in all these times of instability with the world being a crazy crazy place
little places like this if you can make one or find some space
for a little shop to make some stuff can really help you stay sane seriously can
being able to come in here shut the door ignore the world fiddle around with something probably
cut myself from various different places which i seem to have done a little bit in the last couple
of months but that's another story entirely which you probably don't want to hear um coming in here
and being able to fiddle around with some various bits of woodwork projects or any kind of projects
is a real release from the world because it means that you don't have to think about anything it
allows you just to focus on what you're doing for now it allows you to keep in the moment a lot more
than pretty much anything else i've ever done as a hobby and i've had a lot of hobbies
so don't underestimate how little space you need to be able to actually do something you
know in the maker world which is a nice new buzz term at the moment by the sounds of it
being able to use our hands for things and actually get back down to basics again i think you
know what i mean just helps keep us grounded in these crazy times and the media is full of stuff
the schools are all weird work is all weird i work at home now all the time which is great in
some states in some cases but i miss the people as well but some of the people not all of the
people but you know having a space where you can do this sort of stuff is absolutely priceless
and it doesn't matter whether it's a tiny little space and this is quite big compared to some
people's sheds you see a lot of videos with people with enormous workshops and everything
else that's not most of us we only have these tiny little spaces and quite a lot of the time
we have to share that space with other things that we need to store like bikes and mowers and
cans of petrol and all sorts of stuff that you have to kind of have every day if you
have a family and you have garden you're lucky enough to have a garden which we do
then these places are really really important for that but keep a little sanctuary for yourself
where you can do stuff with your hands that's my main advice for keeping sane through these times
doing stuff with your hands connects you with the moment far more than anything else can making
things just is a primal thing that humans are built to do we are a tool maker that's why we've
got to where we are now rightly or wrongly or good or bad or however you want to see it
don't let that go even if you've never done anything like this before
i thought i'd do a little bit of a shop tour around my tiny tiny workshop just so you can
kind of see the challenges that i've got in here and some of my solutions for it
now bear in mind i thought i was going to tidy up before this but i thought no i'm just going
to show you exactly what it is this is who i am right right now this is who i am maybe sometime
in the future in a couple of weeks let's say i can do another video of a really tidy workshop
that'll be amazing and a good follow-up and if there is going to be one i'll put a link
up here or is it here or there or down there warts and all this is my shop tour as you can see
everything is on wheels i have to be able to move things around to be able to use them in
a lot of cases so for instance if i want to use the bandsaw at back it has to go in that position
if i want to use the jointer or the planer the bandsaw has to scoop out the way and then i bring
the other one forward so i have the space so there's a lot of chinese puzzle sliding square
thing you know this is a problem area for me this is a big old shelf that was on the wall before i
did the dust collection system and i've not had a chance to find a home for it yet because for
some reason i think my walls get smaller as time goes on maybe it's the rain we've had they shrink
get less space to put things bit of a nightmare so i need to figure out some sort of solution
either put this back on the wall somewhere or not it's like a bit like tipping point this area here
have you ever seen that game show you know where you put the coins in and they slide backwards and
forwards you wait for someone to fall off the front we hope it's not sore that lands on your
foot and everything else this is a horrible old cupboard that was in here when i got here
um in one of the original sheds and things go in here to to die basically there may be even
dead things in there i'm not actually sure i think i'm going to shut that now just in case
i actually have a really nice replacement just of draws for here i just need to do it and bring it
in get rid of this thing probably have a nice ceremonial fire somewhere where i can burn it
uh sing some songs drink some beer at the same time that'd be really good
i tried to keep all my nails and things up here it's funny i don't really use nails
i don't know why we have so many nails why do i have so many nails i don't know
i think i probably use these little tack nails occasionally but since i got a nail gun brad
nail gun i don't probably use them at all really so i could probably fix a lot of that by putting
that oh i can put it in there i do a lot of stuff in the house with the electrics obviously allowed
work you have to be very careful when you're doing electrics in your own house to make sure that it's
allowable work in the uk it's really really strict you have to be very careful what you do
and you need to check the rules before you try anything i've had a few situations where i need
to rewire sockets and things i have some sensors up here for checking electrics the
electrics in the house when we got here were pretty ropey so that was another good investment
really these things are brilliant there's dust everywhere uh i think they're they're something
like 50 pounds or a piece so they're quite a bit the peace of mind that these things give
you that the electric sound is amazing and not even the electrics that you might have
been doing but the electrics that might be in the house already just if you're doing anything
like that get one of these i'll see if i can find the link and again put it in the bottom
someone told me once i can't remember whether it was on a video or whether it was somebody i was
talking to that eighty percent of woodworking is sharpening and sharp tools so i keep a lot
of all my sharpening stuff is in here except for the grinder which is obviously behind the camera
um and that i actually managed to keep reasonably organized amazing that that is
if anyone was going to ask me which main tools should i get from my shop first if you've got
a limited budget and you need a saw i wouldn't recommend getting a miter saw i have one over
there stuck in the back of the shop because it just takes up too much space i would really
seriously recommend getting a table saw this is a i think they call it a site an on-site table saw
because it's small it has a small footprint it's on wheels and it's it doesn't take up much space
which is a bit of a problem actually because if you've ever used table saw the space you need
for it is not determined by the size of the table saw it's determined by the size of the great big
pieces of lumber that you're trying to cut up with it now if you ever try to cut up a large piece of
plywood and i mean like 2.4 meters by what is it 1.2 meters um don't use one of these for
it it's incredibly dangerous to try to do that they're not designed for doing things that big
these are more for smaller pieces of work having said that they're incredibly versatile it's really
amazing what these things can actually do if you know what you're doing with it you can make
all sorts of jigs and sleds for these things they have slots in here which are really really useful
you can make things like this which is a cross cut sled you'll see these on a lot of videos probably
from a lot of people this is what i really need to remake there's probably a good opportunity
for a video there because i've learned an awful lot since i made this one a couple of years ago
and there's a lot of really good ideas on youtube actually for these so have a
hunch around i need to make one that fits my purposes and my use my use cases most
use cases you can tell i'm a software engineer so if you've got one of these
always put the blade down
top safety tip if you've got one of these making cross cuts on the table saw is just so much safer
and easier than using this sort of thing in the channel which does work very well
but it's not this is obviously not the one for this but these things keep your hands out of
the way much better than these do and hands out of the way of a table saw is a brilliant idea
you need to be very very careful it's a large spinning piece of metal with very very sharp
edges on it which is obviously the point you can also do miter cuts on this my miter said actually
got accidentally sold in half don't ask so one of the other things i need to do is to
build a cross-cut sled which i can put a miter jig into which is my kind of ideal
because these things take up a lot of space and as you can see i don't have anywhere to put this
so when i'm not using it it normally goes on the floor down the side or it goes on the bench over
there and it can really get in the way my main support storage is up here there's a lot of
stuff in here because i built the workshop i know where all the reinforced pieces are so it's pretty
strong and nothing's ever fallen down which is a really good thing this is a solid fixed edge so
nothing will fall on my head when i'm grumbling around looking for my tape measure on the floor
this is my lovely bandsaw which was an ebay purchase uh not long ago a few weeks ago and
it's it's just a great thing it's probably 15 years old it doesn't look like it's seen
much work in its lifetime and i absolutely love it i didn't know how much i would use
it until i had it here attached to the side is the remote control for the dust system
which is a brilliant brilliant idea that i got off another youtube video
which i can't remember the channel of i'm afraid i'll see if i can find a link
for it and i'll stick it in the description below that's about it for today thank you for
watching please subscribe and like and leave me a comment as well and we'll see you next time