Shop Space

[Mark Dunmire]

The big negative in my basement shop is a lack of space. My house is a 1927 duplex, only about 13 ft. wide to begin with. Also a low ceiling, about 6 ft. Am using most of my basement as storage, and space for cats for which I'm a habitual rescuer. So I'm stuffed into one end behind the furnace and fireplace base, and one side of that is taken by scrap wood. The remaining space is about 8x14, taken up by workbench, drawer cabinet, shelf cabinet, Shopsmith, miter saw, and benchtop router table. It's a big pain to move everything around to accommodate whatever I'm building. Of course, no assembly space for anything large. I save some space by hanging hand tools on pegboards. I use all the wall space possible.

I'd like a second router table to enable multiple operations and save set-up time.

In spite of all that, I built a huge corner cabinet using the Kreg jig, assembling it in my dining room for two months, 8 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and 20 inches deep. My wife insisted on painting it, so it looks more rustic than finished. That won't happen on the next project. But it was a good learning project; many mistakes, but the end result isn't bad. You can't realize how big it is from the picture; note my 9 foot first-floor ceiling. I created my own crown molding and base molding using the router table, and cut raised panel doors on my table saw using a hand-made jig.

I will gain space at some point because I just converted my furnace to natural gas, thus eliminating the need for a fuel oil tank. When I have that removed from the old coal bin under the front porch, I'll have space to stack the wood scraps and retrieve much needed space. Still, it won't be enough. One of my intended future projects is to assemble a 15 foot rowboat from a pre-cut kit. I may have to confine the cats to the back porch. Yes, I know how much space it will take to remove the boat.