Workshop #3: Things that make you go Hmmmmm

With the saw vise complete, I found myself thinking about my workshop once again. The saw vise was done completely outside in the open, and I found it pretty nice to get some fresh air while working. This has be doing even more thinking about an outside workshop. Besides the space issues, which I’ve lamented more than once, there’s just something nice about working like that.

You see, that little storage room that will be the shop isn’t climate controlled at all. After all, who’d run duct work to a storage room? Now, in winter, a space heater would do wonders with such a small location. But in summer, I can actually see the heat being to much. Remember, this is Southwest Georgia. While winters are brutal for many of you folks, summers here are the killer. 95 degrees with 95% humidity aren’t unusual for us at all. An outside shop will give me the opportunity to catch breezes that will make it a bit easier to deal with.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d still prefer a decent sized freestanding shop, but any I’d select would have windows that can be opened! It gets really hot down here, and I’d like to work year round if at all possible. However, a decent sized canopy costs a lot less than a freestanding shop!

The one concern I have is rain and wind combined. However, on one end of the porch, there is a brick wall adjacent to the other back yard (this is a duplex). This gives me two walls worth of protection, which should protect my “shop” from all but the hardest rains with wind. However, walls can be rigged up with tarps and put in place to give additional protection.

Tools can, and probably will, get rusty. However, this is Southwest Georgia. That would probably happen in the storage room as well. That just means I’ll have to be careful and take good care of them. However, tool storage can fix that.

In the 18th Century, the huge honking tool chests like the Benjamin Seaton chest and the Duncan Phyfe chest weren’t very portable. They’re mucking HUGE! What they did apparently do well are the two things I need. They provided protection from theft, and they provided protection from rust. Adam Cherubini noted on his blog once upon a time that the chests like the Seaton and the Phyfe were found in more urban areas, while tool walls were often found in more rural locales. The chests can lock, while the walls obviously can’t. And, since a well made tool chest is apparently fairly air tight, it might just be the option to go with.

Honestly, this system actually has fewer drawbacks, at least in my mind, than most of the other options I’ve considered with the exception of a freestanding shop. However, the drawbacks it has (security and weather) are pretty significant. I think I have figured out how to deal with those though, and should really consider this one seriously. It just might work!

-- "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!