Workshop tour - lets see yours!

[Tod Gilding]

Well Paul, Im Impressed That's a well thought out shop mate.

[Nick]

I'm loving the 'pull out' options on your centre bench Paul, personally I'd have to employ a dwarf to use the planer & sander as I'd get sore knees (bloody arthritis) using it but very ingenious use of normally dead space!

[ozwood]

'm loving the 'pull out' options on your centre bench Paul, personally I'd have to employ a dwarf to use the palner & sander as I'd get sore knees(bloody arthritis) using it but very ingenious use of normally dead space!

I sit on a little stool Nick! no problems.


Cheers,

[Paul B]

Paul! Great shop! Looks like you were thinking about it, and built it when you knew what you were doing.

I guess most of us start out and our shop just kind of evolves as we learn and find out what works for us (as 'We' evolve as builders, if you want to get spiritual). Until we get to the point when we want to pull it down, start from scratch, and come up with a work space very much like yours.

And I bet we all do it at some point. It's probably a natural phenomenon like GAS, or WAS. The 'Need More Shed' Phenomenon..

[charangohabsburg]

Not sure if I already showed this one somewhere else in the forum. This was when I decided in 2008 (after almost a decade of kitchentable-lutherie) to move my chip making activities to a spacier place and to convert my trusty swiss spruce (or fir) dining table temporarily into a reasonable sturdy workbench (note its base - without standing on it during hand planing etc. I would constantly take a walk with the bench...



Of course I had to make some additions to my convertible "dining bench". Here some more views of this cosy place.

Not shown: The wood stash, a third (slightly bigger) tool cart which hosts varnish related items, glue, hand held powertools, vices, my Jointapprentice Hobby A1 and so on. Everything is perfectly "stash-away-able" and I am (still) able to convert the "shed" back into what people call dining room, living room, or whatever.

[lauburu]

Now that's what I call dedication to luthierie
Personally, I'd have to go and have a lie down after getting the "shed" set up.
By the time I recovered, it'd be time to pull it all apart again
Miguel

[Tod Gilding]

Marcus, I like the way that you have trained all those Jigs and bracing to jump onto the table all by themselves, Amazing

[nnickusa]

Markus, you MUST be single. I'm sure my wife wouldn't let anything like that happen in our house. Last time I tried to make a work board that I could carry around, it turned into this.....

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[charangohabsburg]

[...] Last time I tried to make a work board that I could carry around, it turned into this.....
[...]

I don't see the problem. You can carry it around, can't you?
Nice table, BTW.

[nnickusa]

I'm not allowed to move it, and I'm also not allowed to build in the hallway

And, thanks.

[kiwigeo]

Not sure if I already showed this one somewhere else in the forum. This was when I decided in 2008 (after almost a decade of kitchentable-lutherie) to move my chip making activities to a spacier place and to convert my trusty swiss spruce (or fir) dining table temporarily into a reasonable sturdy workbench (note its base - without standing on it during hand planing etc. I would constantly take a walk with the bench...

Swiss army table?

[nnickusa]

[rocket]

I'm embarrassed, after looking at those state of the art shops there's no way i'm sticking pics of my humble poor excuse for a lutherie workshop on here.
Rod.

[charangohabsburg]

So am I Rod.
But you know, the one who makes/made most guitars on the kitchen table, in the living room or in the bedroom wins.

[needsmorecowbel]

Marcus I really truly hope you haven't found a way to make guitars in the bedroom. Some Sciences should not be meddled with...

[charangohabsburg]

Marcus I really truly hope you haven't found a way to make guitars in the bedroom. Some Sciences should not be meddled with...

Don't worry, it is absolutely impossible to to make guitars in my bedroom because it is the place where my tonewood lives - no space left for other "activities" than stashing wood and sleeping.

[Taffy Evans]

I have been a bit slack getting to contribute to this thread as I had to retake photo’s of the workshops due to things changing over the years. All done now but there is so many pic’s I will post each work area separately.
Starting at.......
The front gate, down the driveway to the front door.

The front door takes you into the office/showroom. Another door in the office enters the house. The shed is very large and is attached to the house; I have made it into four separate work areas for ease of: control of visitors, cooling, humidifying, dust and paint spraying, in an outside spray room etc.

I used to have customers coming into the workshop which was a pain, so I put in this office/showroom and lined it, it is all insulated and the ceiling is corrugated sheet steel.

In this room customers arrive, I practice, record, and use the computer as well as display finished instruments and jobs in progress.

Going round clockwise........

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Showing door into workshops

[Taffy Evans]

Next is the repair shop, lots of tools and little jigs in draws as I'm out of wall space to hang things, even using the ceiling.

In here I have a bench for general repairs, a bench for fretting re-fretting work, bench for fiddles/cello's and the like, two other benches that guitars etc are stored on in-between stages of repair and and island bench that takes violins the double bass's.

Enjoy the tour.

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main repair bench.

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End of main bench

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other end of main bench showing fret work area

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off end of fret bench the violin cello work bench

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the waiting in line benches jobs awaiting further work

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showing down center of repair shop, into building shop

[Nick]

Geez Taffy, all that stuff hanging on the walls! Thought that's what benches were for
It's funny, after our little shakes over the past two years I look at things completely differently now & I see stuff hanging on walls & immediately think "What if that lot falls off?" I still have books sitting on the floor rather than bookcases, the expensive ones especially. But of course you don't have those worries I noticed the full set of long grabby things for those a) pesky screws or picks that insist in falling into the furthest reaches of a guitar & refuse to come out. or b) holding pots or jack plugs in normally unaccessable areas.

[J.F. Custom]

Taff mate...

Your workshop is the sort of place I could poke around in for hours and not come out for weeks.

Just the sort of place I'd like to turn up to if I were a muso - inspires confidence. In fact, just inspiring.

I think my entire workshop could slot into one corner or your 'repair area'...

Jeremy.

[Trevor Gore]

I think my entire workshop could slot into one corner or your 'repair area'...

I think my entire house and workshop could slot into a corner of some of the "sheds" in this thread.

[Taffy Evans]

Thanks for the comments guy's.....the tour continues. This next work area is where I do the clean building work, buffing, drilling and covered up there is a Tormec wet grinder. My fox style bender is used in here and the pipe bender [shown]. Also, but not very well shown is the plate tuning and testing setup. There's three doors in this room which robs me of valuable wall space. This room is air conditioned and a humidifier can be seen [covered up].

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Thanks for looking.........to be cont,

[Allen]

You know Taffy, I really thought I had the most understanding wife in the world, but my hats off to you mate. It's no contest. Taking over the house like that has to have taken some sort of special relationship.

[ozziebluesman]

There's still more yet Allen!

I have had the pleasure to hang out at Taffy's workshop on a number of ocassions and it is pure joy. It is always clean, tidy and very functional.

Keep the pictures coming Taffy.

Cheers

Al

[Taffy Evans]

Hi all, this is the last of my post on the workshop theme. It's my machine shop, the dirty area. The place where dust collects, spiders webs hang from the ceiling as does my wood stash,bandsaw blades and a collection of clamps. The steel cabinet houses all the hand power tools [of which I have too many] and the walls are littered with jigs and aids [some of which I've forgotten what they were for]. The shed outside is the spray room. This is the roomiest place I've got [spray guns and a fan don't take up much space]

Thanks for looking........Oh! there is another shed but that's full of motorbikes, more tools and more jigs and aids.

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There are 16 machines in this room, if you count the bench grinder too.