Studio

Kevin's Woodturnings

THE STUDIO

"A one-car garage is a shop. A two-car garage is a studio" - heard at a Kansas City Woodturners club meeting.

The photo below shows my tools on a wall rack. Over the years I've collected quite a few tools searching for the perfect tool for every woodturning situation. I know how to use all of them, although I'm dangerous with most of them and good with only a few. The woodturning tool that I use every day is only partially in the photo. It's the Robert Sorby RS-2000 scraper and hollowing tool. I use it for hollowing the inside surfaces of my woodturnings.

Actually, I have a studio in my house, not in my garage. It's in a separate room in my basement. The room has been sealed off from the rest of the house because of the wood dust I generate. When I'm working in my studio, I turn on a powered wall vent so the direction of air flow through my studio door is always into my studio and out of my house through the wall vent, not into the basement. The only wood dust that gets into my house is on my clothes. A dust collection system helps to keep the wood dust off me. I use a powered visor to keep dust out of my lungs.

My studio is fairly small so I limit its contents to tools I use every day. I store wood in my basement and attached shed. I store rarely-used tools, like a planer and jointer, in my furnace room.

If you're interested in my studio's floor plan, click on the photo to enlarge it.

There is a new tool addition to my tool collection. I was looking for a steady rest that could swing a bowl close to the capacity of my 24" lathe. I didn't want to build another plywood steady rest because it really wouldn't be strong enough unless it was massively thick. I only found one steady rest that would fill the bill. It was designed and fabricated by Keith Clark at http://www.theokspindoctor.com/. The steady rest capacity is 1" less than the swing of the lathe it is designed for. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

The photos below are of my studio.

Looking south at the closed door to my studio. My studio isn't very wide. The soft rubber mat in front of my lathe makes it easier to stand for long periods of time.

The southwest wall, showing my band saw in the corner. The bandsaw accessories hang from the wall behind the bandsaw.

The west wall, showing my lathe, table saw, belt/disk sander and secondary dust collector. My primary dust collector is a metal trash can with venturi lid and its vacuum hose reaches everywhere in my studio.

The west wall just after remodeling. I added a number of 110V and 220V outlets. The dust collector pipe has automatic blast gates for my bandsaw, primary dust collector, table saw and belt/disk sander. There is also a manual blast gate for my thickness sander, which is one of the tools I roll in when needed. The table saw hose is long enough so the saw can be moved away from the wall for long cuts.

Looking north. The small exhaust fan in the photo's upper left corner helps keep wood dust from entering my basement. It also pulls in warm or cool air from my basement. This sure beats my previous studio (a two-car garage). Since I took this photo, I have added an air hose reel for air tools and for blowing dust off surfaces (the air compressor is in an attached shed on the other side of the north wall).

The northeast wall, showing a worktable and my wood clamps. The wood clamps are hung from shelf brackets.

The east wall, showing a storage work bench, drill press and 1800rpm grinder.

The east wall, showing another storage work bench, two bowl ring presses and my c-clamps.