Houston, We Have a Wood Shop!

Wood stash, horizontal wood and metal bandsaw, compound miter saw, shop vac, table saw.

I'm not going to call it a studio--we have enough of those as it is and this new work area is something special. It's my manly cave. I can't have a man cave as I am missing some necessary parts requisite for membership in that club (borrowing Dave's doesn't count), but I can have a manly cave, and I do! I am not exaggerating about the caveness of the space: the room has no windows and no glass in the doors either. It's also under the house accessed from under the deck. The floor is concrete, the walls are stark white, and there is a window A/C unit sticking through a non-window in the wall to the outside. I replaced the A/C unit today for $139 and am using it to further dry the lumber. (Home Depot is having a thing where if you open a Home Depot card you can have $100 off your purchase. I already had a card, but the clerk told me you can have up to five so... Score)!

Table saw (again), 14" bandsaw, 6" joiner, 10" planer, wood stash (again)

My carpenter, Craig, and his assistant Darren unloaded and set up all the equipment for me (I couldn't even lift half of it), and they also moved all the wood out of the trailer and stacked it to dry in the wood shop. As I looked at all the pieces as they came out of the trailer today I realized I have an extra slab and its accompanying cut-off. Each slab is eight feet long and has a four-foot cutoff. So I not only have the three slabs for the bed, one slab for the desk, and one cut-off for desk and bed shelving, but I also have an enormous slab for a new glass and wood dining room table with a cut-off for a leaf for it and three more cut-offs for tables! The one thing I don't have and expected is a 2 X 8 for the bed. I have the 2 X 10's, and the 4 x 4's, but not the one 2 X 8 I needed for the shelf behind the headboard. But never fear--I'll figure something out. Monday we learn to oxyacetylene weld and do our class designs, and I'm going to propose the desk even though it's so large I won't be able to take all the materials to class to work on it! I'll do the welding there and the shelves, but I'll do the top surface prep and the assembly back in the cave.

In the above pictures I'm standing in the middle of the floor where the eventual workbench will go. Some of the equipment is on wheels or otherwise easy to move, some (like the bandsaw), not so much. I think I had a genius moment and put the bandsaw in front of one of the doors (the one I never open) so that if I have a long piece I can open the door and run it through unimpeded.

Hobbies--and cool workspaces--are good.