A Big Ball of Wibbly Wobbly, Timey-Wimey Stuff.

It got away from me, yeah.

I started writing a new post and kept getting pulled into the weeds wanting to cite aspects of the history of my shop(s). Despite how many times it bites me, I’m not very forthcoming with documentation. Few-if-any have been with me since the beginning, and some might appreciate some additional lore. If you don’t care, feel free to skip this post. I promise to eventually stop the navel gazing and get back to woodworking.

Early Shops

Growing up, we moved a lot, my most vivid shop memories were in a massive 4 bay garage with ½ dirt floors and filled to the brim with cars, building materials and various tools strewn about. This was at the home I lived from 14-18. The crackly 8-track stereo system blasting “oldies” (1950-60’s music) on the radio was on anytime Dad was out there working on something (fixing a car most likely).

The only thing I really remember making there was a bunch of simple hat stands (scroll saw & drill press) for a family friend making crafts back then, and a jigsaw puzzle from a wedding photo for my aunt. I also made a few things in middle and high school shop classes, but this was youth; making things wasn’t cool back then.

Still, these early days watered the seed of making stuff as a regular course of life.

On My Own

My first house (c.1998) an 1880’s Italianate brick house, came with a newly built detached block pull-through garage ~16’x40’ long which excited me, but the lack of power and even doors slowed any shop progress (and couldn’t prevent my entire CD collection from being pinched out of my car.)

So the basement became the workshop of sorts, but without any spare headroom it limited opportunities. I did some glue laminations and finishing work for my first grown-up project, a night/plant stand. I still relied on dad’s shop for most of the “real work” with tools. I finally got the power and door situation resolved… just before moving, but learned a bit about trying to set up shop.

Turn-of-the-century Bent Leg Plant stand

Still, I was bitten by the bug and the obsession was fueled even more by the discovery of Fine Woodworking magazines, that were circulated in my office by a few very cool engineers like myself.

Current Place in the Dark Ages (literally)

In 2001 I moved into my current (1975) house. At over an hour from my dad’s shop, that meant I had very few tools at my disposal in my new 23.5’x25’ attached garage. There were some sturdy plywood wall shelves, that I modified to a basic workbench alongside a puny little vise. (Don’t waste your time making square dog holes in plywood, DAMHIKT)

There was a lone bulb socket in the garage, and bare studs. There was no heat or insulation. There were tiny kids. Not a whole lot happened there initially, but over the long haul, I slowly started acquiring tools and skills.

I decided to take the longer, slower route of buying big tools only once. (I will talk about this in more depth hopefully… there’s that lack of documentation thing again.) All this meant that while I was full of ambition to make stuff, it felt like barely made progress.

Throughout this era, I could keep cars in the garage. I did some major house projects, Windows, siding, trim, hardwood floors. In retrospect, I did actually make quite a bit of stuff too for a loner… a sitting bench, nesting tables, toy chest, train/play table, built-ins, bookshelves and more as both my skills and tools expanded.

With the projects of this decade¹ I learned the joys & struggles of joinery, buying vs found lumber, a little about embellishment, carving, design and timber species choices. I also learned I loved sharing skills with others (like kids) when I could.

Early Projects

More vs. Better space

Around 2010 the kids were getting more independent and my shop time/space/budget was growing. I started planning a new dedicated 20’x30’ shop. it was largely based off of the cleverly spacious trusses and classic Form from https://www.barnplans.com/ but also enormously complicated (who me?) by wanting to make one end round like many of the nerdy round barns of the middle west (which are more efficient because of the shape of cows.) This would allow a pleasant panoramic view, and be sufficiently weird to maintain my reputation in my neighborhood.

The shop that almost was.

Besides the obvious effort this would have required, there were two other reasons this went nowhere.

• My parents built a house nearby mine. This burned a lot of my discretionary building time/effort, and brought to light the reality of just how time/labor/money intensive this project would be, likely setting me back several years to build it out myself.

• About this time, some influential journalist guy left his job and started a book company based largely on the success of the idea of stripping tools down to the essential, and just making stuff ‘til you croak vs. hording lots of random tools. (Little known fact, he wrote ATC specifically for me) Like many others, it had me rethinking the direction of my shop.

Instead of building from scratch, I decided to invest a bit into my existing barebones garage shop to get it more pleasant to work in. I installed adequate lighting, insulated, sheeted & painted the walls white and finally a shop heater which could keep it workable throughout the winter. All of this meant that I enjoyed my shop space much more, even if I still needed to shuffle cars in-and-out (often with them being more out than in) especially since now I had bigger tool collection selection, a wood stash, and a 9’ split top Roubo bench.

