The Shop

I've been building up this shop since June this year, when I started getting more interested in wood working.

The view of the shop.  The table saw is a 13 amp, 10" Ridgid R4512.  It's a really awesome saw with all the features I wanted.  The fence is great, it is very silent, it has a cast iron top and a big power button that I can switch by switching it with my knee.  It can also be lifted and wheeled around, which is another very important feature.  I am going to build a router lift like this one and attach it on the right side of the table.

I made the three drawer cabinet out of 2x4s, plywood and recycled IKEA shelves for the fronts.  The handles are one of my first 3D printed creations. They are very rudimentary.

The bench is a Matthias Wandel design (like many other things in the shop).  It's made out of a solid core door I bought used for $35 and $15 worth of lumber.

I made all of the attachments on the plywood board custom for each tool.  I really don't like peg boards.  This looks much better, and it's fun to make the individual holders.   I made the wooden mallet on the left out of pine wood.  One small thing I should have done to it is adding some weight inside to make it heavier.  I also made that red holder for the caliper with the 3D printer.

This cabinet was a lot of tedious work.  I made the frame out of 1/2" plywood which I routed and glued together.  The front faces are made out of clear PVC, which I cut on the table saw and hot glued to the wood.  The hole for the finger I cut with the bench press.

I learned how important it is to be extremely precise when routing the grooves and cutting it all because 1/16" of an inch off can make the walls be noticeably crooked.  As a matter of fact, some of the error I had in places was such that I decided to not put a separator and instead make extra long drawers, like the one in the bottom right.  This ended up being great anyway so I can fit larger things there.  I love using painters tape to label things.  It's very easy to remove to change the label and very cheap.  I use it for labeling kitchen ingredients too.

That's the clamp holder.  I always end up with clamps laying around all over the shop.

I love having the chargers plugged and ready to go.  The hose the right side is for the shop vac, which sits underneath inside the cabinet.

The cabinet on the left has the cyclone separator and the shop vac inside.  The hose is connected to the table saw most of the time but can be unplugged from there and plugged to another hose I keep inside the cabinet for vacuuming other parts of the shop.  Most of the time I end up cleaning the shop by using a combination of compressed air and a broom to move all the dust to where this hose is, and then from there I vacuum it.  Works pretty well.

I spent the most time figuring out how to store all the spare lumber.  I ended up using three plywood boxes and two shelves.  Each of these store different types of pieces depending on whether they are long or flat, and the size: small medium or large.

These are some table saw inserts I made out of MDF.  These took me a few trials to figure out how to do because the part where the insert sits on the notches on the table needs to be really thin.  This is why I used MDF which I think is a lot stronger than some woods that I tried before. I heard using spare flooring boards works well too, especially because the surface is very polished.  I used small super magnets that I epoxied to the inserts to keep it from moving around.

The insert on the left is a zero clearance insert for the normal blade, the one on the far right is for the dado blades.  The one in the middle is a blank I haven't used yet, but will likely use it next time I need to make an angle cut.

 This sled is another Matthias Wandel inspired piece.  I made this out of some really nice oak plywood I recycled from a cabinet the previous owners left in the house.  I use this sled a lot.

This table is on the back side of the shop and here's where I paint the things I make.  The table top is a $20 hollow core door I picked up recycled.  The cardboard covering the wall is cut from a TV box. 

The shop vac and compressed air are wired to that switch box.

I love Hilti tools.  I have a cordless drill that I use all the time.  This is a hammer drill that's amazing.  It's always plugged and ready to use, which is great.  A bit overkill for most jobs, but I use it nevertheless, because it's such a cool tool.  I'd make lunch with it if I could.