Here's My Workshop!
by Andy Rovelstad
Franklin County, PA
I have a small basement shop in Franklin County, PA. I’ve been a woodworker for 50 years but began
doing more when we moved to PA 12 years ago from IL because of the availability of hardwoods. The
developer of our neighborhood let me have all of the cherry and walnut trees I could handle from
lots he was clearing for houses, so I have stacks of it drying from attic to basement.
I basically began woodworking through necessity. We were raising four kids, and to make ends
meet, I tried making our own furniture and gifts. It happened that some thought I was pretty
good at it and for me it was enjoyable. My father, a toolmaker for the Elgin Watch Company, gave
me his old table saw and other tools over the years, so my shop gradually grew to where it is
today. Besides the wood supply, this part of PA is great for farm and other auctions where you
can pick up about anything you want for tools. Being from toolmaker stock and a machine tool
engineer myself, I’m probably a bit too exacting, and thus slow, in my woodworking, but I’m not
out to set any speed records so, so what.
I’ll make anything I can see a picture of so my
projects run the gamut; quilt clamps, toaster tongs, jewelry cases (plain box to tall armoires),
built-in cabinets, hope chests (two daughters and a daughter-in-law), Shaker furniture, etc.
Here are a few pictures of my shop in its normal state as well as some projects I’m
working on: a jewelry box and a watch chest, some reindeer, and a cherry hope chest.
Note: click on any picture to see a larger version.
You can email Andy at
arovelstad@comcast.net
.
