richlife

Talk about over-critical! Those who object to this awesome chest based on their own opinions of what a tool chest "ought" to be or how it "ought" to be used or where it "ought" to be placed "ought" to be keel-hauled. My first thought was "beautiful but not for me -- now what does the tool storage look like?" Having seen how the tools are stored inside, I'm doubly impressed. Won't fit in MY shop, but I've seen MANY shops in which the size would not be a concern and which would have room to protect the beauty of the work. After spending the time to make such a lovely piece, he can now use it as inspiration for other projects as well as having a fine place to store his tools.

My wife always complained that David Marks just CAN'T use that beautiful cabinet in his shop?! (He has several beautiful custom tool cabinets and other work in his large shop.)

I have an extremely small shop which uses every spare space for some kind of storage. But in the smaller finish area, I have a lovely wall-hung, cherry display case to show off my hand-carved sculptures (as well as my ability to design and make furniture). Hardly room to move, but no concern for damaging it or breaking the glass -- just a little constant care.

Congratulations, Gregg, on the stunning workchest and your well-deserved title!

One other thought I had for you and others who have a shop inside your home using the same HVAC system. Be sure you use a 1 micron filter in your cold air return. You don't want your family breathing that micro wooddust whatever the chances you are willing to take.

Kevin, Nice work and my sympathies -- you really have to deal with a SMALL and limited space. Hopefully what I did will give you some ideas that you might use.

My situation wasn't quite as bad as yours since I had a separate 12x16 shed to work with. But I did include all your tools AND my table saw. One of the first things I did was to add a door so that both ends of the shop can open for long space when needed. To do that, I had to add an exterior 6x12 covered deck that also gave me more workspace (exterior sanding station and clamping space). I moved the dust collector outside to that deck and routed its ducts underneath the shop. Finally, I added on a separate room for assembly and finishing -- an additional 9x10 space for a total 182 sq ft plus deck space.

You've gotten a lot of good suggestions and you can see what I've done at my website: http://www.beauhavenwoodworking.com/bh_views.htm . I'd suggest moving the dust collector out asap. To minimize heat loss, I added a filtered air return at the top of the closet to recover some of the warm air -- not perfect, but better than freezing air replacing the heated air.

I hung stuff all over my shop trying to fill all wall space and every corner (even ceiling corners). Since open air (natural light) is important to me, I have many windows which limited that space utilization, but you can see it still works out.

My last suggestion is to re-look at getting that garage rebuilt, reworked, or at least some usable space (finsh area?). My total cost for the 9x10 addition was $1400. I purchased studs etc. new as required, used all my leftover sheet goods as available, and especially took advantage of our local Habitat for Humanity store (visited several times a week). The large corner windows (while not matched in size or type) are Low-E and cost me only $130. In fact, the custom tempered glass itself for my converted folding French doors ($10 each) cost me as much as those windows. It doesn't show in those older pictures, but I've added full size tempered glass inserts in my double opening front doors by using the glass from shower doors contributed to the Habitat store (tempered glass can't be cut, you must get an acceptable size). $1400 for a 9x10 workspace, fully insulated seems like a pretty good deal to me. Oh, and that also includes large floor to ceiling built-in storage cabinets along one wall which provide sides to my spray booth vented through a speical window I made and an additional airconditioner and air cleaner for the room. Stunning what you can get for $1400 if you really try.