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Thuan's Workshop

Workshop by Thuan posted 692 days ago 533 reads 0 times favorited 14 comments Add to Favorites Watch

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Thuan

203 posts in 709 days


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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

View Karson's profile

Karson

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 †

View mot's profile

mot

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)

View Blake's profile (online now)

Blake

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

View rikkor's profile

rikkor

11338 posts in 765 days


posted 691 days ago

That is efficient use of space, my friend. (And so clean!)

View clieb91's profile

clieb91

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."

View Jamie's profile

Jamie

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

View Thuan's profile

Thuan

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

View Tomcat1066's profile

Tomcat1066

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!

View Gregh11's profile

Gregh11

17 posts in 416 days


posted 414 days ago

Now that’s a cool shop!!

-- Greg, in Ozark, MO

View BarryW's profile

BarryW

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.

View Thuan's profile

Thuan

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

View a1Jim's profile

a1Jim

16497 posts in 468 days


posted 11 days ago

Looks good

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

View dustynewt's profile

dustynewt

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

View Beginningwoodworker's profile

Beginningwoodworker

4084 posts in 564 days


posted 6 days ago

Nice workspace!

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

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