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Suspiciously clean; are your guitars made somewhere else?

Last week end I started moving out a LOT of stuff that we have temporarily stored in a room adjacent to my basement shop, making room for a shop expansion, yeeeepeee! The new room will house most of my stationary power tools so I will have one clean and one dusty room (well, one room will be dustier than the other!). I will also paint all the walls, make some new benches and shelves and totally reorganize the space, all 50 m2 (540 square foot) of it. I will post pictures when it is all done, right now it is not a pretty sight...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Hesh, not poking fun, I'm genuinely currious: how do you keep it so clean. Yes, I vacuum all the time and control the dust pretty well but there are still the glue drips on the floor and these types of things.
I half thought about putting in some cheap carpet to make myself be more careful but that thought quickly faded.

funny you mention that, I once had my shop in the basement of my office, and it was carpeted. That was a nightmare.

And you will never get a good picture of my shop until I redo it and dedicate a space to it, right now I am spawled all over my basement.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Here is a video tour of my shop. I posted this in another shop thread a while back also.
John How Guitars Shop tour

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Mine is carpeted also, but it is a pain to drop something small! This may have been posted before, but my shop, such as it is, is a corner of a spare bedroom.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

For some reason I enjoy leaving a few shavings laying around.Especially block plane and scraper shavings.Two of my favorite tools.And don`t let me forget chisel shavings from carving braces.Oh yeah, I eventually clean them up,but not right away intentionally.
                  Luv Da Wood
                James W B
I`ll try to get some shop pics together and post them when I have time.

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Just a shot of the bench, all of the BIG tools are behind me, except the resaw which is in a different shop, I just don't have room for it in my 330 sq feet. Once I get caught up and cleaned up, hopefully by summer, I will post some pics and include jigs and fixtures and stuff.



Shane

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Canada

Well my work area isn't nearly so pretty as some I've seen here.

This is what I call "The Man Room". It's really just our 2 car garage that I've taken over. I built the work bench a few months ago and made the other furniture over Xmas. The el-cheapo table saw and my home made router table sit directly behind the bench. The three storage shelves I made out of a couple of 3.8 meter long pallets I got from work. The little table the drill press sits on was made from offcuts from the other projects and I have my Safe-T-Planer table fitted to the drill press. You can see my scary sharp sharpening system on the right beside the drill press. The fridge will be going to a mates place for se as a brewing fridge, and you can just see the edge of "The Brewery" on the left (with the clamps on it). The work light doesn't usually live up there.





I thought I'd add the bigger jigs I've made so far. The mold, bending form and radiused dishes (15' and 25'). A mate of mine has recently got himself a CNC machine and is still learning to use it properly, hence the 'scars' in my dishes. But epoxy fixes all!





Here is the wood for my first. I'm stealing an idea from Hesh here and kitting out my first build. I still have to get the truss rod and tuning machines yet. Sitka top from Bob C. Tassie blackwood back, sides and headstock veneer and Mulga fretboard and bridge blanks from Tim Spittle, and the rest from Luthiers Supplies here in Oz. (That's enough bracewood for two guitars. Just in case!)





I also have some nice veneers I've been thinking about using for rosette's. It's still in the plastic. On the left is Oz Native Olive. Really nice tiny birdseye type of figure. Middle is Tassie Myrtle Burl. Great colour and crazy figure! And the right is Tassie Blackwood burl. The drawback is it's only 0.6mm thick, so have to be careful with the sanding.



So there you have it. My guitar making (and jig and furnture making) over the last few months. Unfortunately, I'll be slowing down alot due to uni and work commitments.

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If God had wanted us to drink beer, he would have given us stomaches.

Think Ive posted these before but here they are anyway. two pics of my humble workshop

Old photos when it was being "re-configured". I had just put in the "floating" plywood floor over the concrete slab. Boy, did that make a difference when standing all day.

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Hank Mauel

I've posted these before, I think. I have about 3/4 of a 12 x 20 garage.


Old workbench area configuration.


Current workbench area. Had to block the window with the AC unit. Sure do miss the natural light. It NEVER looks this neat. I need lessons from Hesh!



The machine side. The workbench area is to the left. I've since added a Rikon 6 x 48 belt/disk sander.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I've never posted pix before, so here goes. Some time ago, I decided to move the shop from the basement to a spare bedroom (better light, wood floor, climate control etc.)  Countless turbocad layouts later, this is the result. Dust collector, wood & W.I.P storage are in a double closet on the left.

Looking (from clamps) the other direction

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Dave
Milton, ON

Hello all,
I have been reading Olf for some time, and posted some, but not really introduced myself. I am designer and part time guitar builder from Helsinki, Finland. I have an office in downtown Helsinki and a small shop in the backroom next to the kitchen/conference room. It really is a tiny shop, but I manage to fit in. Good part is that it is warm, have good natural light, easy to humidify. I built one at a time (well, now I have two guitars coming, but normally), use lot of hand tools, and prefer to use cutting tools when ever I can avoid sanding to keep the air clean. I rent spray booth from a bigger woodshop when ever I need one, but other wise I am able to make my guitars there from start to finish (I do not resaw my sets).

Here's a few shots of my shop.






I should get the award for coolest shop decoration.

Dave, we'll have to get together some time as I am but about 1/2 hr away from Milton and have a sister in Georgetown.

After seeing your shop and how organized it is....puts mine to shame in a big way.

I *love* looking at others peoples shops... not gonna post any pics of mine, we tore everything apart in the garage back last August and still don't have things put back together yet - as they say, life is what happens when you are redoing your shop We have put epoxy on the concrete floor, insulated the walls, replaced the paneling on 2 sides, painted the other side. I mainly just need to move stuff back into place... easier said than done tho, eh?

Kevin Thomas
Quail Rock Guitars

Okay here are a few pics from my shop/ basement garage/construction storage.I`ll probably get an award for the biggest mess from Hesh. But I mean come on Hesh your shop is so clean it`s scarry.These pics were taken at night so it kind of looks like a dungeon.That`s the main bench where a Lutz top is patiently waiting for me to carve braces.Those are the large tools which are all on wheels.Ican open the garage door behind them and work out doors under the carport on nice days.A small glass cabinet with tools dedicated just for guitar work.If I could just get Hesh to come by and help me clean up.
                        James W B

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Thanks Terry. Like many of my great ideas, someone else thuoght of it first! That one's straight out of Bob Benedetto's book, reworked for my vise. (Love your sanding station by the way - you have a very nice shop!)

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Dave
Milton, ON

My new vac holder, this thing is great!