My New Workspace

I am nearly finished re-organizing my workspace. The new bench tops are built and boxes of papers, tax records, magazines and lumber are stashed underneath. I still have to mount tool racks on the walls for chisels but I want the walls to remain free of visual obstructions as much as possible. The area to the right of this photo has the metal storage cabinet for flammable finishing supplies and a pair of stacked IKEA cabinets for everything from templates and drawings to speciality cauls and miniature clamps. These cabinets are  purely functional and necessary but they aren't much to look at so I didn't include a photo.

The machine room (below) is essentially set up but I still need to decide where to place tools such as pliers, wrenches and vise-grips.

This photo is taken from the door way between the two rooms. This area was my daughter's drum room while she was still at home. It is separated from the rest of the house with gyprock plasterboard walls which provide fairly good sound proofing. To the right of this photo (below) is my dust collector that is attached to each of my machines.  The collector bags are slightly porous so when this thing gets turned on they inflate rapidly and spew a cloud of fine dust. In order to contain the pollution I have enclosed it in its own tiny room with furnace filters that allow it to breathe. The window allows me to check to see if it is functioning properly. It does a great job of collecting the heavier dust particles and every workshop should have one.

In the fore-gound of this photo is the thickness sander while the jointer is against the wall.

I don't have room for everything and I have two machines that are redundant. I have decided to offer them to any instrument maker, current or future, in the Toronto area, who is willing to haul them away. They are pictured below. One is a 14' Delta bandsaw that is twenty years old. It comes with a 6" riser (not picture) and assorted blades. It is still an adequate machine. The second is a Beaver Rockwell lathe. The swing is 7" with a 36" bed. I "inherited" this machine from guitar builder Jean Larrivee when I worked for him during the 1976-77 season before he moved out West. I turned all of my lute pegs on this machine up until a few years ago. If you are interested in either of these items let me know:

schreiner@sympatico.ca      My regular instrument building posts will return in a few days.