Ben Simms's Workshop

My shop is a one-car garage that I have completely taken over, (sorry cars, you will have to sit outside). The first thing I did to the shop when we moved in was paint the floor, that turned out to be a great investment, I highly recommend painting a concrete floor for a shop. It makes cleaning way easer and it looks nice too.

I have been populating my shop with C-list specials that I am particularly proud of:
1. Central Machinery, 10”, 2 hp, table saw – $40 – Upgraded to link belt, made a 0C insert and tuned it.
2. Craftsman, 10”, radial arm saw – $30 – Just got this machine, it needs a new table and tuning.
3. 1930’s Powr-kraft?, 10”, band saw – $30 – Rewired motor to reverse direction, mounted on new stand.
4. Ridgid, 6 1/8”, jointer – $150 – Tightened bolts, link belt, and changed cutters.
5. Dewalt stacked dado blade set – $5 – Does not cut a flat bottom but it gets the wood out of the way until I can afford a better one.

I love working with crate wood, mostly because I don’t feel bad if I mess it up. I’ve been getting pine crates that break apart pretty easily, and yield about 20 usable 4’ to 5’ boards each. Boards are 7’8” thick so i can joint and plane to 3/4” if they aren’t bowed to badly.

radial arm saw

Pallet wood is starting to pile up.

-- I played with Legos as a kid and I never had the part I thought I needed, so I learned to improvise. Now I'm an engineer with a woodworking hobby.