My Workshop

Located in part of my basement, segregated from the rest with a wall, this shop and served me well.  I feel pretty lucky to be able to have all of this room and do as I please.

From the entrance of my workshop.  In center is my table saw, to the right the miter station and computer, further down is the drill press, in the corner the Jet Dust collection, and in the very back the workbench.

Looking to the left...  Way in the back the router table, coming forward the Delta 6" jointer, then the Delta 12" planer, and to the left of that, my home made 22" drum sander.

And continuing to the left... along the left wall is lumber storage, and immediately to my left is my wall of tools...  All of the furniture in the shop I built, which is a GREAT way to learn some basic techniques without worrying about what it looks like.

My Jet Table saw with a home built extension table.  The 2nd half of the extension can fold down if you don't need it.  I've heard good and bad about the Jet fence, but it seems to work fine for me.  To the right of the table saw is a tool storage area.  This table is another extension to the table saw.

To the left of the table saw is the Dewalt Miter station.  This saw works great.  The extension tables are exactly the same height as the table saw, to allow support for large panels.  So with this extension, the tool storage to the right of the table saw, and the extension at the back of the saw, I have a huge area that will support all different sizes of work.

To the left of the PC and Miter station is the the Delta drill press.  I really don't seem to use a drill press very often, which is why I bought the table top version.  I also have the Delta mortising attachment, which works adequately.

In the far corner of the shop is the Jet 1100 CFM dust collector.  Every shop should have one of these.  All of the duct work is sheet metal from Home Depot, and I fabricated every T and Y in the batch.  I'm thinking of selling the cut plans for different sized fittings.  This saved me a ton of money when I ran this duct work.

I've had this scroll saw for years, buying it when I used to fly R/C airplanes.  Works great!

Even though this is a jig, the Leigh D4 is as valuable as nearly any other tool in my shop.  I cannot recommend this dove tail jig any higher.   What a great piece of equipment!

This is my home made router station.  The top can lift off the base for mobile applications (which I never do!).  I'm not so sure of the design of the top portion with the doors enclosing basically a giant dust collection area.  It would have been better used for storage.  After my work bench, this was the next project I made for my shop.

My latest purchase, the Delta 6" jointer is something that I got along for quite some time, and I'm wondering how I ever did it.  I have immediately seen the quality of my work go up as I get better tools.  I planned for this tool for a while, and already had a DC drop for it in place.

This was the only used tool in the bunch, which I bought off ebay for something like $100.  After I cleaned it up and reversed the knives, it worked great!  The only problem with this planer is the amount of snipe that one gets, so excess must be accounted for.

Along with one of those "how did I ever live without it tools" is my shop made 22" drum sander.  This thing WORKS GREAT.  I was very doubtful how it would work when trying to true up the drum, but it's a miracle worker.  I highly recommend building one, as this only cost me about $125-$150.  Sanding up full panel doors is a breeze, and table tops come out seamless.  I only wish I had made it wider!  Oh well, I can always make a new 36" one!