Tim from Iowa City's Workshop

I have a basement shop. Unfortunately space is limited, but it works for me. My workbench is an old door I picked up a few years back from my brother during a renovation. It sits on a couple of old metal cabinets I picked up at a garage sale for $10 each. I am a big Grizzly tool fan, so many of my larger tools are from Grizzly. I’ll try to post some pictures when I get the chance. I always like to get shop ideas from others.

UPDATE: I added pictures! The first picture enters the shop. I have a couple of old entertainment center cabinets that I converted to rolling toolchest with drawers—nothing fancy put I keep a lot of hand tools, bits, chisels, and so on in those units. I have a Dewalt scroll saw, Grizzly table saw, Grizzly router table with Bosch router mounted in the next picture. The metal desk was free off Craigslist. I also picked up the TV on Craigslist. The wall cabinets are full of odds and ends. I have a couple of metal cabinets not shown that have a large number of my power tools. The Craftsman ShopVac connects to my Rigid sander and Grizzly router table. It works well for those two stations. I have two Jet dust collectors—one is mounted to the ceiling for air filtration and the other controls the dust collection for the majority of my larger tools. The Rigid sander sits on top of an old kitchen cabinet that was torn during a renovation. It has four functional drawers. My workbench is an old door that sits on two metal file cabinets. The door is very heavy. I abuse it. That’s what it is for. Right now I am painting a coffee table I made for my wife. I also have an old rocking chair that I picked up for free. It needs to be fixed. I have it queued up waiting for a helping hand. I have a number of wood racks. They work great and get my wood out of the way. Right now I am saving my pennies for a new bandsaw. You can see the hole between the Makita miter saw and the Jet DC. I have a Delta drill press that I have mounted to an old AV cart. Looking further you’ll see my planer mounted high on the wall. That works great for me as I need all the space I can get. I am simply taking advantage of some vertical space. I feed the wood thru at about shoulder height. I have an outfeed table that catches the wood on the other side. I can now fit my miter saw under the planer and out of the way. I simply pull out the miter saw when I need it. I have a Grizzly jointer. I really like that. I’ll try to put up a review on the jointer at some point. I also have a Performax sander. I picked that up from a widow that lost her husband a few years back. It is in like new condition and hopefully her former husband can live through me a bit. Yes – I have a fire extinguisher, as well as a wooden cross that I made to protect me and the shop. It has done well so far. Sorry for the long response. It is my sanctuary.

-- Tim from Iowa City, IA