Background and history lesson. Welcome to the Wayback Machine!
This entry, the first in the series Workshop Development." is where we get into the wayback machine, and go for a little history lesson. Specifically, how, and why I went from a guy with a garage and some tools, to being a guy with a workshop in progress. Not sure if I will ever be done, but at least it is in progress!
In the beginning there was a garage, Dave saw the garage and said it was good… Hmmm okay maybe a little to grandiose for my posting… Let me try again…
In early 2002, I was in a lousy domestic situation, with one upside, I had just closed on a suburban Houston home, with a garage. Now this garage was on the smallish size, and lacked anything nicer than a structure, a door, a single dual recepticle outlet, and a single bare light bulb, I am guessing for interrogation purposes, because it simply was insufficient for giving any real light to the garage, but it had to do. Due to the lousy domestics, the only "shop" I was able to squeak in was my existing tool box from my prior career as a mechanic, and a simpson strong tie workbench made from 2Ă—4s (free, neighbor was throwing them out after a completed remodel project), a sheet of cheap sheathing grade 3/4" plywood complete with dips, knots, and other fun stuff, Strong ties, and screws. That same bench still serves in my shop today.
Fast forward a mere year and a half, and the domestic issue had completely changed, I got the house (big deal) and the Dog (I know this sounds funny, but he was all I wanted out of the whole deal, and to get away from her…) Now I have a 2 car garage, all to myself.
Now in the time span between getting the house, and getting free of Mrs. mistake, I had acquired a few woodworking related tools, some because they were left in the garage when I bought the house, some because I needed them for home repair, and some because of a rented RV that suffered a broken dinette table, and it was cheaper to build a replacement than it was to get one from the MFG, and nobody could tell the difference. Those tools were a Skill jig saw, a Craftsman 3/8" VSR drill, a Ryobi fixed base router, Craftsman 6 piece bit set, and Wolfcraft cheapie table. Along with the mechanics tools that carried over from career #1, tools given to me by friends as they upgraded, and tools that I acquired when the hardware store I worked in during college went out of business and the boss gave me a box of misc tools that we used in the shop including a Skil circular saw, bench vise, Ace hardware 6" grinder, hacksaw, a mess of window screen spline rollers, box cutters, tape measures, hacksaw blades, and a myriad of drill bits. This was far from a workshop though, this was still a garage with some tools in it.
And so it sat, mostly because I was spending time (and money) pursuing other hobbies, particularly blondes, brunettes, and most importantly red heads… All the while this goofy looking guy with a beard and a plaid shirt would come on every week, enticing me back to the hobby I enjoyed so much as a teen, but have been unable to pursue as an adult… I watched, dreamed, and went out of my skull meeting new people and just having fun…
Needless to say, she happened, a firey red haired angel that got my attention… Time, attention, and finances went to dating, and then moving forward it was obvious we needed to be married, so we busted our hides and did a proper wedding, and honeymoon. You know it's amazing how much Cup O Noodles a guy can put up with for lunches when trying to shovel cash aside for a trip to Cancun… But that is a different story all together…
After the wedding, and the finances returning to normal, my lovely bride noted that I am always tinkering with things, and building this, that or the other thing, and I should put together a shop (Thank God for a wife that grew up with brothers, and a Dad that are tinkerers and craftsmen), so I started, slowly, putting a shop together. At first thinking I was just going to put together something I could stash aside and pull the car into the garage…
Now that car is an F150 super cab 4×4 lifted on 35×12.50 mud tires. Even if it was a 2wd on stock rubber, just fitting the mirrors between the door jambs is a challenge. Why I insisted on wanting to keep the shop small at first I do not know… I had even toyed with the idea of a shop in a dedicated outbuilding, but my HOA restrictions being what they are, meant no shop building big enough for me was going to happen, and even without the HOA, I would never get a building big enough on my little suburban lot.
So what to do about building up a shop? I already had a good amount of stuff stored in the garage, camping, hunting, lawn & garden type stuff. And I did NOT want to be tripping over tents, coolers, and lawn mowers to get to my table saw, and routers…
Well, that will just have to wait for installment #2. There is a reason I made this a series you know! There would be no way anyone would read the history and thought process of my shop all the way through beginning to end. But string y'all along and you might just stay interested…
This entry, the first in the series Workshop Development." is where we get into the wayback machine, and go for a little history lesson. Specifically, how, and why I went from a guy with a garage and some tools, to being a guy with a workshop in progress. Not sure if I will ever be done, but at least it is in progress!
