Ron Alley

You surely have some clever ideas and an eye for efficiency that I envy.

Please continue posting your work toward completing your shop. Where are you located?

The intended advantage of the system seems to be that it offers precision, repeatable curve following routing in one-off work.

The system seems to have a flaw in the interaction between the operator and the system. I am not sure whether, or how much, it will improve the performance of an operator following a line. Let me explain.

The operator must guide the router to a position that is close to a line and the router will remove material up to the line. The system includes a screen that shows both the line and the tool path. Apparently, through operator error, the tool can be maneuvered so as to cross the line and remove material from the wrong side of the line. Presumably, the tool would guide the cutter back to the line but the part nevertheless would be ruined.

I think this tool offers significant advantage in that it removes material from the waste side of a cut line far more accurately than handheld router. But it probably will not prevent an operator from crossing over the cut line as effectively as a template and guide..

I am familiar with powdered metal in bearing applications, but not as a tool steel. I wonder whether it will prove too brittle for cutting tool applications. My thoughts are that it may be similar to carbide, long wearing, brittle and and easily damaged by dropping. In theory, we should never drop a tools. But the real world intervenes and that theory just doesn't hold.

I copied and followed your link. Got the warning - Possible Phishing Site - and decided not to open the link. Thought you might be interested

Lightning strikes? Maybe.

Great book!

Matthew Teague's article on his compact garage shop has been my inspiration for the work-in-progress 3rd bay garage shop. I'd really enjoy adding this book to my bookshelf.

This piece absolutely blew me away. I googled Sun City West Woodworking Club and wound up at the Sun City Clubs site. Imagine 32 interest clubs in a single community. The annual dues for the woodworking club? $25!!

The power of collective action is awesome indeed.

Your shop is great and an inspiration. I love your cabinet and countertop as well as the handbuilt door.

Let me explain why your shop is an inspiration. I'm retired (therefore a hobbyist) and building a shop of my own. It is a bit smaller than yours (the 9'3" x 19'5" third bay in my garage) and so many of the shops in the gallery are just too large to be an inspiration. It's also in a climate that requires some insulation and heating (i.e. not heated and cooled by California breezes).

The best inspiration I have found to date is an old article in Fine Woodworking by Matthew Teague. Your shop is great because you have done some things in a different way and I need another good example.

Check your links. I get page not found for many.

I loved Basic Box Making and small cabinets seem like a small step for mankind but a giant leap for me.

Magnificent, and inspirational.

It's rhythm and blues in a box not private woodworking instruction in box.

Tinker, Tanker, Dreamer, Thinker?

What a makeover!

I love your solution. It shows real insight into the strengths and limitations of tools as well as the mechanics of jig construction.

A real triumph.

Shop envy? Perhaps.

Climate envy? Most definitely!

Why does an otherwise sane person live in Minnesota anyhow?

Doug,

Thanks for the information. My project is coming along slowly. Your information -- especially fuel cost experience has been helpful.

Boat models are something I hope to tackle someday. The symmetry, the thin stock and the waterproof challenges make building model boats challenging. I hope this book provide meaningful advice.

Very nice shop. Lots of floor space. Well conceived and executed.

There are two interrelated issues here. The first is the order of operations and the second is the cut list. Begin by acknowledging that most of us make one-off projects. The project plans we begin with are dimensioned with essentially nominal dimensions. If we begin by cutting every part to those nominal dimensions, measurement error will result in some parts being too large and others too small. The result will be a project that most likely will not be one worthy of photographing for the gallery.

I just can't make a good cut list unless I first address the order of operations required to build a finished project. In almost every final assembly, there are component parts that are "reference" parts which can be cut and machined to essentially final dimensions at the first stage (for example a case). There are other parts which mate with, and must be fitted to, the "reference" parts (for example drawers). There are joinery requirements which usually affect the order of operatiions. Unless I take the time to work through the order of operation issues, cut and machine the reference parts and build critical subassemblies, I won't know the final dimensions of most parts and how much "grind stock" to allow.

A nice job of building a shop.

I live in Rochester, Minnnesota and I am working on designing and building a shop for my garage. You live in a climate similar to mine. So, I would like to ask a few questions.

Does your garage have a floor drain?

How many vehicles do you and your family park in the garage? Do you feel comfortable in leaving cars parked in the driveway?

