Where I am now

One of the things I miss about my shop in Lawrence is the pillars. They gave some pretty ideal spots to take shots from. Recently, given all the downtime, I was feeling nostalgic, and went looking back through the old posts that I'd put up, and it was fun to see the shop in various states of construction, re-arrangement, or mid-project. So, I thought I'd try that again here. Seventeen years ago I got started in a basement, and moved through a few iterations of 'real' shops before shutting down in 2014. I'm back in the basement again. (Different basement, though.)

This is a shot taken from one of the lally columns, back by the bulkhead door, next to the rubber exercise mat I set up for working out. Yes, that's an old-school tool chest with sliding tills. No, I didn't build it. Yes, it's cool. No, I didn't need to read a book on it to understand that at the time.

Incidentally, the thing on top is something called an opaque projector, that was marketed under the brand name projecta-scope. I remembered my mom having one back in the 70's, and thought it would be perfect to keep the kids occupied while we were stuck at home. Essentially, you drop it on top of an image. (Book, trading card, or, in our case, Pokémon card) A light bulb illuminates the image, which then bounces off of a mirror, and is projected onto the wall. No circuitry, nothing much more than a light bulb in a box with a lens on the side. Yes, the room needs to be very dark. No, it's not very bright, but it works. It's very old-school, decidedly low-fi, and cost me maybe $30 on ebay. Worth it. The 4 year old gets to work on his own Pokémon drawings to color, instead of having me do it, and it's been remarkable watching his hand-eye coordination develop as a result. Doug Stowe would probably be proud of me for following my son's lead, and letting his interests dictate the project. I'm just glad it's had as much mileage as it's had, already.

Shot from the bulkhead door. You can see the shelves I put up to provide storage, and some pegboard. To the left, you can see the end of the bench. Yes, there's a shave horse on the bench. It's up there because I finally realized why I couldn't quite get it to work well: It's too tall. In practice, if you're astride your shave horse, and your feet are on the floor, your knees should be above the thing. In this case, my knees do not come up that high. So I need to take 6 inches or so off of the legs to turn this clydesdale of a shave horse into more of a carnival pony. Maybe more, we'll see. So, it's up on the bench to have the legs laid out for trimming. And in the background, you'll see my bandsaw.

The bandsaw is a Laguna LT18 HD. Italian made, circa 2007. Incidentally, that was the year I graduated North Bennet. Of all of the stuff I sold from my old shop, I missed having a band saw the most. I thought about settling for a 14" saw, but over the 7 years that I owned a 14 and an 18, and ran them side by side, I noticed that the 14" broke blades a lot more frequently. Not often, but more often than the 18. I have a lot of crazy ideas for things I'd like to do someday with this saw. It's almost 7 feet tall, has a 4.5hp Baldor motor, and even with my ambitions, it's likely to be more band saw than I'll ever need. It's expected to be the heart of my shop, instead of the table saw that everyone else has.

I've done the cabinet saw thing, and there will likely be times when I'll miss having one. I might buy a benchtop table saw for fine cutting of joinery and banding and little toys and trinkets. But, knowing what I know now, I think I'll be just fine without a big table saw for a while. Behind the bandsaw is my Festool MFT, which handles panel work, and has been a workable substitute for a chop saw station, too.

Around the corner, behind the saw, is a mess of stuff that still needs to be organized and given real homes.  In the foreground is a shop cart that dates back to my days up in Lawrence, behind that is the MFT, and a rolling station with a benchtop drill press on top. In the garage I have a lathe that will get set up out there. Beyond that, the only thing I lack right now is a planer. Maybe. I have thoughts on that, but it's not holding anything up at the moment.

Unlike previous shop iterations, this shop is planned to be a multi-function space. There's a wall-hung monitor at the right end of the bench, since that's where my laptop is. I've been studying calculus recently, and have plans to work my way back to school for an engineering degree. I also have plans to install a 3D printer down here. (The printer itself is on backorder.) The notion chafes against my traditional woodworker experience, but quite honestly, I've seen some interesting things done with 3D printing in my flying car day job, and I want to learn more about it. And, truth be told, it's something I want my kids to have access to as they get older, if they're into it.

So... yeah. As man-cave fab labs go, this one's off to a pretty good start.