ferstler's Workshop

Howard, you have organized your shop well and you have accumulated a nice set of tools to play with as well. Nice idea on the charging stations as well. Putting them on the wall saves valuable bench space. You have a nice shop. I would enjoy working in there.

Thanks for the pictures. I really enjoyed the tour.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I like tidy! A+

Thanks for sharing. Now I have to clean up the puddle of drool on my laptop….

-- christopheralan http://www.projectwoodworks.com http://www.ProjectWoodworks.etsy.com My Stuff for Sale! http://www.zazzle.com/christopheralan PWW Shirts and Gear!

I wish I had a shop this dust free. Nice collection of tools and very well organized.

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Great looking shop. You are my kind of guy. A place for everything and everything in its place. Thanks for posting.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Looks like a nice shop to “hide away” in. Seperate from the house. Well organized and super clean!
Thanks 4 posting.

-- Longovette@Roadruner.com

Great looking shop and a great selection of tools!

Thanks for the post

Callum

-- For wood working podcasts with a twist check out http://thetimberkid.com/

You have a real cool shop.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Its really great how organized you are. I can speak from experience… you have to be tidy in a small shop. Well done.

-- Check out my new website! http://www.blakeweberwoodworking.com

Man I would kill for a shop like that…...clean…..... organized…I bet you can even find tools as you need them….nice looking shop..

-- Todd, Oak Ridge, TN, Hello my name is Todd and I'm a Toolholic, I bought my last tool 10 days, no 4 days, oh heck I bought a tool on the way here! †

This is really a well organized shop. I see that you are a Ridgid fan. How do they work for you. I use to have the whole ridgid set but had to sell them when I went to Iraq. I just knew that when I got back they would be rusted up with them being in storage for three years. I am going to pick up the whole lot back up as they are really within my budget and the performance is good. I just need to get a place like yours to really get going.

-- Ed E. " Taking one board at a time "

My Ridgid gear works very well, indeed. I did have to diddle with the band saw to get it to not vibrate so much. Others who have purchased it have had no such problems, so I imagine that it is always the luck of the draw when buying such items.

My shop is both air conditioned (in the summer) and dehumidified, and so when the place is closed up I do not have much of an issue with rust or mildew. I also have plenty of Borax powder scattered around to kill off any intruding bugs that want to make the place a home.

Of course, unless one stores the gear in a climate-controlled storage facility when going somewhere for a long time, it is a good idea to just sell and start over as you plan to do.

I posted an exterior picture of the shop on this site some time back, and I was hoping to post it again in this reply, too, but I’ll be darned if I can find a way to do it. I will see if I can add a photo to the original group that shows the exterior.

Anyway, regarding the shop layout and construction, the main (central) section is just an old 10×12 storage shed. I installed a small room on the back (5×11) to store garden gear a while back, and then a short while afterwards installed the wing on the right (9×7), with the roof dovetailing into the original roof. The building sits on concrete piers and 4×4 timbers, with 2×4 and 2×6 PT framing under the floor, although the final addition did have posts concreted into the ground on the far right. Standard house trailer hurricane strap tiedowns anchor the four corners of the original building.

The original roof rafters were on 24-inch centers, but I added new trusses, giving the area 12-inch centers. (I was concerned that tree branches would slam into the roof during a storm.) The back addition has the rafters on 12 inch centers, too, but the addition on the right only has 16-inch centers. The orginal building’s floor was 3/4-inch plywood, but I nailed and glued an additional 1/2-inch layer. The additions both have 1/2-inch and 3/8-inch plywood sheets nailed and glued together for flooring. This thicker flooring (1.25-inch in the main area and 7/8-inch elsewhere) does allow for better stability with the tools and benches.

The original deck has been enlarged twice, and is not big enough to do the job.

Howard Ferstler

Well, there is no space for the additional picture, so you will have to hunt up “Workshop Exterior” and see what the place looks like. I posted the exterior photo 222 days ago. My, how time flies.

Note the electrical outlet to the right of the door. I have since added a second to the right of the guy in the picture. That lets me better hook up extra gear without having to run long cords through the open door to interior jacks.

Howad Ferstler

Wow, talk about 100 gallons on a 50 gallon drum. Great shop, so clean and well organized. I wish my house looked like that!
I also own several Ridgid tools and have been very happy with them.

-- The only thing wrong with instant gratification is that it's not fast enough.

A great shop well organised and lots of good tools too.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

Yeah, the place is well organized. There is not much dust, either, since I work to keep the place dust free for a better place to let paint and urethane coatings dry, although the whole area has been powdered down with borax to kill any bugs. Works well, that stuff.

The small Delta planer at the right in the third shot (on the bench) has since been sold. Its existence was redundant, given that I have the larger Ridgid unit. I also have purchased several Ryobi 18-volt lithium batteries to replace the troublesome nicads I had been using. (Gave the nicads and their charger to a neighbor.) A dedicated charger for the lithiums now sits under the Ridgid chargers. The Ridgid 12-volt nicads seem to be holding up quite well. I also built a hanging rack to hold the battery powered drills.

This place is decently fiber-board insulated in the roof area, but I plan on eventually sheathing the outer walls with insulation, too, and then covering that with another layer of something like T-1-11. Then, all I need to do is install a refrigerator, air mattress, sink, shower, and toilet and I can move in, leaving the house to the wife. (That last sentence is my idea of a joke – I hope.)