Going to gain a little elbow room in the wood shop

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robinson46176
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Location: Central Indiana (Shelbyville)

Going to gain a little elbow room in the wood shop

Post by robinson46176 »

This is a bit long... While many would think that my 1,500 sq. ft. basement wood shop is large it has gotten so full that I am down to several narrow paths through it. Just too many interest in one place, too much stuff. :eek: :rolleyes:
Sadly my 36' x 50' farm shop (mechanics, metal working, welding, blacksmithing etc) is in about the same boat.
Part of the common problem is a result of part of my past life. I've always farmed but I've also worn a lot of different hats with it. Diana and I started a family operated retail store in 1974. I had been selling wholesale to retail stores in a 13 county area in east central Indiana and was getting tired of all that driving (about 5,000 miles a month). It was a good learning experience, I've had a lot of good learning experiences. :cool:
Times turned pretty tough in this area, stores in older down-towns were closing at a frightening rate and we kept reinventing store on a fairly regular basis. The big change was a major shift from retail to service which kept us going while many of our fellow shop-keepers were failing. One of the additions was a shoe repair shop. It was an old family trade. My father did it for 18 years through the 20's and the great depression. His brother owned a shop in another town for over 40 years and his son had a shop in yet another town for maybe 15 years. As an older teen I used to hang out a lot in my uncles shop so I had a good base knowledge to begin.
I enjoyed the work, some of it is more like some wood working than you might think. Most of it is more of an art than a mechanical process. I stayed with it for over 20 years. I finally retired from the shop and a couple of other things to just the farm about 1996 when I was turning 55. I sold my big machinery but kept all of my smaller stuff and hand tools. I know they always show a cobbler with just a knife and a hammer but there is a LOT more to it than that. :) After about a dozen years I kind of got to missing the work and the human interaction and decided to start a retirement shop catering to mostly western boots. I started buying up the big machinery needed for grinding and various stitching and sewing machines. It took a couple of years to accumulate good stuff at a decent price but I was in no hurry. I was starting to get it all sat up in two seldom used rooms in what we call the west wing of the house.
Then came a quadruple bypass in 2013... :eek: and a long recovery. It was kind of a wake up call and I decided that I had other things I wanted to do more at that time. The shop rehab project got parked and sat for a good while. We had several horses of our own and we started doing some boarding. Our client horses vary from about 8 to a dozen, give or take. We started doing some traveling, I was collecting antique tractors and adding stuff to the wood shop. I have spent a lot of the last 30 years doing genealogy research and that was some of our traveling.
The shoe stuff is stored, some in the west wing, some in the wood shop and some in the farm shop. I have been torn between setting it up in another location or I did consider selling much of it but I just don't really want to sell it. I got to looking around for a space and I have a little barn fairly near the house that I have looked at before. It's around 600 sq. ft. in 3 rooms and if I add about 100 sq. to one back corner I think everything will fit fine in two rooms. Boots and shoes don't require all of the "swing room" that boards do. :)
It will get my retirement shop sat up in sort of "man cave" fashion and free up needed space in the farm shop and the wood shop. I have one corner of the wood shop half sat up as a small upholstery area and I will move that out to the new shop space too since all of the sewing machines etc. will be there.
I have some other stuff in the wood shop I want to move out there. I have some lapidary and jewelry making stuff there and I have a ceramics kiln and the makings of a potters wheel that could find a corner out there.
It will be very nice to have that space in the wood shop. Just thinking about it makes me want to go down there and wave a long board around... :D :D :D
--
farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
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robinson46176
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Joined: Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:00 pm
Location: Central Indiana (Shelbyville)

Re: Going to gain a little elbow room in the wood shop

Post by robinson46176 »

Managed to get 2 six foot circles cleared of crap that never should have been where it was in the woodshop. Makes me feel like I now need to hold a square dance. :D
I'll clear 2 more tomorrow and I still won't have moved any of the stuff I spoke of moving in the first post. :rolleyes:
This afternoon I need to work on the farm shop a little. The wood burning furnace I use there got moved out of the way for the summer and it just now started getting cold enough here to need it again. That wouldn't take so long but I have to "quarry" my way back to it. :rolleyes: It's not too bad but There is an older Coats tire changer in the way and a roll around tool cabinet with a chest on top in the way and the kind of large wood shaper I bought at an Amish consignment auction about September or so is blocking all of them. It just hasn't been moved to the woodshop yet because of the lack of floor space... :rolleyes:
First though now I need to move a horse fence and connect a batch of stock tank heaters, plug in a few heat tapes, etc. etc.etc. :rolleyes: :)
--
farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
roy_okc
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Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:15 pm
Location: Moore, OK

Re: Going to gain a little elbow room in the wood shop

Post by roy_okc »

Farmer,

If you get bored after clearing your area, you're welcome to come over and tackle my garage workshop. :)
Roy

Mark V/510, Mark V/500 with parts for 510 upgrade, bandsaw, jointer, belt sander, DC3300 w/1 micron bag
Sawstop 3HP 36" PCS w/router table insert
Home designed and built CNC router, another CNC router :D desktop size
CNCed G0704 milling machine
Laser engraver
Way too much other stuff and not enough space :rolleyes:
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