Single Car, multipurpose Shop (11x25')

[Ainsley]

I have also started to get back into completing little projects around the house that I've been putting off since I started working on the shop. Last night I made the trim for the one closet in the spare room. I had to steal the trim from there to lengthen all the upstairs trim when I ripped the plaster (7/8" thick) down to replace with drywall (1/2" thick).
I had already used the same technique to make the trim for the bathroom and kitchen but I didn't have this add on fence and featherboard with me. It made the job ALOT cleaner and easier, with less sanding afterwards.

The result, straight off the table saw, no sanding yet.

to show the construction of the fence, which I made about 3 years ago.

I've seen some guys on here have the same ridgid table saw so I thought I'd show how I hookup my dust collection on it.

 

[HSpencer]

Just amazed. You continue to set up so much usable working tools in such a small space. This is fine organization. I like all your tool set ups and your dust collection is excellent. Well Done!!!

Best Regards
Herb Spencer

 

[Ainsley]

Thanks Herb, It has taken a lot of ajustments and thought... still not where I want it to be but its getting there.

 

[bj383ss]

Nice jig, featherboard and Dust collection. Its amazing what you can produce with a shopmade jig,

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: i'm not quite sure how your suction works on your dust and grit collection set up. it looks like you rigged up some home made filtering system before it goes into the shop vac. did you make that off a plan off a website or Youtube video or just make it up in your head?

care to share the details? also a few pictures of the entire shop would be great if you are able because you are putting more things in your one car garage shop than most guys get in twice as much space?

keep up the great work

 

[Ainsley]

Ainsley: i'm not quite sure how your suction works on your dust and grit collection set up. it looks like you rigged up some home made filtering system before it goes into the shop vac. did you make that off a plan off a website or Youtube video or just make it up in your head?

It is an Oneida Dust Deputy. I ordered mine off amazon but they also have them at my favorite store: Lee Valley

 

[Ainsley]

Nice jig, featherboard and Dust collection. Its amazing what you can produce with a shopmade jig,

Thanks, to be honest I built a whole bunch of jigs and fences for my table saw when I first got it and they haven't seen a ton of use... but now when I go to make something like this I have the proper setup.

I really wish I had at least a 4-6' wider shop so I could have a full cabinet saw permanently setup. The job site saw it handy at times, but lacks the stability and precision of a full size shop saw.

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: thanks for the information on the filtering system. do you have a your shop vac plugged into a plug so when you turn on one of your grinders or tools it turns on? i have something like that in a box i got from a 75 year old client that sold me a lot of things from his shop and haven't set it up yet. I might have it backwards, but he said i could have my shop vac turn on when i started my table saw or any other tool i had hooked up on that plug.

anyway keep up the good work and keep posting pictures with all that good information.

 

[Ainsley]

Been a while since I posted on my journal but I got some brackets/holders mounted over the weekend.
Wera screwdriver racks and my spray can holder. Both mounted to the 1/2" airline that is strapped to unistrut on the wall.

Drill holder for my 12V and 18V makita drills and drivers. Made a bracket to mount them to the bottom of the frame supporting my hardware rack.

 

[Ainsley]

Took some quick snaps of the shop in its current state

I want to eventually change out the area with the folding table and workmate for a dual HF or husky box bench ala steve-o:

The lathe is hiding behind the table saw and mitre saw. I still need to work out the dust/chip collection on the mitre saw and lathe.

Don't mind the "shower curtain" its just my temporary spray booth I had setup from helping a buddy re-finish a small cabinet. I sprayed ML Campbell magnalac, which is a pre-cat lacquer, with my Fuji HVLP. Great stuff to spray as it dries very quickly but its extremely stinky!

Most of my consumables storage is in the two filing cabinets seen in the previous pic. These are pics of some of the more interesting drawers:

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: your shop is coming along nicely. great work and helluva organizer you are. BTW do you have a spare bedroom or a basement you might put some extra materials or other tools or just the one car garage?

also a member just posted a new thread about small garages. yours isn't the smallest, but for what you have in it you might want to post your garage there. also do you have this garage thread in your link under the Journal? if not you should put the title and link in the signature so others can find your great garage if you are posting on other threads to get more followers and lookers.

keep up the great work

 

[racingtadpole]

Thanks for taking the time to put your space up here, Ive seen a couple of ideas Im going to adapt to my place.

