June 13th, 2018 by
Woodworking is one of the oldest pastimes in the world, and it’s easy to see why. With woodworking, the only limit is your creativity – with enough time and practice, you can whittle down a shapeless hunk of wood into a sculpture, a table, or anything else you can think of. If you’re new to carpentry, then it’s wise to start off small before investing in a bunch of tools and equipment with some simple woodworking ideas. If you’ve got a bit more experience and you’re looking to take your carpentry to the next level, though, it might be time to start building up your wood shop. Converting a garage or shed into your own workshop doesn’t really take that much work, and unless you’re taking it really seriously it doesn’t actually need a bunch of large, expensive machinery, either. That’s not to say some mechanical help isn’t useful – it certainly is – but our guide will focus on giving you a small wood shop that doesn’t cost the Earth and which can fit into a small shed. With that in mind, read on!
1. Wood Stock
Getting a variety of wood and using the wood you have as inspiration is a good approach Before you even start shipping in bits and pieces for your workshop, it’s important to have a good supply of wood to use them on! Try and build up an eco-friendly wood stock, using ethically sourced wood, so that you have lots of things you can start working on in your new shop. Always be on the lookout for sturdy pieces of wood, even if you can’t think of anything to do with it right then and there. It’s better to build up your wood stock and decide what you can make with it, rather than having an idea to make a table, say, and trying to find the perfect piece of wood to fit. Keep your wood in a dry location and check it regularly to make sure it isn’t rotting or warping.
2. Get the Right Tools
The Mylek 18v cordless drill comes with a range of drill bits If you’re looking to set up your own workshop, you probably have a lot of the manual tools you’ll need already; carving knives, chisels, and planers are the main ones. Most people also have more heavy-duty hammers and saws, but if you don’t they aren’t too expensive to buy. We’d also recommend getting some power tools which can really help you out, too. The basics should be a simple drill with a few different bits (the Mylek 18v is a great-value option here), a jigsaw, and a multi-tool for everything else. You could also stretch to getting a router, which will help if you’re building things such as drawers. You’ll also need somewhere to store these tools safely. You can buy a hanging rack or a tool cabinet, but as you’re a woodworker, why not build one instead?
3. Be Top of the Table
The workbench is the thing you'll use all the time, so make sure it's right! While you don’t need any large machinery to start up your wood shop, you do need to ensure you have enough space in there for a table! You need a flat, stable, and solid surface for woodworking, especially when you’re using power tools. If you’re just starting out, we recommend buying a good workbench rather than trying to make one as this is arguably the most important part of your whole workshop! A sturdy table will help you cut, drill, and plane your wood much easier, so it’ll help you improve your skills immeasurably.
4. Indulge Your Vices
A vice should be an essential addition to your workbench Once you’ve got a top table, you can look at getting a vice! Get a quality swivel base vice to ensure you have plenty of flexibility when you’re using it and fix it firmly to your table. Now you can grip virtually anything at any angle, while holding it perfectly flat. With a lot of woodworking projects, precision is the key, so having a sturdy table with a vice that you can rely on in your wood shop will really help you improve your skills and complete projects that you can be proud of.
5. The Jig is Up
Jigs can help you cut straight and plane evenly If you’ve spent a bit of time in woodworking circles, you’ve probably heard all about the value of jigs. If you don’t know, a jig is a guide that you use to control the movement of your tools and machinery. These range from the complex to the simple. Most of the time, you’re better off building the jigs yourself to fit your workshop, so we recommend doing a bit of research into what type of jigs are best for you. One dead easy jig we can recommend will help your vice keep a firmer grip while you’re working. No matter how expensive or flashy your vice is, if you lean on your workpiece while it’s held in your vice, it can still slip. This is because, as you tighten your vice, the jaws don’t stay parallel – they tighten around the wood, but “rack” inwards if the wood is only held in one side of the vice. To avoid this, place a piece of scrap wood in the opposite side of your vice to the piece you’re working on. As long as the scrap wood is the same thickness as your workpiece, it’ll balance out your vice and give it a much firmer grip.
6. Heat Things Up
The Mylek Lumi comes with eco-friendly features to keep you warm in the workshop at a low cost While you’re building up your wood stocks and your toolkit, it’s important you don’t forget about the most important part of your workshop: you! Make sure you have a few home comforts in there, like some music, hot drinks, and heating. Heating is especially important, and it’s one of the things so many people forget when putting together their wood shop. Often, workshops are in garages or sheds, which don’t offer much in the way of insulation against the cold. If you want to work out in your workshop in winter, you need a decent heater to keep you warm! Either install an outdoor heater or get a good panel heater that you can store indoors to keep you warm in the winter months.
7. Cool Things Down
An air circulation fan will cool you down with a minimum of fuss On the other side of the coin, you’ll need something to cool you down in the summer as well! If you’re working in your wood shop all afternoon, it can get unbearably hot on those summer days, especially if your workspace is small and poorly ventilated. Cooling the air is slightly more difficult than heating as it tends to involve blowing cool air at you rather than radiating heat, which isn’t convenient in a workshop when there’s a lot of sawdust around. What you need is something that circulates air around the room, rather than blasting it directly at you. With that in mind, we’d recommend an air circulation fan to help you cool off in the summer. While it’s impossible to avoid blowing a bit of sawdust around, if you get a smaller fan like the Prem-I-Air circulation fan, you can at least place the fan wherever you want to direct the air to where it won’t be too inconvenient. This will circulate cool air around your workshop and won’t break your concentration by blowing sawdust in your face!
8. Your Number One Fan
A small extractor fan will make your time in the wood shop more comfortable and will help protect your wood It’s wise to install an extractor fan in your workshop. This will help your wood shop stay well-ventilated in summer, but it also has a very important safety function. A lot of woodworking products, especially finishing products like varnishes and oils, will give off fumes which can be harmful if you breathe in too many of them. An extractor fan will help remove these fumes from your workshop as quickly as possible. A simple domestic extractor fan should be more than good enough for small domestic workshops. Install it out of the way on your wall or ceiling and let it do its thing. It’ll extract potentially harmful fumes, as well as any excess humidity that can cause problems with warping when you’re woodworking.
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