This was honestly the best choice (even if I wish past-me had bit the bullet and built that barn at pre-pandemic prices, with his youthful energy) It allowed me to feel like I was working in a proper space and get back to making with minimal fuss.

I made considerable more project progress in this era², I took my first woodworking class, and started really engaging with the woodworking community in blogs and Instagram back when it was good. I demoed and reshaped ~50% of my home’s interior (kitchen) more built-ins etc.

The Fever Intensifies

When I became single again in 2017, it was a huge boon for shop space and time. Now I only had to get one car occasionally in the garage, and only myself to blame if it didn’t. For a time, I almost went full bachelor and moved the bench in the house (next to the shave horse) but lethargy won out. It’s far too easy to “expand to fill the space” in workshops and I certainly did then. I feel like my projects were accelerating in this period, like I finally knew what I was doing (I don’t) and started hitting my stride.³ This period is pretty well documented on blogs and/or Instagram.

When I (and my new wife) started working from home and combining households, everything about our house became stretched for space… storage, parking, sleeping, work and project spaces were all at a premium. Time too with little kids around again. This lead us eventually to biting the bullet on new space.

It took a while to commit to that decision and then took a while to get everything aligned and going with design choices, permits, determining who would do the work, foundation etc. Because of that, it feels like woodworking has been in the backseat for a while now, aligning with predictions of my former stand alone building plans. That building effort seems to be nearing a finish line and hopefully before winter I will be up and running in my new dedicated workshop. As the finish line nears, I worry it won’t possibly live up to all the dreams and imaginings I’ve had over the years of the perfect shop space, but I’m excited with where it’s going.

Pithy Conclusion

I remember back to when I was just getting started in woodworking and thinking how fortunate or wealthy folks with “nice” shops and tools must be. Now, I realize it’s like a 401k/retirement fund. It takes consistency and time in the game to develop into an end product. Someone new sees it as if it’s where you started. The moral: take the long view, be patient and just keep going, you’ll get there in the end. Have fun making stuff along the way.

1

• 2002

  • Poplar bench

  • Nesting tables

  • House bookshelf

• 2003

  • Shoe rack

• 2005

  • Windows & siding

• 2006

  • Corbels & flower boxes

  • Mallets

• 2007

  • Toy box

  • Train table

  • Kid’s workbench

• 2008

  • Swan peel

  • G&G frame

  • Laminated plane

• 2009

  • Hall Bookshelves

2

• 2010

  • Fence

• 2011

  • Turning saw

  • Drama furniture

• 2012

  • Makeup stand

  • Mom’s bathroom vanity

  • Moms shoe bench

  • Backsaw

  • Small tool chest

  • Boarded nightstands

  • Boarded saw bench/chest

  • Japanese carpenter box

• 2013

  • Coat rack

  • Saw hooks

• 2014

  • Shop stool

  • Bathroom vanity

  • Corian plane

  • Garage insulation and walls

• 2015

  • Epic Kitchen project

  • 8-bit cutting boards

  • Apple Wright spoon

  • Apple Kuksa

  • Cherry eating spoon

• 2016

  • Bar

  • Music stand

  • Workbench

  • ASFM Class

  • Lumber rack

  • Wine pallets

  • Cello stool

3

• 2017

  • Small oak band sawn box

  • Swing seat

  • Dutch tool chest

  • Belize clam chairs

  • Media room

  • Chopsticks…

  • Shave horse

  • Cherry eating spoon II

  • Calvin & Hobbes painting

  • Instrument rack #1

• 2018

  • Spoons

  • Roy’s Tool box tills (finished)

  • Clam chair “class”

  • Leaf Stool 1

  • Clamp rack

  • Wegner CH25

  • MAME control panel

  • Spoon mule

  • More spoons (indigo, apple, sand shading)

• 2019

  • More spoons

  • Knife Hock kit

  • Cam lock marking gauge

  • Mandolin class

  • Arcade cabinet

  • DTC “class”

  • Chef’s knife box

  • Smash Bro’s spoons

• 2020

  • Butter knife

  • Leaf stools (2-6)

  • Mandolin (finished)

  • 2nd Dutch Tool Chest (finished)

  • Krenov Sawhorses

  • Hex Stick Chair

• 2021

  • Ladle

  • Axe spreaders

  • Möbius

  • Spurtles

• 2022

  • Pepper mill

  • Spoons (~6)

  • Bibbings & Hensby stick chair (finished)

  • Arcade cabinet commission

  • Studley mallet

• 2023

  • Keyboard case

  • Ratatouille spoon

  • Addition (start) 10/23

• 2024

  • Oloid

  • Workshop Addition