 

[Ainsley]

Ainsley: your shop is coming along nicely. great work and helluva organizer you are. BTW do you have a spare bedroom or a basement you might put some extra materials or other tools or just the one car garage?

Thanks for the ongoing positive feedback. I do have a shelf full of renovation materials and paints in the basement, if I need to I can always move more garage materials down there... although at that point I should probably reduce my stock.

Thanks for taking the time to put your space up here, Ive seen a couple of ideas Im going to adapt to my place.

If you need any help or suggestions with any of the ideas just let me know.

 

[Bassfishing54]

Very nice! Looks well organized! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Ainsley]

Thanks bassfishing!
While it's not shop related I should post some of my fishing stuff! It's another work in progress but it's starting to come together when I find the time.

 

[Bassfishing54]

Great! Love to hear them! I grew up in the Midwest and came south before retirement, so I just tell everyone I got tired of chopping holes in the ice to get my Ranger boat in the water during the winter! Never got hooked on ice fishing or hunting, so I made winter runs down south to fish.

 

[Frank Dukes]

Man. awesome job on organizing. i wish i had that much patience. So do you work at the Grimsby SW plant?

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: some things are just a lot cheaper if we buy in volume because we know we'll use it eventually. in that case it's good to have storage for it somewhere close by.

your shop is looking great. any projects planned for the summer?

 

[Ainsley]

Man. awesome job on organizing. i wish i had that much patience. So do you work at the Grimsby SW plant?

Thanks, I'm kinda OCD so it makes me happy to see everything in its right place.

any projects planned for the summer?

Always something on the go! We have a son who is almost 3 years old and another on the way in September who we just found out is a girl. Over the weekend I worked on some nursery decorations my wife had an idea for. She sketched the outlines and I made them up out of some fence boards I had lying around.

Finished:

Using the spray curtain:

 

[ODIS]

Interesting thread and have enjoyed reading it.

Great shop and a terrific organized space. Well done!

Ody.

 

[HSpencer]

The shower curtain is an excellent idea. It can shield sawdust, and allow finishing in the shop area. I continue to really like your full shop set up in a small area. I am currently in process of trying to move all my woodworking out to my shed, and keep my garage clean. I have been having some success with it. However, ONE building for a shop is still the best idea. It has caused me to have at least three of everything, yet no tool seems ever to be where I need it to be. I will finally work it out!!

Your ideas are spot-on!! Great work and a great shop.

Best Regards
Herb

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: first off congrats on having another baby and a girl. any plans for more or stopping at 2? I married my wife 28 years ago and she had a 10 and 12 year old and then we had a girl and twins so it did get a little busy with 5. the best advice i can give you is that your kids turn out like the kids they hang out with so i'd drive mine to friend's that were great and didn't live next door and sporting stuff as often as possible. My twins are 25 and just finishing up college so probably will move out some day soon and it will be a happy sad day i'm sure.

that is a very cool idea and great a great addition to the baby's room with those cut outs and nice colors too.

I've seen the shower curtain design before to cover up a bench or a wall of tools, but hadn't seen the one for a wrap around and thanks for sharing your pictures to show us.

prepare for less sleep and get ready for a great ride raising kids. it's not always easy, but it's the best ride at the amusement parks continually.


cheers

 

[Ainsley]

Interesting thread and have enjoyed reading it.

Great shop and a terrific organized space. Well done!

Thanks, organization has been key for such a small shop. I'd love to triple the size but it won't be happening until we move to another house... and that is at least 10 years down the road.

The shower curtain is an excellent idea. It can shield sawdust, and allow finishing in the shop area. I continue to really like your full shop set up in a small area. I am currently in process of trying to move all my woodworking out to my shed, and keep my garage clean. I have been having some success with it. However, ONE building for a shop is still the best idea. It has caused me to have at least three of everything, yet no tool seems ever to be where I need it to be. I will finally work it out!!