In the beginning there was a garage, Dave saw the garage and said it was good… Hmmm okay maybe a little to grandiose for my posting… Let me try again…
In early 2002, I was in a lousy domestic situation, with one upside, I had just closed on a suburban Houston home, with a garage. Now this garage was on the smallish size, and lacked anything nicer than a structure, a door, a single dual recepticle outlet, and a single bare light bulb, I am guessing for interrogation purposes, because it simply was insufficient for giving any real light to the garage, but it had to do. Due to the lousy domestics, the only "shop" I was able to squeak in was my existing tool box from my prior career as a mechanic, and a simpson strong tie workbench made from 2Ă—4s (free, neighbor was throwing them out after a completed remodel project), a sheet of cheap sheathing grade 3/4" plywood complete with dips, knots, and other fun stuff, Strong ties, and screws. That same bench still serves in my shop today.
Fast forward a mere year and a half, and the domestic issue had completely changed, I got the house (big deal) and the Dog (I know this sounds funny, but he was all I wanted out of the whole deal, and to get away from her…) Now I have a 2 car garage, all to myself.
Now in the time span between getting the house, and getting free of Mrs. mistake, I had acquired a few woodworking related tools, some because they were left in the garage when I bought the house, some because I needed them for home repair, and some because of a rented RV that suffered a broken dinette table, and it was cheaper to build a replacement than it was to get one from the MFG, and nobody could tell the difference. Those tools were a Skill jig saw, a Craftsman 3/8" VSR drill, a Ryobi fixed base router, Craftsman 6 piece bit set, and Wolfcraft cheapie table. Along with the mechanics tools that carried over from career #1, tools given to me by friends as they upgraded, and tools that I acquired when the hardware store I worked in during college went out of business and the boss gave me a box of misc tools that we used in the shop including a Skil circular saw, bench vise, Ace hardware 6" grinder, hacksaw, a mess of window screen spline rollers, box cutters, tape measures, hacksaw blades, and a myriad of drill bits. This was far from a workshop though, this was still a garage with some tools in it.
And so it sat, mostly because I was spending time (and money) pursuing other hobbies, particularly blondes, brunettes, and most importantly red heads… All the while this goofy looking guy with a beard and a plaid shirt would come on every week, enticing me back to the hobby I enjoyed so much as a teen, but have been unable to pursue as an adult… I watched, dreamed, and went out of my skull meeting new people and just having fun…
Needless to say, she happened, a firey red haired angel that got my attention… Time, attention, and finances went to dating, and then moving forward it was obvious we needed to be married, so we busted our hides and did a proper wedding, and honeymoon. You know it's amazing how much Cup O Noodles a guy can put up with for lunches when trying to shovel cash aside for a trip to Cancun… But that is a different story all together…
After the wedding, and the finances returning to normal, my lovely bride noted that I am always tinkering with things, and building this, that or the other thing, and I should put together a shop (Thank God for a wife that grew up with brothers, and a Dad that are tinkerers and craftsmen), so I started, slowly, putting a shop together. At first thinking I was just going to put together something I could stash aside and pull the car into the garage…
Now that car is an F150 super cab 4×4 lifted on 35×12.50 mud tires. Even if it was a 2wd on stock rubber, just fitting the mirrors between the door jambs is a challenge. Why I insisted on wanting to keep the shop small at first I do not know… I had even toyed with the idea of a shop in a dedicated outbuilding, but my HOA restrictions being what they are, meant no shop building big enough for me was going to happen, and even without the HOA, I would never get a building big enough on my little suburban lot.
So what to do about building up a shop? I already had a good amount of stuff stored in the garage, camping, hunting, lawn & garden type stuff. And I did NOT want to be tripping over tents, coolers, and lawn mowers to get to my table saw, and routers…
Well, that will just have to wait for installment #2. There is a reason I made this a series you know! There would be no way anyone would read the history and thought process of my shop all the way through beginning to end. But string y'all along and you might just stay interested…