To start things off, here is a short story of what I started off with for a wood shop…
Before I got married and was dating my future wife, I was living at home with my parents. I bought my parents 8’x10’ shed they had on the side of the house so that I could have my own space for a little workshop. Within that shed, I had an 8’ long wooden workbench that my girlfriend (now wife, Joy) and I built, a portable job site table saw, bench grinder, scroll saw, bench-top planer, bench-top drill press, bench-top disk/belt sander, a mini Jet wood lathe, a pair of folding saw horses, a Grizzly 17” 2 HP band saw on a heavy duty Shop Fox mobile base (what was I thinking when I bought this thing, thinking that I could get this in that little shed!? Well, it fit.), two full height metal shelves, and two half height metal shelves with the tops for lay space. All my hand tools were in this shed along with my portable dual head halogen flood lights for working at night. I ran extension cords from the exterior electrical outlets on the house to the shed whenever I was out there working.
That shed was crammed pack! There was obviously very limited space in that shed to do any work. It had to stay clean and organized because there was only one spot for every tool and if that tool was not put away, there was no room to do anything else. Everything was geared around woodworking since that was what I liked doing the most.
Whenever I needed to work with the table saw, I would have to take it out of the shed to use it; this was the beauty of having it as a portable job site table saw. Most of the time I had a shade canopy that I would put up for shade. Living in the desert here in California, it gets super hot in the summer and shade is a must to have. The band saw needed to be on the mobile base so that I could roll it away from the wall and allow me to stand at the doorway of the shed to use it.
I made due with this shed and it was surprisingly useful. There was very little area to clean up after a project, after all, some of the more dirty work such as using the table saw and planer were all done outside!
Sometime later we got married and now I have a two car garage that I could turn into my shop! We didn’t plan on parking the vehicles in there and I am not really too sure why, but who cares! I have a bigger garage shop!
From that point forward, I started to collect more tools and became interested in welding and blacksmithing. We could thank my father-in-law, Bob, for that! I built a portable forge from an old BBQ and found an anvil with a stand. My in-laws found me a blacksmith’s post vice and a nice machinist’s vice at a garage sale. At another garage sale, we found a nice Mig welder, gas welder, and a mini metal lathe on a rolling cart. Another workbench was added to the garage, along with an air compressor, shopvac, supplies for various types of projects, routers and a router table, and a toolbox.
Now my garage shop was getting too full and was not organized. I started to get rid of a few tools that I didn’t use very often to make room to work and to get more organized. I think the one tool I wish I did not get rid of was my gas welder. Oh well, it is replaceable!
The most recent addition to the garage shop is my very first workbench my dad made for me when I was a young kid. I have passed this down to our son Parker. We got him his own little toolbox on wheels for his seventh birthday this year. Our daughter Ava also enjoys working at that workbench. She turned three this year. As you can see, my garage shop is no longer just mine. It is now being shared between me and our kids.
Oh, I almost forgot! Now that my garage shop is used for woodworking, welding, and blacksmithing, I now have a worm composting bin out there! We recently made a worm casting harvester and that is being stored in the garage as well.
With so many hobbies, it is no wonder why I have a hard time keeping the garage shop organized!
If you have a shop you work in, or any other hobby space such as the kitchen table, share it with us below in the comments. We would love to hear what everyone has to work with. Does that space work for you? Do you wish it was a smaller or bigger space? What hobbies are you into? It doesn’t have to be woodworking or metalworking. It could be anything! One of Joy’s hobbies is making Fairy Gardens. Check out her Etsy store right here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/4HappyHearts
Rick Simper has various hobbies, including woodworking, metalworking, composting, and gardening. He is an Architect full time and uses these hobbies to get away from the busy week of Architecture.