Your ideas are spot-on!! Great work and a great shop.

Best Regards
Herb

Thanks Herb, your input is always appreciated!
The spray curtain works alright to keep the overspray off my stock, cabinets and other tools but I'd love to have the room for something more rigid (but still collapsible) with a filter and exhaust fan.
I also do some metal working, including welding, but I'm struggling to get an area setup in the new shop. For now I just do my welding at work but I need to get it setup in my own shop.

first off congrats on having another baby and a girl. any plans for more or stopping at 2? I married my wife 28 years ago and she had a 10 and 12 year old and then we had a girl and twins so it did get a little busy with 5. the best advice i can give you is that your kids turn out like the kids they hang out with so i'd drive mine to friend's that were great and didn't live next door and sporting stuff as often as possible. My twins are 25 and just finishing up college so probably will move out some day soon and it will be a happy sad day i'm sure.

Thanks for the congratulation and advice. We're definitely stopping at 2, I can't imagine managing any more! I just got my son out on the boat fishing with my over the weekend, obviously his attention span wasn't there to actually fish but he loved being on the boat.

I've seen the shower curtain design before to cover up a bench or a wall of tools, but hadn't seen the one for a wrap around and thanks for sharing your pictures to show us.

It was actually a quick, semi-temporary solution as I was spraying some pre-cat lacquer which is really smelly stuff I didn't want all over the place! My spray system is a Fuji HVLP turbine so the overspray really isn't all that bad... but I'm kinda OCD and having pink and purple all over my shop cabinets wasn't something I liked the idea of.

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: Actually when you have more kids they start to play better with each other if you just keep them monitored somewhat. one tip i will put out there for you is the kids will become who they hang out with so they'll turn out better if you can sometimes drive them to a friend with great parents or to a play a sport they enjoy rather than just letting them run outside to play with the neighbor's kids that might be a troublemaker or has parents that are less than great. just saying.

anyway thanks again for all the inspiration and tips on making a space workable even if you don't have as much space as you would like.

have a great weekend

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: any updates or are you just enjoying the summer?

 

[Redboy]

Wow, this is a great thread! Inspiring.

I'm looking forward to updates.

 

[Ainsley]

Ainsley: any updates or are you just enjoying the summer?

Mostly enjoying the summer and doing work around the yards. I haven't had a ton of time in the shop except for a few small projects.

Wow, this is a great thread! Inspiring.

I'm looking forward to updates.

Thanks! It has been a squeeze getting everything I want out of such a relatively small space and as I've said many times: it's always a work in progress.

Some photos of recent projects:

A small cabinet I helped a buddy refinish for his cousin. He did most of the labor and I provided the guidance and the shop space. I also sprayed the clearcoat. I use ML Campbell magnalac which is a pre-cat lacquer and very stinky stuff!
before:

after:

The cutout plaques I posted earlier all mounted in the nursery:

An idea I've had for a while for using railroad spikes for a coat hanger:

I used a left over piece of Ipe from making the trim in my boat:

This is the only picture I snapped while making the bed frame for my son's big boy bed. We had a headboard from leons but the bed was too high using the metal frame with the box spring and matress on top so I made a wood frame with slats for the mattress to sit on top of.

I also installed a new stereo in my dad's boat, a 26' searay. I also included a new 4 channel amp for the mains and added a mono amp and sub.

we also added a garmin GPS/sonar unit on a RAM mount.

front view.

we also installed about 18' of flexible LED light strips in all the compartments. Ended up being about 20 sections. He really likes this one at night! Unfortunately I don't have any good pics of it.

 

[Ainsley]

Got some new tools for the shop that I've been testing out:
Bonhaus T handle hex driver sets in metric and SAE and wiha hex L key sets:

Gedore metric combo wrench set:

 

[Ainsley]

I've also been working on a buddy's 07 Tacoma, installing a LED light bar and the electrical for some future lighting: incan spots behind the grill, LED backup lights and LED strip lighting in the bed. This is the fuse and relay setup I'm fabbing up:

And the ground bus bar:

I've been doing more tapping lately than I typically do and am planning to setup a small block with my most commonly used taps and the corresponding drill bits. That said I'm testing out some different taps to see if their premium price is worth it:

Lately I've been using an impact wrench with a 12pt socket to drive the tap, well I recently got the Irwin tap sockets so I've been testing the taps with this:

I'm starting off light, just tapping some aluminum and copper but I'll get into some mild steel soon enough.

