Does anyone ever finish setting up their shop?

[dbhost]

A thought happened to me, does anyone ever truly finish setting up their workshop? It seems like there is always some addition, reconfiguration, deletion, whatever going on in folks workshops, including mine. Is it possibly short of being put in a box and lowered into that 6 foot deep hole to have your workshop truly complete?

I can see even with obscene amounts of money spent, say a Lotto win or something, on your dream shop, that ideas come and go, maybe the bench you thought would work great in spot A needs to go to Spot B to make it more or less accessible, or the router bit profile you want isn't in your collection or whatever...

I think this is a lifetime endeavor.

[scmhogg]

I look at my shop as a lifelong "work in progress." I have already bought sufficient gadgets to fill the rest of my days.

Sarah Winchester, heir to the rifle fortune, believed that she would not die as long as she was building her house. It worked for her for 38 years.

The house, in San Jose, CA has 160 rooms, including 40 bedrooms and two ballrooms. The house also has 47 fireplaces, 10,000 window panes, 17 chimneys (with evidence of two others), two basements and three working elevators.

See, my shop's not so bad.

Steve

[steve-norrell]

I look at my shop as a lifelong "work in progress."
Steve

Some would say that frequently changing a shop around would be evidence of a faulty design that had to be corrected. That, of course, is patently wrong.

The real story is that every purchase of a new tool stimulates an ever-increasing creative inventiveness. And sometimes I don't even need a new tool to be more creative and inventive.

Regards, Steve (another one)

[BobSch]

Finish setting up their workshop?

That's like saying I'm done buying tools.

Not Likely!

[RodKirby]

All of the above

[twistsol]

Evidence:
Norm did a show a number of years ago on the perfect router table.
Last season or possibly the one before, he did a show on an improved version.

Conclusion:
Since Norm has essentially an unlimited budget and his shop isn't done, it's unlikely any of ours ever will be.

[newood2]

I think we should first define "setting-up-a-workshop", because to each individual that means different things. For example to me it means:
1 Finished room(floor, wall, ceiling, lighting, outlets, dust collection system ductwork-if any-, somewhere to put lumber).
2 Basic tools(workbench, table saw, router table, planer or jointer, or both, drill press, bandsaw, clamp rack with enough clamps to do a project).
3 Portable power tools(drill, router, sander, jigsaw, dovetail jig).
4 Basic handtools(chisel, screwdriver, hammer, etc)
5 Powertool accessaries, measuring tools.
For me, I'm finish setting up. I can build something with what I have.
Now if I buy, say a drum sander later on I'll have to rearrange floor space to fit it. But I would consider it in the term of "adding to my setup" rather than "still setting up shop".
I'm done setting up, my shop is just evolving.
Or, could it all be a spin on words?
Mmmm.
Howie

[Uncle Cracker]

I have never met anybody ever who was finished setting up his shop... A good portion of my shop time is devoted to making more things for my shop...

[MikeMcCoy]

I've finished buying things (other than lumber) for my shop. However, nothing in it stays in the same place for very long except for the table saw and that's just because the only place for it is at the garage door.

[shoottx]

Do you really think I can quit arranging my shop in this lifetime?

[dbhost]

Mike, WOW is that ever tight! Do you have to open that garage door to change your mind? Admittedly your lumber storage solution is FAR more elegant than mine, at least it is off the floor... But I am not sure how you move around your shop...

[OpaDC]

Do you really think I can quit arranging my shop in this lifetime?

Am I mistaken, or did I see a couple of tools amid all that ......errrr, stuff.

(was looking for Waldo)

[shoottx]

Mike, WOW is that ever tight! Do you have to open that garage door to change your mind? Admittedly your lumber storage solution is FAR more elegant than mine, at least it is off the floor... But I am not sure how you move around your shop...

That is one of the problems I have to rearrange everythimg to do a given task, and then move everything again when I am done.

I live in a dense subdivision so I can only open the garage door and work during lmited hours. I throw the dust collector out on the driveway which provides a lot more walking space.

[shoottx]

Am I mistaken, or did I see a couple of tools amid all that ......errrr, stuff.

(was looking for Waldo)

Yup, BT3K, Powermatic 90 Lathe, Full Drill Press, Ryobi 450 Spindle Sander, Ryobi TAP10 Thickness planer, Delta Belt Sander, Delta 10" Sawbuck (CSM), old portable Makita dust collector, Delta Wet Stone grinder, Delta 8" grinder, Stack of hand tools in their cases and my almost complete router table. (see below)

The good news and bad news about all of that other stuff is it is a stack of walnut, red and white oak and a few pieces of cherry.

[dbhost]

Yup, BT3K, Powermatic 90 Lathe, Full Drill Press, Ryobi 450 Spindle Sander, Ryobi TAP10 Thickness planer, Delta Belt Sander, Delta 10" Sawbuck (CSM), old portable Makita dust collector, Delta Wet Stone grinder, Delta 8" grinder, Stack of hand tools in their cases and my almost complete router table. (see below)

The good news and bad news about all of that other stuff is it is a stack of walnut, red and white oak and a few pieces of cherry.

Oooh, okay kind of like the find the president's faces and win a prize pics in the sunday funnies from when I was a kid...

I see the BT, Lathe, drill press, CSM, Dust Collector, a grinder, and, uh.... Hmmm.

Where exactly is Waldo?

My neighborhood is fairly tight, but not THAT tight. The other side of Clear Lake, the part that got hit really bad by Ike, has a mess of town homes that have their garages on the back, and their garage doors are 20 feet or so from a neighbor's window, so noise can be a concern...

I guess I am pretty lucky in that regard... My neighbors don't mind the little noises I make (I've asked, they say they don't even notice.). But I have a Bayou behind me, an older fellow to one side with bad hearing, a younger couple with kids on the other side that are WAY louder than anything I am capable of producing, and the fellows across the street from me are all WW-ers as well... Unfortunately they have kids in XYZ activities all the time, so I can't pick their brains all that often... Seems to me soccer takes up most of their time...