I have been a woodworker for over 30 years with some eclectic woodworking interests. I have a full time job (in the hardwood lumber business) but I spend a lot of time in my home shop. More than half of my projects are commissions and the rest are for my own enjoyment and personal growth. I do a few high end kitchens a year as well as free standing and built-in pieces as well. I prefer to build furniture and once in a while I do some turning.

My shop is in my back yard. When we moved here there were two buildings. The two car garage in the front and the shop which also has two garage doors was just 12' feet behind it. I connected the two buildings for a combined 1760 square feet plus a spacious attic for storage. The footprint is roughly 24 x 72 with 10' ceilings. It is insulated with an attic fan as well as several more wall mounted fans for the hot Atlanta summers. It currently has an electric heater but I plan to install a wood burning stove.

The front garage is used mostly for lumber storage and since I have been in the hardwood business for the last 20 years I have accumulated/hoarded a lot of wood, both domestic and exotic.

I unload materials and store in the front garage, which can be accessed from the shop via another small garage door between the garage and shop space.

Because of its large footprint my 4x10 flip top vacuum press is in the front garage rather than on the shop floor. I have a hinged protective plywood cover over the membrane top so when it is not in use I can stage parts on top and there is enough room below it to store my portable table saw, portable compressor and chop saw used for installs. I also store my drum sander on wheels below it.

I can enter my shop through the garage or the side door. Above is a shot of the shop when coming in from the side entry door.

To the right of the table saw and just inside the entrance from the garage is the chop saw. Materials flow straight in from the garage to the chop saw or the table saw. The sliding chop saw has a 12' indexing fence on both the right and left. The chop saw has its own dust collector. The wall switch at the chop saw turns on both the dust collector behind the wall and the small fan on the ceiling that blows dust back into the dust shroud.

Most of my hand power tools are stored in drawers under the chopsaw.

The main shop is 1200 sqft of working space plus a small utility room which houses my dust collectors and compressor. Having the dust collectors and compressor outside of the shop keeps down both the noise and dust.

I have two dust collectors. The main one is a 5 hp bag house with a cyclone and 55 gallon collection drum. The bag unit has a Dust Dog filter as well as a bag to catch the fine dust. The second collector is just for the chop saw and is connected to a trash can separator. The shop air is supplied by the 7.5 hp 80 gallon Hausfield compressor with filters and separators at each connector.

The cyclone is on the other side of the shop wall and the main trunk handles the table saw, 20” planer and 8” jointer. All with blast gates. The power switches are inside the shop so I can power up or down without going around back to the utility shed.

The collection drum has a sensor with a strobe light inside the shop to alert when the drum is full. The dust power switch is just below it.

The Jessem router lift table also has its own dust collector with a small cyclone.

Above is a shot of the shop when entering through the garage.

This shows the entrance from the garage area into the material processing area. The front half of the working area is for cutting and machining. The chop saw, table saw, drill press and router table are all just inside the door from the lumber storage. The planer rolls out into the aisle during use and then tucks back to the wall. The center of the shop is open workspace for assembly.

Shot of the back wall.


The back of the shop is for handwork. There are two very solid workbenches.

The second workbench is made from Sapele. I picked Sapele because I had just enough left overs to make it. It's very hard and is one of my favorites species to look at. Why not make a bench that you enjoy looking at as much as the project you build on it?

The back wall holds all of my hand tools from planes to spoke shaves. For years I was a power tool guy who would reach for a butt chisel once in a while. It was not until the last few years that I learned the joys of a sharp hand plane and thanks to Ebay I have a full collection of pre-1930 Stanley planes (with the exception of the elusive No. 1). It was fun looking for and restoring old planes to be everyday users and it give me a good feeling to know that I may have rescued a tool from an old toolbox that hadn't seen the light of day in decades.

The hard maple bench has a three inch thick top with a six inch 8/4 skirt. There is a Veritas twin tail vise on the end and a metal bench vise on the side. The 8/4 skirt was my first hand cut dovetail project.

This is my lathe. It gets the job done but I would like to upgrade someday.

In the last two years I have learned a little about green woodworking from a woodworking friend. I knew what a shave horse was but never thought I would ever use one. He is teaching me how to make traditional Windsor chairs using all hand tools.

Several of my woodworking projects have been featured in the different "Show Us" columns of Wood News and The Highland Woodturner:

Woodworking Projects
Woodturning Projects

You can email Scott at scott@gahwd.com or take a look at his website at www.regalwoodturning.com .