Do you use your shop in winter, and if so, how do you handle snow melt and road sand on the floor?

What did you do with respect to insulation (walls and ceiling)? What did you do with the seal around the overhead door?

How do you handle those times when you want to work and also want to park one or more vehicles in the garage?

How often do you run your heater and what has been your experience with heating costs?

Thanks for sharing your jig.

Great design and great execution.

Great idea and execution.

I'm working on the plan for a third bay shop in my garage. It is about 170 square feet of soon to be heaven. I've received some good advice from John White and other who responded to my blog post. The best piece on a garage shop of this size I have seen to date is from 2002/2003 FW Tools & Shops, by Michael Teague, entitled "Smart Shop in a One-Car Garage". It is really great, but I like to see this book might update Michael Teague's example.

I really love the design.

The best part of your posting is that the shelves are filled with books. Most postings feature bare, or nearly bare, bookshelves leaving the audience to wonder whether the bookshelves are well-designed, properly sized and look good when filled with books.

Well done.

An inspired interpretation of Wright design. If you have more, please post them too.

I'm curious. What kinds of work or projects do you do? Why a conveyer?

Wow -- Big and roomy, well furnished with tools. A slice of heaven indeed.

Regardless what users may think, manufacturers have steadfastly refused to innovate with respect to radial arm saw design. From my perspective the design of today's radial arm saws has not significantly improved in over sixty years. The arm still lacks rigidity and the adjustments that square the table to the blade need improvement today just as much as the early products.

The sliding miter saws are more rigid and precise than radial arm saws. They will cut sufficiently wide pieces for many, if not most, home shop projects. They take up less (or at least no more) shop space. Most of the people I know who use a radial arm saw use it almost exclusively for crosscuts and miters anyhow. The design compromises that enable the radial arm saw to be used for ripping merely reduce the precision of the tool as actually used.

A few changes to the design would significantly enhance the radial arm saw. The first would be to increase the length of the arm and add an end support, mounted on a rotating plate and attached to a below table beam that pivots around the pivot end support, that would turn the radial arm into a rotating gantry.

The second would be to replace the mdf table with a flat metal table. Four mounting screws and shims could provide consistent alignment of the table with respect to the gantry arm and blade.

A third change would be to replace the wood fence with a rigid aluminum fence that also could be adjusted with shims to provide for precise and stable alignment. The length of the fence could be designed to provide for 3-4-5 alignment to the gantry. These design changes could make the radial arm saw useful.

The fourth change would be to add a zero clearance plate to the saw blade guard that could be set to engage the workpiece being cut to prevent split out

The result could be a "gantry arm" saw that could handle three or four foot crosscuts and extra wide miters.

These are my thoughts and I'm confident that Jet, Delta and DeWalt all employ creative engineers that could do an even better design innovation if they were permitted to innovate.

Most table saw accidents -- like most equipment accidents -- result from operator error. When we read about airplane crashed we are not surprised to learn that in most instances the crashes are the result of pilot (i.e., operator) error. Woodworkers are no more perfect than pilots.

The air safety records of airlines have improved not because the air safety programs have perfected pilot performance but because the air safety programs have sought to improve the safety of the airplane system as a whole.

Shop safety works the same way. We can't improve shop safety by perfecting woodworkers. We can expect dramatic safety improvement only by perfecting the system as a whole.

One obvious improvement to the shop system as a whole would be to require the Saw Stop device on all new saw and provide retrofits to install the Saw Stop device on existing saws. There are newly developed devices that are highly effect in reducing if not eliminating kickback.

Unfortunately, the Saw Stop device is patented and, as long as the patent remains in force, Saw Stop is unlikely to license its device to other manufacturers or to market a retrofit system.

Nice shop.

Well, product improvement often comes as a result of tort cases and improvement is not all bad. Just think how much safer you are today with shatterproof glass windshields than the driver long ago who won the landmark case against Buick.

Progress isn't all bad, but it is sad that manufacturers can't get ahead of the curve on product safety.

Product safety improvements, and manufacturers' failure to make product safety improvements are best understood by looking at game theory and the Prisoners Dilemma. Many noted economists have written on the economics of such decisions.

Oh, and don't worry about Ryobi, the verdict for the injured consumer didn't even make a serious inroad in its stamp drawer.