ScruffyShoppe

I retired on disability after 30 years accounting & 6 years of running a ripsaw for a furniture mill. Love working with wood, but can no longer work for more than a few hours at a time, and can't sit or stand for more than an hour or so at a time. So I can rest when needed, I refurbished an 8x12 storage area attached to my home, integrating it with an added 8x12 shed on a slightly lower level. I built a work bench between them, 4' wide and 7' long. I store my trike [Sun recumbant] under the shed side and my router, router table, sliding/bevel/miter saw and other tools under the shop side. My 8 1/2" ShopFox drill press is mounted on a tool cabinet on the opposite wall, next to my B & D 10" Table Saw. Next to that is my 16" Scroll Saw. The Table Saw and Miter Saw can be readily moved to the carport for cutting down sheets of plywood and long stock. The upper level shop with its 3+' wide door opens onto the carport deck. The lower level shop/shed 4' door opens on the carport level. There is a stepped walkthrough inside between the upper & lower levels. This actually helps me get from my home to the carport gradually - osteoarthritis in knees and ankles. Since I have a 25# lifting limit, most of my work is small items: stools, shelves, intarsia artwork, signs & lettering. I don't need a lathe in my work and if I my tools are inadequate for the task, my local Senior Center has a full-scale Wood Shop that has the higher capacity equipment - 15" drill press, full size table saw with sled & jigs, jointer, 24" planer/sander as well as the full range of drills, sanders, screw drivers, clamps, etc. When I built the shop, 3 walls are pegboard on the upper 2/3. Set between the ScrollSaw and the intershop doorway, I have a design table with book shelves set on 2 2-drawer file cabinets, which is my main work area for designing, carving, woodburning, dremel tool shaping, acrylic painting. Finish staining & painting is done in the carport, which has a nice breeze most of the time. A ShopVac air cleaner and a Shop Vac Wet-Dry (8 gal/3HP)adapted as a 2 1/2" dust collecter, supplement the canvas sawdust collecters attached to many of the tools. I also have a portable small vise and a Gripmaster vise with attachments. A Ryobi Biscuit Cutter, a B & D 14v hand drill, a Makita 7.4 hand drill, a Skil Jigsaw, a Skil Plunge Router, and B&D Sandstorm & Mouse detail sanders and a Makita square hand sander, round out my joining & shaping needs. The lower shop is my husbands mechanic & bullet press area. He has two worktables along the walls with storage for tools and supplies on shelves & cabinets above and below. On the workbench near the intershop doorway is an 8" Bench Grinder we got from WoodCraft. The drill press and miter saw are angled so long stock can extend thru the open doorway. I am surprised at how versatile I could make an 8x12 area. Most of the workspace is open with tools stored or hanging on the pegboard. The corner between my scrollsaw and design table is where I put my wood stock - up to 3' long. longer wood, dowels, moulding, coving, etc is hanging from the ceiling cradled in 3 rubber bungies on large cuphooks - in the lower shop/shed. Christi B