jimmychip9858
New member
Hello everyone - I'm a bit of a newby, only discovered this site last week, but I've already saved myself a load of trouble with my thicknesser so I thought I'd join in. I'm a professional woodworker, I work alone in my own workshop, and my main areas are bespoke fitted furniture and kitchens, my own free-standing furniture designs, and joinery - doors and windows mostly. I'm 55 and I've been at it all my adult life - I was trained in theatre scenery design and construction originally, a great way to learn carpentry as it encompasses all sorts of other things like metalwork and painting, and also encourages you to think outside the box. Anyway I've been working in the domestic trade in Bristol for years now, and I still think I have the best job in the world. Seriously. OK, intro over, the point of this is that I took on a new and totally empty workshop in January. I have decided that the remaining 15-20 working years of my life are going to be on my terms, starting with the nearest thing to the perfect workshop that I can manage. I am lucky enough to have the necessary capital to equip it properly, and of course I already own a good set of hand tools, and a fair bit of machinery/power tools. So far I have spent about £15,000 on machinery and tools, along with quite a bit of timber stock and all the other stuff necessary. This is not my first workshop by a long way, but it is the first, and probably only time I will start from scratch on this relatively large scale, with the cash available to get it right. I do all sorts of work, and this means I need (want) quite a selection of machines. I also need a paint/finishing area. Anyway, after three months spent amassing most of the stuff I will need, I am now just about ready to start fitting out my workshop for real, with all sorts of benches, tool boards, machine stations and so on, and it struck me that it might be fun/interesting to run a sort of journal, with pictures, showing and explaining each part of the process. Feedback will be welcome, and no doubt everyone will have their own ideas about the 'perfect workshop'.
