| Workshop by tomfidgen | posted 637 days ago | 472 reads | 0 times favorited | 8 comments | ![]() |
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Working Wood at Driftwood Boats
I live and work out of my home here on Cape Breton Island.I own and operate a one man boat shop where I build traditional style Wooden Boats. Lately however business has slowed to a grinding halt. This however doesn’t strike fear into me for I use the down time between builds to work on custom Wood Working projects. You can check out the boat building side of things at www.theboatbuilder.ca.
My shop is located in a small garage that was here when we purchased our home. It’s about 20’ by 20’. I’ve since added a bench room on the rear of the building that’s an additional 12’ by 16’. This extra room enabled me to have a machine room in the old garage section and a new bench room in the new. It also helped to have a bit more wood storage space as I can never seem to have enough of that! The room has two large South facing windows and one Eastern. This is a real life saver for me. It enables me to enjoy not only a great view of the area around my shop but makes for all of the natural sunlight I need to work. My wood storage is on the North wall, floor to ceiling. I’ve installed some heavy brackets to the wall studs on 16” centres. This area allows me to keep on hand about 1200 board feet of lumber, getting used to the smell of my Bench Room and becoming ‘climatized’ to it’s current residence. I really think this is a crucial step to Fine Wood Working.
www.workingwood.ca
www.theboatbuilder.ca
-- tom fidgen, www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com

























8 comments so far
GaryK
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9537 posts in 886 days
posted 637 days ago
Nice looking shop! I make boats quite a bit smaller.
-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.
MsDebbieP
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14167 posts in 1058 days
posted 637 days ago
look at all that sunlight shining in!!
Beautiful boats.
And who is the photographer who took the pictures of you?
-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)
trifern
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7895 posts in 665 days
posted 637 days ago
Very nice and inspiring space.
-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.
Eric
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784 posts in 681 days
posted 637 days ago
Hey is that a Chris Schwarz saw bench I see there?
-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com
Scott Bryan
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20754 posts in 720 days
posted 637 days ago
Very nice shop. I am glad to see that it is well guarded.
-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.
tomfidgen
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26 posts in 637 days
posted 636 days ago
eric,
good eye on the saw bench…it is from the pages of woodworking magazine…i changed it slightly to suit my height, and actually mage it a little wider…it works great, i couldn’t live without it.
-- tom fidgen, www.tomfidgen.blogspot.com
Bagtown
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3 posts in 628 days
posted 627 days ago
Hey Tom,
Nice to see a caper on here.
Used to live in Howie Centre just outside Sydney, living in Sackville, NB now.
Nice shop and shop dog.
Mike
-- http://www.heartofsackville.ca/
grovemadman
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558 posts in 669 days
posted 627 days ago
It’s nice having the extra room no doubt. I had a few moments to log on to your website and I just wanted to let you know how much I admire your boats. They are the epitome of true craftsmanship to be sure.
Thanks for the tour!
-- --Chuck