: Reading some responses to an earlier thread brought up (yet another)
: interesting discussion topic; shop layouts and fixturing. One of the
: amazing things about strip and S&G boatbuilding is the variety of places
: where these boats have been built. Everything from living rooms to well
: designed shops have been used to turn out nice boats. Rehd, though, is
: taking a route that I am also taking, and that is to build a good shop
: space first, thus making the boat-building go that much easier.

: I would like to know what others are doing for shop space. What works, what
: doesn't, wish lists, etc. How necessary is compressed air, vacuum systems,
: custom benches or cool fixtures to hold something just right. You get the
: idea.

: My shop is coming along slowly (something to do with the Wife, 2&5 yr old
: doughters, beagle, house, ...). I am working on it though. I will post my
: setups and ideas (such as they are) as they develop.

: Jeff

Light, light and more light. I am currently "between houses", and living in a rental. Almost all of my shop is in storage, but I remembered to bring all of my clip on lamps - thank heavens. They are clipped from the ceiling in the garage, and are wired so that they all come on as the overhead light is turned on. With six of these shining down from various angles, it works fairly well.

The other issue I have had to deal with is the fact that according to the townhouse regulations, I can't park a car in the visitors parking. I have two cars (I have one, my wife the other), and the driveway is only 10 feet long. Sigh. We DO park on the the visitors most of the time (as does everyone else in the development), but just in case I got static from the townhouse board, I made a specialised table that can have the legs removed and the top (with the yak on it) raised into the top of the garage. My wife's car won't fit, but mine will. I also made a workbench that folds up, and clips to the wall if I need to put the car in there.

The table has been very useful. It allows me to clamp to it, I can place pins, brads or screws into the top if I need extra bracing or alignment, and with cross bracing at the bottom or the legs, it's very solid when planing or scraping.

I have a very, very preliminary page with some pictures. Click on the link below.