 

[Ainsley]

My wife had a project idea for the nursary over the weekend so we spent a few hours working on that. She laid out the letters free hand and I cut them out with the jigsaw. I used a 24"x24" piece of 3/4" Baltic birch ply I had, this stuff is awesome but quite pricey.

I love my Bosch jigsaw. Used the blade clamp to keep it straight and the zero clearance insert to reduce tearout.

Still need to sand and paint it... Couple hours to go.

The " I U" will be a different colour.

 

[fireeqpsrv]

That looks awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: you and your wife are a great team. the new ABC's with the I love you in the middle is a great idea.

last year or maybe two years ago now Home Depot had a special on birch 4 x 8 3/4 inch plywood for $31 a sheet and i must have bought 40 sheets to do several projects and build shelves before they ran out or priced them up to where i don't look at them now.

hope you enjoy the ride with the 2 little ones because it's like a roller coaster that you just cant get off of some days. my little ones are 25, 25, 27, 39, & 41 now and still interesting some days, but i'm sleeping more now.

cheers

 

[Ainsley]

That looks awesome

you and your wife are a great team. the new ABC's with the I love you in the middle is a great idea.

Thanks! It was quite a bit of work but once its finished it should complete the nursery... just in time too, she's due in two and a half weeks.

hope you enjoy the ride with the 2 little ones because it's like a roller coaster that you just cant get off of some days. my little ones are 25, 25, 27, 39, & 41 now and still interesting some days, but i'm sleeping more now.

My son just turned 3 in July so it will be interesting going back to the start again, I almost forget how it all goes. Not really looking forward to the lack of sleep that goes along with the first few months but I know it will be worth it.

 

[Ainsley]

Picked up a pair of hout drill bit dispensers off kijiji yesterday for $30

Going to clean em up, paint em and put together a nice tap and drill bit set to go in the drawers and use the remaining to hold the few NPT taps I have and other specialized drill press stuff.

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: Are you a new dad again because it should be about that time? Nice find on those Huot boxes. I have one and still looking for a spot to put it and what to put in it. Sounds like you have a plan so please show how you filled them when you do.

 

[Ainsley]

Ainsley: Are you a new dad again because it should be about that time? Nice find on those Huot boxes. I have one and still looking for a spot to put it and what to put in it. Sounds like you have a plan so please show how you filled them when you do.

Thanks for asking! My daughter was born on Thursday the 17th!
She has just been amazing, rarely fussy, sleeps great, very aware when she's awake... Just perfect. No bias of course ;-).

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: congratulations on your new addition to your family.

make sure to wait until she's at least 2 before you let her start using your garage and power tools.

BTW has your son started hanging with you in the garage? not that he needs to yet, but the kids are who they hang out with and if it's you even better.

good luck and sounds like you are having a great beginning with your new daughter arriving last week.

 

[Ainsley]

My son loves hanging out with me in the shop. Really looking forward to both of them being old enough to work on their own projects in the shop as well as having the attention span to come fishing with me.

Snagged a pretty good find on kijiji over the weekend. Three spools of carol SOOW cable:
250ft of 16/3
250ft of 14/3
About 100ft of 10/3
I make all my extension cords out of SOOW cable so I should be able to find a use for it. I just couldn't pass it up for $30

 

[Bessy]

Congrats on the new addition to the family, and awesome setup! makes me miss my little slice of shop space back home! I love these small shop threads as they give me some great ideas for when I head back to the parents place (where my stuff is set up currently).

Cheers!

 

[drivesitfar]

Ainsley: great find with the wire. sounds like you are already chalking up Dad of the year points and keep enjoying the ride. it has it's highs and lows and bumps, but it's a great one. i have 5 and my youngest are now 25 and finally starting to call a day my own, but love having them around still.

cheers