| Workshop by Thuan | posted 692 days ago | 533 reads | 0 times favorited | 14 comments | ![]() |
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After six years of woodworking out of a living room in a small condo, my wife and I moved to a house. My work shop is now located along a wall of a two car garage. With the luxury of a dedicated space for woodworking, I wanted to make sure that accessibility was the priority. The goal was to be able to go into a shop that is shared with my wife’s car and be able to start working right away. This is important because I don’t have much time nowadays, so if I have half an hour to myself, I wanted to be able to get the shop and produce something instead of using the time to set up the shop and then close down the shop to park the car.
This means the absence of stationary tools. No matter how much I thought these tools would improve my skill as a woodworker, I cannot justify the time, money and space it would cost me in return. Even when there is a 220 outlet staring at me, the decision was to keep working the way I had always done; simply with hand tools and hand held power tools. After one and a half years in this place, I am happy with my set up, I am able to build larger project quicker than ever before.
The added bonus to this house is the sun room. This is now my finishing room. My old tool cabinet houses the finishing supplies. With an entire wall of windows, the room gets plenty of sunlight for a better finishing job with less eye strain. The large double sliding glass doors gives me plenty of fresh air, and the place has it’s own ac/ heater, I can control the temperature for a better finish I hand apply with finishes so no worry about over spray. I just roll out the left over Tyvek to protect the floors and brush away.
-- Thuan
























14 comments so far
Karson
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25787 posts in 1291 days
posted 692 days ago
Great use of available space. make sure that you go to Betsy’s LumberJock Picnic in Feb, I believe. It’s in the Dallas – FT. Worth area.
-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †
mot
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4902 posts in 927 days
posted 691 days ago
This is the way I started! On my hands and knees on a cement floor. Nice little use of space!
-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)
Blake
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2751 posts in 765 days
posted 691 days ago
I am so glad you showed us pictures of your workshop area! You do such amazing work for such limited space!!! You will be an inspiration to budding woodworkers without the space for a traditional woodshop.
-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com
rikkor
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11338 posts in 765 days
posted 691 days ago
That is efficient use of space, my friend. (And so clean!)
clieb91
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683 posts in 826 days
posted 688 days ago
Thuan, I looke dat your blog a while back. Thanks for posting your workshop here, I great use of limited space. Got to say if those are your oops, the final must have looked really great.
Hope you are able to get that bigger living room .
CtL
-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."
Jamie
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146 posts in 705 days
posted 688 days ago
Good use of space. Do you have any problems with your neighbors, or should I say do your neighbors have problems with your power tools?
-- Jamie, Kentucky
Thuan
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203 posts in 709 days
posted 687 days ago
One of my next door neighbor works the night shift. I told him if I was ever disruptive, to call me or bang on the walls. He banged once when I lost track of time installing the cork flooring at 10 pm. Out of respect for them and my hearing, I did invest in more expensive quieter tools. I attached my saw to the Electrolux Harmony vacuum. It’s not design for wood working, but it’s super quiet and has HEPA filter. I turn the speed of the Festool Circular saw down and push slowly to make it quieter. I gave up my pancake compressor for a CO2 regulator, no motor, means less noise. I opt for hand planes and chisels over routers, but when it’s worth the cloud of dust in the house, I have to plan on the right time when every one’s out. Have you ever set off the fire alarm with saw dust?
Rikkor: This is what the house looks like AFTER a couple weeks of working on a project. I have to clean up everything and put all the tools away. But during the production phase, I don’t know how many times I would step on a small triangular piece with my bare foot. It’s a good thing I have lots of saws, and chisels, I usually misplace a couple of them in all the clutter, then I’d slowly make my way into my dining room.
-- Thuan
Tomcat1066
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776 posts in 687 days
posted 676 days ago
Very nice use of your space! I’m moving into a 6’x6’ shop soon, and I’ll probably rip off some of your ideas if that’s OK ;)
-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!
Gregh11
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17 posts in 416 days
posted 414 days ago
Now that’s a cool shop!!
-- Greg, in Ozark, MO
BarryW
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871 posts in 797 days
posted 181 days ago
Your shop is just a neat little area…and so effective…good work, good use of space…excellent tools and a fine set of projects…super good.
-- /\/\/\ BarryW /\/\/\ Stay so busy you don't have time to die.
Thuan
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203 posts in 709 days
posted 11 days ago
I finally updated my new workshop after moving to this house one and a half years ago.
-- Thuan
a1Jim
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16497 posts in 468 days
posted 11 days ago
Looks good
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
dustynewt
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446 posts in 753 days
posted 11 days ago
Thanks for the update Thuan. I would image that the expanded space resulted the expansive project of the Tea House. Beautiful job on that.
~Scott
-- Please visit me at http://dustynewt.com
Beginningwoodworker
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4084 posts in 564 days
posted 6 days ago
Nice workspace!
-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker