Dodge
Established Member
Several of you will have already been to my workshop but for those who havn't here is a little tour - I have been in my premises for just under 15 years at Shelfanger Hall - the building is an old grain store which remains lovely and cool in the summer- but with good insulation soon warms up in the winter and holds the warmth.
My main bench sits along the front wall with cupboard storage underneath (The place where all those odd machine bits and unused tools get stored!) - Plenty of natural light from the window. Main hand tools, saws/chisels etc are all in racks easily to hand above the bench - Note the new Narex chisels behind my Kirschens.
AT the end of the bench are all my screws/fixings and a random orbit sander which is permanently connected to an auto switching vacuum.
This bench sits at the other end of my workshop and is slightly lower as it is used mainly by my wife when she is in the workshop with me - There is another smaller bench still which is my boys - bit like goldilocks and the three bears! - Whose been using my bench?
Sharpening station - bench grinder, Sheppach Tiger, cheap Clarke belt jobbie as well as lapping glass, diamond stones etc in the drawers - always ready to reapply an edge.
Sip 12" cast iron table saw does the job for me - got fed up with the sliding carriage and do nearly all the cross cutting on my radial arm saw anyway.
I have a roller cabinet which sits neatly under the cast table which contains my router cutters, spindle tooling, spare saw blades, carving tools etc. I also have a 50l SIP vacuum extractor mounted to the side of the saw which is used for dedicated extraction off the crown guard which works very well - The main extraction from the cabinet of the saw is via an Axminster extractor.
As I said before - Radial arm saw gets used alot and is connected to a Record DX5000 extractor - I have got this unit fitted with a remote control for auto switching from the RAS - I did away with the old stand for the RAS as it was tool low and after acquiring an old missile trolley from a military surplus store in Diss made the cabinet upon which it stands now.
Ok I know the bags are over full but I emptied them today (Honest) - The Axminster extractor is used for my Surfacer, thicknesser, table saw, bandsaw and panel sander - with standard flexi pipe with blast gates. I used to have a soil pipe ducted system but got fed up with not being able to see where a blockage was if one occurred!
Planes and routers are kept in one steel cabinet, beside this stands another in which all other hand power tools are stored - Ok I have already heard some say you cannot mix electrickery with traditional planes but in my workshop they are all the tools of my trade and get used - These tools get used daily - not show items. This is the home of my new quangshengs!
Record router table with triton router fitted - I also have a pair of vacuum extractors behind this - one for the top port and one to feed straight off the router. These are plugged into the NVR of the router table and with the router being soft start they auto start when switching on the router without tripping electrics or blowing fuses.
My SIP morticer is mounted on the end of one of my lathes - yes you did read that correctly - I have a very large old lathe which will turn up to 9' length with 24" swing over the bed - It doesn't often get used but is worth its weight in gold when I have large table pedestals to turn - Now to make you jealous I paid £200 for it about 12 years ago - basically what the vendor was going to get as scrap value if they weighed it in - It has a DC motor with infinately variable drive.
You can see a bit more of it here - that hand wheel on the tailstock is about 10" in diameter to give you an idea of size.
My other lathe which gets used for day to day turnings is a Record - I learnt on a Coronet Elf and still have it in store - The elf was a cracking lathe to learn on and is up for sale if anyone is interested.
Jet Spindle moulder with SIP extractor permanently connected - but I tend to move this and use this area for assembling large projects.
Jet Surfacer
Woodrat - Wall mounted and again with a vacuum bucket permanently connected for extraction.
Axminster plus bandsaw - SW4300 - with tuffsaw M42 blade of course.
Axminster Thicknesser, just behind it as an Axminster senior panel sander.
12" disc sander mounted on another old trolley I acquired from somewhere or other - The little bulldog vacuum sits underneath it for extraction and works very well.
Most important piece of kit for the cold winter days - woodburner not only gets rid of waste and keep us warm but is regularly used to cook bacon for butties and warm pasties etc - who needs a microwave - well I have got one of those too but rarely gets used - Upstairs in the office I also have the all important espresso maker - no instant muck or decaff in my workshop - Pure caffeine all the way!
I then have a separate building that I use for my timberstore
This side is mainly French and English Oak
Under the polythene here are Burr Tiger Oak (Yes Hens teeth do exist!), Elm, English Yew and the remains of a butt of lacewood.
This side has the mahogany boards, as well as pre- turned components left over from when I used to do a bit more re-production type work - There are also three large beech end grain butchers blocks sitting there if anyone is planning to make one - They cost me a fortune a few years ago for a project which never went ahead!
Another pile of English Yew - Some of you may have noted the buckets and tubs around the store - the roof leaks a little but only in specific spots when it rains heavily - otherwise it is perfectly dry - the spiders webs confirm that!
I hope you have found this interesting - it has taken me a while to get my workshop to how I like it and also the tools that do the job I want - obviously it is all down to personal choice and what suits me may be hated by another individual
Rog
My main bench sits along the front wall with cupboard storage underneath (The place where all those odd machine bits and unused tools get stored!) - Plenty of natural light from the window. Main hand tools, saws/chisels etc are all in racks easily to hand above the bench - Note the new Narex chisels behind my Kirschens.
AT the end of the bench are all my screws/fixings and a random orbit sander which is permanently connected to an auto switching vacuum.
This bench sits at the other end of my workshop and is slightly lower as it is used mainly by my wife when she is in the workshop with me - There is another smaller bench still which is my boys - bit like goldilocks and the three bears! - Whose been using my bench?
Sharpening station - bench grinder, Sheppach Tiger, cheap Clarke belt jobbie as well as lapping glass, diamond stones etc in the drawers - always ready to reapply an edge.
Sip 12" cast iron table saw does the job for me - got fed up with the sliding carriage and do nearly all the cross cutting on my radial arm saw anyway.
I have a roller cabinet which sits neatly under the cast table which contains my router cutters, spindle tooling, spare saw blades, carving tools etc. I also have a 50l SIP vacuum extractor mounted to the side of the saw which is used for dedicated extraction off the crown guard which works very well - The main extraction from the cabinet of the saw is via an Axminster extractor.
As I said before - Radial arm saw gets used alot and is connected to a Record DX5000 extractor - I have got this unit fitted with a remote control for auto switching from the RAS - I did away with the old stand for the RAS as it was tool low and after acquiring an old missile trolley from a military surplus store in Diss made the cabinet upon which it stands now.
Ok I know the bags are over full but I emptied them today (Honest) - The Axminster extractor is used for my Surfacer, thicknesser, table saw, bandsaw and panel sander - with standard flexi pipe with blast gates. I used to have a soil pipe ducted system but got fed up with not being able to see where a blockage was if one occurred!
Planes and routers are kept in one steel cabinet, beside this stands another in which all other hand power tools are stored - Ok I have already heard some say you cannot mix electrickery with traditional planes but in my workshop they are all the tools of my trade and get used - These tools get used daily - not show items. This is the home of my new quangshengs!
Record router table with triton router fitted - I also have a pair of vacuum extractors behind this - one for the top port and one to feed straight off the router. These are plugged into the NVR of the router table and with the router being soft start they auto start when switching on the router without tripping electrics or blowing fuses.
My SIP morticer is mounted on the end of one of my lathes - yes you did read that correctly - I have a very large old lathe which will turn up to 9' length with 24" swing over the bed - It doesn't often get used but is worth its weight in gold when I have large table pedestals to turn - Now to make you jealous I paid £200 for it about 12 years ago - basically what the vendor was going to get as scrap value if they weighed it in - It has a DC motor with infinately variable drive.
You can see a bit more of it here - that hand wheel on the tailstock is about 10" in diameter to give you an idea of size.
My other lathe which gets used for day to day turnings is a Record - I learnt on a Coronet Elf and still have it in store - The elf was a cracking lathe to learn on and is up for sale if anyone is interested.
Jet Spindle moulder with SIP extractor permanently connected - but I tend to move this and use this area for assembling large projects.
Jet Surfacer
Woodrat - Wall mounted and again with a vacuum bucket permanently connected for extraction.
Axminster plus bandsaw - SW4300 - with tuffsaw M42 blade of course.
Axminster Thicknesser, just behind it as an Axminster senior panel sander.
12" disc sander mounted on another old trolley I acquired from somewhere or other - The little bulldog vacuum sits underneath it for extraction and works very well.
Most important piece of kit for the cold winter days - woodburner not only gets rid of waste and keep us warm but is regularly used to cook bacon for butties and warm pasties etc - who needs a microwave - well I have got one of those too but rarely gets used - Upstairs in the office I also have the all important espresso maker - no instant muck or decaff in my workshop - Pure caffeine all the way!
I then have a separate building that I use for my timberstore
This side is mainly French and English Oak
Under the polythene here are Burr Tiger Oak (Yes Hens teeth do exist!), Elm, English Yew and the remains of a butt of lacewood.
This side has the mahogany boards, as well as pre- turned components left over from when I used to do a bit more re-production type work - There are also three large beech end grain butchers blocks sitting there if anyone is planning to make one - They cost me a fortune a few years ago for a project which never went ahead!
Another pile of English Yew - Some of you may have noted the buckets and tubs around the store - the roof leaks a little but only in specific spots when it rains heavily - otherwise it is perfectly dry - the spiders webs confirm that!
I hope you have found this interesting - it has taken me a while to get my workshop to how I like it and also the tools that do the job I want - obviously it is all down to personal choice and what suits me may be hated by another individual
Rog
