Shopsmith Forums

I'll give this a go since I'm working on my budget for next year and have been thinking about a few things.

I put together a pile of money for shop purchases when I retired. That was a few years back now, and well my thoughts then are pretty different then they are now. As an example I thought we would be moving and getting away from this area and have the opportunity to buy a house with shop/garage space or land to grow a shop on.

So what happened? Lost a bundle in the stock market, had to retire a couple of years before I planed to and well life in general. The biggest factor was that we started having different goals in life. Two of my three children decide to stay in the general area and get married, buy houses and have children. So we have 7 of our 10 grandchildren close by, as well as sons and daughter-in-laws. Yes we still could move and who knows we might one day.

So with my pile of shop money I updated some tools, added tools, and in general found it easy to spend the funds. How ever the part of the plan that was messed up was the fact I never got the shop I was thinking I'd have.

I've been reducing the number of router tables I have, I still might part with two more this coming year. One is for making rosettes which I haven't been doing much of and the other my smaller table that was my portable one that I could pack up and take with me. It hasn't left my property in a few years now, not helping out work mates and the sons now have tools like that of their own so...........

I'm also thinking of reducing my shopsmith count. I have 2 500's one is set up as a drill press with a powerpro headstock and I think that one will stay. The other one I had up in the UP when we had a house up there. We sold the house and the shopsmith is at my brothers, that one I think I'll let go of.

I have 2 520's one of those is my general purpose machine and the other my precision saw (think saw train). I had planned on powerpro the precision saw but put the powerpro headstock on the drill press and I like it there. Realistically I don't see buying yet another powerpro for it so maybe I could part with it minus the saw train stuff........

I'm mostly finished with a 2/3 shorty and again I'm not thinking of powerpro-ing it either but it would be nice to have reverse. I'd like to see how I like it but it could go on the chopping block if need be.

The other machine is a mostly painted but not assembled 10ER. The more I think about it I really don't need it and well it is the one least likely to stay along with the 500 up in WI. The problem with parting with those two is they still don't save me any space here at home.

So I have a 4" long bed jointer and a 6" jointer, the old 4" one has been with me for a long while and it is a real gem. Of course the 6" is 6" so I'm at a toss up as to which one would go.... or maybe both???

Then that gets us to the two bandsaws. It is nice to have two but the resaw capacity of 6" on both is an issue. Picking one to part with could be done if I could get a replacement with large resawing capacity.

So this gets us to this year. This years budget included a fair number of things, let's say it was a rebuild year. This coming year will also be a rebuilding year. In terms of $ this was the most I have spent since my retirement and by the end of next year I will have spent at least that amount again.

This year (which for me is Dec to Dec) I've spent almost $5000. I will be over budget by Dec. Yes some serious money. Also keep in mind that this if for tools, repairs, and the like. That tool cabinet I built and the plastic storage boxes is in another budget as is wood, paint, stain, sandpaper and other every day things like that.

Next year I'd like a new bandsaw with some resaw capacity. I'd like a CNC machine. I'd like to add some more high quality hand tools, a few lathe items and a few router items. If I can get the space I can do this, it is not a matter of $ but space.

We live in a small house, no basement, and no large out building. A lot of the things in the garage/shop are home related so if I could part with or reassign their location and part with a few of the tools I mentioned this could work. Will it happen? No idea. We have a lot of stuff from the home up north to deal with but most of that is in storage for another day.

Zoning serious restricts what options we have as far as a new shop building and we are sensitive to taxes here where a lot of money goes to school districts who grew a lot over the last 30 years of area growth. That is another story.

Ed

My basement workshop is great in terms of creature comforts. Climate-controlled, running water, exhaust fan, overhead dust filtration unit, and walk-out French doors with big windows. I've installed lots of lighting, and am about to add a 50A subpanel and a rotary phase converter for my bigger 240 volt machines. There are a lot of great CL bargains out there on 3-phase machines.

But the shop is a bit tight, at about 20' x 30'. The working woodshop part of it is about the size of a single garage bay. So last year, I installed 2x6 flooring in the attic space over my garage, put in a nice large hinged access hatch, mounted an electric hoist above the hatch, and built a lift platform sized to just fit through the hatch, with casters underneath. It's pretty easy to get heavy/bulky stuff in and out if the attic now. Plus the hoist is handy if I need to get a heavy machine or something off of my trailer.

That let me get some of the stuff out of my workshop that didn't really need go be there. And every time I need to make more space in the workroom, I've been able to identify more stuff that doesn't really need go be there. Getting it out of the way not only frees up space, it tends to make the shop more efficient.

