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My primary philosophy when it comes to building my workshop was that I should
adapt and build as much as I could. This was
for several reasons - in the main it was for the self satisfaction that I made
it or built it myself. The other reason is to save money.
My wife is understanding of my hobby, as long as I don't spend too much money on
it.
So...with that in mind...here's some ideas and thoughts.
As long as you are electrically handy (or know an electrician) clearance yards,
rubbish tips and sometimes council cleanups are a
great source of lighting for the workshop. Be it track lighting,
fluorescent tube or down lights/spotlights all can be recycled and used
effectively in the workshop.
As I explained in my thoughts page there's no need to spend a fortune on
inflexible metal dusting. I have already changed my workshop
twice with a third change planned soon and if it was install it forever metal
ducting it would be a real pain in the ass. As it is the plastic
poly tubing I use is very flexible in intended use as I use a single screw and
loads of duct tape to bring it all together. It is terrifically
easy to use, has a multitude of joiners, adapters, y-joints and end caps, it is
smooth walled and it joins together easy. But you can read
about it here
for more info. To go with my bulk removal of dust I built myself a
fine dust collector . It is based around a commercially
available dust filter that I purchased from my woodworking supply house.
The unit to put the filter into is worth $300. I built mine from
4" computer fans that I had available to me and M.D.F. It cost me $60
including the filter. Click
here to see
pics's of it.
Table Saw:
I really wanted a new table saw but the good lady wife had bought me two saws in
6 months (compound mitre and a bandsaw) and so
if I wanted a table saw I would have to be creative. So my quest began for
the hunting down of parts for this mythical saw. I had a
metal frame that I thought would be suitable and after some bracing was introduced, I
started to work on developing a system that
would allow me
to tilt and drop the saw blade
The first thing I needed was something to drive that would hold the blade.
Easy. Had seen a "power head" at my local woodworking
supplier that I knew would be suitable. It has a clamp arrangement
for the blade between two flanges and a driveshaft with two pulley
drives on the other end. See below:
Next I needed a motor. Something with a bit of grunt. After hunting
around at motor rewinders and repairers I found a
2.5 Hp motor that has got a stack of grunt. It's an absolute ripper.
See below:
I needed to work out some angles and how/where the pivot point was going to be.
Rather than play in steel I played around in a
drawing package with geometric shapes until I worked out where the frame needed
to be in relation to the motor and blade shaft.
I am confident that it will all come together. I jerry rigged it all
together on the workbench and got it running without guards...not
something I normally do but it started up and spun the blade at speed.
I then pushed a seasoned hardwood 4" X 4" into it and it went
through it like balsa wood. Talk about powerful!
It needs a fair bit of work, especially with the top, to which I am still unsure what I will end up with...stay tuned.
The biggest challenge with a homemade table saw is trying to make a fence that
is both accurate and easy to set up. I have plans
somewhere for a fence which I will share with you as I build it and fabricate it
up.
It's still a work in progress. I will keep this page updated as I do this...
Make friends and chum up to a kitchen cabinet maker in your area and offer to
help out on a day suitable to you both. Tell him that
your after some old kitchen cabinets from one of his clients and that you'll
happily remove them for free. Most kitchen renovators smash
out the old cabinets in as short as time as possible. This normally
involves totally destroying them. If you offer to remove them and he
accedes to your request, take some time and plan how to remove them with minimal
destruction. Then, as long as you have the space,
install them into your shed/garage/workshop and reap the rewards of cabinets for
free. Its also cheap and lets face it, the most
expensive part of woodworking (apart from the need to buy even more power tools)
is the cost of the wood. So even if you can't use
all of the cabinets, the timber (be it plywood, M.D.F or real timber) can be used
for jigs, boxes or cabinets to suit a specific requirements.
Who say you need new???:
We have been brainwashed in this country (and I am sure it is the same world
over) that when you need to buy power tools that you
"have to buy" new tools. I think that sometimes tools of a previous
generation can often be stronger, more robust and generally
engineered to last a bit longer than the "disposable" lifestyle we lead today.
There are several sources of secondhand tools and you may
consider hunting at swap meets and yard or garage sales.
