer and planer in when not in use. My drill press is beside the door.
R VIEW.jpg
In the far corner is a fold up/fold down table that I use for nearly everything – including assembly. While it is not a torsion box, I took great pains to get it level, and it actually does very well.
FOLD UP TABLE.jpg
TABLE DOWN.jpg

From the entry, this is the LH view, with a bench area, metal bench vise, tool chest with wrenches, and some storage under the bench for the oscillating sander, and the shop vac that rarely gets used since the DC system went in. The long wall also serves as the miter saw station, with storage cabinets underneath to the left of the saw. The floor sweep for the DC is beside the miter saw.
L VIEW.jpg
Above the bench is the plane till I recently completed. The most important tool in this cabinet is my Dad's old #3 Defiance plane on the right. Not worth much on ebay, but priceless to me.
PLANE TILL.jpg

[John Keeton]

This is the NE view back toward the entry door, showing the wall cabinets, and the planer, jointer, and drill press. I keep a variety of junk in the cabinets, including shop manuals, tapes, and various other stuff that I access frequently.
NE VIEW.jpg
This is the SE view, again back toward the door, with the bandsaw, DC system, and in the corner, my old Veritas router table, and an RBI Hawk scroll saw.
SE VIEW.jpg
I rarely use the router table since getting the Grizzly TS with the router table extension wing, and the Hawk is my wife’s. Although it has been at least 7 years since it was turned on, she won’t let me sell it. “Someday” she is going to take a break from sewing, grandkids, and the million other things in which she is involved, and get back to some scroll sawing. I won’t be holding my breath!

Under the out feed table for the tablesaw, I have two drawer stacks on rollers. The one shown below houses router accessories and bits, dado set, and some other saw related stuff. The one on the other side has a lot of the boxes in which my planes came, my sharpening jigs, and a few other things. Both units have empty space in them. I have been in organization mode over the past year, with many changes being made. As time goes on, I hope to fill the drawers with some of the items that are scattered in other areas.
ROLLOUT DRAWER STACK.jpg

This is the view back out the entry door – looking east.
E VIEW.jpg
We live in a secluded area, and in the summer, we cannot see other homes from our house. I can see only one farmhouse from my shop.

[Jim Foster]

Congratulations on a great start in your new shop!

Our shops are similar in size, but mine houses an open circular stairway that's 6'x6' and a 2'x12' wood rack. It's amazing how much bigger yours looks in the photos with the organization you've put into it and without those two "space-takers."

[David G Baker]

John,
Beautiful shop.
I was driving around this weekend and saw a yard sale sign. I stopped to check it out. As it turned out the sale was at the home of the guy that custom built my kitchen cabinets. We had some heavy rain earlier in the day so the yard sale became a garage sale in the wood shop. After seeing all of the great shops that have been posted on SMC (yours being one of them) I was shocked at how few tools he had and how old some of them were. I had visions of some super sophisticated shop that had all of the power tools that I have seen on SMC. The work he did on our kitchen cabinets is far better than any that I have seen in any of the Borgs. Another example of the human abilities.

[John Keeton]

This is the storage area I referred to in the first post.
STORAGE AREA.jpg
While it serves many functions (the most important of which is to store the boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations!), I use the east side (LH) for my “hunting corner.” All of my camo, bows, etc. are in this corner, and this is where I change clothes when I hunt. I don’t like my hunting clothes inside the house picking up odors. I also have the metal cabinet that is shown, in which are the requisite power hand tools – drill, circular saw, extension cords, small shop vac, and some other junk. The golf cart, now converted to a "huntin' buggy" as the grandkids call it, is also the general, all purpose running around the place vehicle. I haul wood from the barn with it.

To the right is an old wooden cabinet that I have had for the last 25 years, and this would be its 4th location. I houses all of the spray paints my wife “needs” for various uses, my stains, and some other finishing materials. It is subject to freezing, so I try to avoid water based finishes in here. I am not very good about taking care of some of those items as I should be.
FINISH CABINET.jpg
Then, I have my nails, screws, etc in this shelving area. It also ends up being the first place to put something that doesn’t have a regularly assigned home – dump area!
FASTENERS AND JUNK.jpg
This is the west view from the window to the right of my workbench – I often see deer in the fall, winter, and turkeys in the spring. Note the high tech device used to hold open the windows
W VIEW.jpg
This is the north view looking out the other door from the shop into the storage area. Our home is to the right, and the red barn in the distance is where I store my lumber.
N VIEW.jpg

[David Christopher]

John, you have a very nice shop....you have inspired me to clean mine up ( one day )

[John Keeton]

Most everything in my shop could be replaced, with the exception of my Dad’s plane, and this stool. I really do not recall when or where I acquired it. I just know that I have always had it. It is the impromptu stand for spray painting something, my step ladder to get into cabinets, small assembly table, and very simply – part of my existence!
STOOL.jpg
And, finally, some of you may have purchased tools or books from Manny’s Woodworking in Lexington KY. Several years ago, Manny’s used to have calendars that they gave away to customers. Two of those are still in my shop, and just to show that “time stands still” when I go to my shop, here is the Manny’s calendar. Note the date. The pages are turned not for the month, but for a change of scenery Thanks for taking the time to enjoy my world.
TIME STANDS STILL.jpg

[Richard Wolf]

Great shop John, I'm sure you enjoy working in it.

Richard

[Joe Mioux]

John great looking shop and your backyard is equally nice!

joe

[Cody Colston]

Nice shop, John. It's very well organized and it appears you have arranged it to maximize the space. Beautiful scenery out the windows, too. Thanks for sharing.

[Mike Heidrick]

Beautiful shop John. I also need to build a couple "newly acquired set of planes and handtoosl" till. Thanks for the inspiration. I have the Veritas BU Jack and hope to add the other two as well in August.

[Ben Martin]

Great looking shop!

Do you know much about your Defiance #3? I bought one off of eBay (not knowing what type of plane, just bought it to restore and get my feet wet) a while back and from what I can tell it is pre-1900. But besides that, I couldn't find much info.

[Peter Quinn]

Great looking shop John. Did I see a Stanley FAT MAX chisel in your hand tool cabinet? I swear I did, in amongst all the beautiful planes and chisels. I keep that same chisel in my tool box at work. I get some heat every time I pull it out, but some times its just the thing I need. Sorry to focus on that one detail but its good to know I'm not the only one that owns one and keeps it handy!

Enjoy your space and thanks for the pictures, very inspirational.

[george wilson]

Great shop,John. A clean,well organized place to work,and nice country around it.