After the new wiring is in, the next shop-improvement project is to install a ducting system for a 2hp 3-phase dust collector that I picked up cheap on CL.

EDIT: The entire room is actually only about 18' x 20', with a couple corners clipped off. The woodworking part is about 18' x 14'.

@ Ed/reible, "land to grow a shop on." Where do you get the seeds or plants for one?

Ed in Tampa wrote:

jsburger wrote:

Ed in Tampa wrote:
Perhaps I am too paranoid but those windows to me invite a break in. I have had my tools stolen too many times. Tools are like gold almost Impossible to trace and easily sold to guys that only care about a bargain.. For some reason they don't seem to be able to connect the dots when offered a $300 tool for $60. Or maybe you they do but simplyy don't care.

Also you have tons of space but how will that shop be to work in when the hip goes or the shoulder no longer allows you to muscle around a full 4x8 of plywood.

Thatval said I like your shop. I have a case of envy!

Well, I guess paranoia is a product of where you live. I live out in the country at nearly the end of a dead end road. Nobody driving by except the people that live here. I don't even lock my back door when I leave for the day. I have been here for 22 years with no problems. I have 2 acres that is about 2 miles east of the Great Salt Lake. If I stand on the roof of the shop I can almost see Reno, NV.

What does the size of the shop have to do with "muscle around" a sheet of plywood? If I get to the point I can't do it by myself I won't be able to do it regardless of the shop size.

My original plan was 30' X 50'. The cost of the permit was almost twice the amount for the 30' X 40' (1200 SgFt). The 30' X 40' permit was $866.00.

I was complementing you on the size but I never completed the thought. Sorry!
I didn't realize the shop has served you for 22 years. I was thinking it was a new project.
My views of shop layout is changing quickly as I get older. I am less interested in being able to bull large pieces of wood. Lately I try to figure the easiest way to reduce the wood down to it's smallest useable size before I try to lift it. I'm still physically able. I can still tose around a full 4x8 sheet of 1 inch thick MDF and can still hang 5/8 drywall on the ceiling. I just know this body is slowing down and I don't want to have sit in a rocking chair with a whittling knife.

I live in an area where horses walked down the street. Doors were always open. Left the garage door open while a sat in the next to the garage watching NASCAR while thieves carried away my tools. I got paranoid. My father in law lived in South Carolina never locked a door
Then one day he got up and his shop was gone. Times are changing! Thiefs are getting bolder.

Yes, the shop is a fairly new project. I have lived in the house for 22 years but the shop was built in 2009. See my previous post. As far as sheets of plywood and large planks, my wife is a wood worker and helps me. No problem. Besides she is 6 yeares younger than me.

Yes times are changing. Horses still walk down the street here. We have cows grazing just behind the house. The pictures are from 2014. Three 40 footers with cows. The boy on the horse appeared to be about 12-14 years old. I talked to him and he was the most articulate teenager I have talked to in a long time. He knew EXACTLY what his job was and what they were doing.

The last guy (picture) used to graze about a 1/2 a mile west for years. Tip to tip his horns were were almost 7 feet. He was on display at all the county fairs for years. When I first moved in there were two Clydesdale horses that grazed out there for years. They were plow horses from years ago.

As I said this is a 1/4 mile dead end road. No through traffic. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Nice John!!! The young man on the horse looks and as you described him, like Robert Redfords young nephew in the movie, The Horse Whisperer. Articulate, wise, and new when to be silent. Great movie.

I finished mine a few years ago. As would anyone, I'd like more space, maybe a dedicated finishing room and a place to park the tractor so I don't need to move tools. This is Pre Shopsmith. I replaced the tablesaw, bandsaw, and drill press with a Mark V 510 a little over a year ago.

The shop can be seen here.

http://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/discus ... s-complete

John,

OK, now I am jealous. I grew up at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch near Amarillo, Texas and aside from the Utah mountains in the background of your photos, that looks like home to me....

Very nice...

And... insult to injury an ad just came over the radio for a metal building company for a 50' x 100' steel building for $30,000. What I could do with that space.... but, as I stated previously, I cannot get a permit to do anything of significant size due to code restrictions. I only have a 1/4 acre lot.

When I graduated High School, and first got married, I contemplated taking a deal to move to Montana and manage a herd of wild mustangs for four sections of land and a twenty year commitment, but went to school instead.

I don't regret not taking the deal, but I certainly would have had the space to do a large shop....

Everett