FrankoManini's Workshop

My shop is located directly under our family room, in a two car garage. My wife says it has never been (nor will it ever be) a garage! It’s definately a shop. And it’s definately messy.

The best feature of my shop is the tool carriage I built last year. It holds, on removable shelves, several benchtop tools including my grinding station, planer, spindle/belt sander, and my mitre saw. When I want to use a tool, I just pull out the shelf it is attached to, and slide the shelf onto the mobile cart. The shelves have edging that overhangs the top of the cart so there is no slipping off. The sides of the cart and the carriage are peg board and hold a number of grinding accessories, safety gear, and saw blades. This arrangement is especially useful when I mount my grinders on the cart becuase I can wheel them right over to the lathe for quick tool touch-ups. I found that if I have my grinder across the shop, I tend to go too long between sharpening. Man, I am so lazy!

My shop is a multi-purpose metal and wood shop, and I also do some light mechanial work. As a result, all my major tools are on mobile bases so I can clear a spot if I need to weld, wrench, or cut some steel. I also have a lot of tools for other work that tend to clutter my pegboard and bench. Oh well, I’m constanly working on the reorganizing the shop.

My staple tools include:
Delta 10” contractor tablesaw – my first major tool!
General International 16”x42” lathe
General International 6” jointer
Rikon 14” bandsaw – BTW, this is an EXCELLENT value tool, with 13” resaw capacity, great for milling lumber
General International 1.5HP dust collector
Canwood 13” drill press
DeWalt 13” portable planer
Porter Cable 10” mitre saw
Porter Cable router, plunge and fixed base
Rigid spindle/belt sander – my pal Devin recommended this tool, and it is an awesome machine, great value
General International low speed grinder – also a high value tool for keeping the lathe tools sharp

Recently I splurged and got a set of Lie Nielsen chisels. I love them and they are definately an “over the top” purchase, but will last a lifetime. I don’t mind paying extra for hand tools that my sons will fight over when I’m gone!

I haven’t built a lot of furniture but it’s something I would like to do. I am mostly interested in small scale work, but I’m trying to find time to tackle larger projects. I think my next large scale project will be a new bench. the one I have is really just a wok surface and has no clamping utility and it is far from flat. I’ll probably use one of “The Schwartz’s” designs. The two areas I am focusing on now are learning to cut dovetails by hand, and improving my turning skills.

-- - If my wife asks, I got ALL of my tools on sale.