hey adam here in my cave uh answering questions from tested patrons about my shop infrastructure
and other things um today's question comes from wayne lewis wayne
lewis uh wayne has this great question uh he says kitchens have a common recipe of sink
fridge and range being anchor points that form a triangle
i didn't know that but i guess if you have three anchor points
you have a triangle yeah that makes sense that checks out
from what i remember of geometry what are the anchor points in your shop and how do
you arrange the space to move effectively during projects that require lots of movement
so to the answer the last part
how do i arrange the space to move effectively during projects that require lots of movement
i keep the shop clean i try and keep it clean while i'm working i try and go through spaces of
work work work put away put away put away work workboard put away put away
put away because if you try and just keep doing work work work eventually they'll
you know you end up like you're in the trash compactor room in star wars
um but anchor points in the shop let me let's talk about this while we're moving
i will endeavor in this shot to not make anybody ill
i am particularly fond of wheels in a shop i like configurability thus everything that's on this
back wall here everything except for the milling machine is on wheels every last bit of it and that
was that started because my original goal was that this would be 24 unbroken feet of whiteboard that
i could like pull away stuff and spend a whole day ideating in here and i did that in the early
days you can still see little bits and chunks of some show ideas and some narratives that i
was working on but it's just too much to keep moving this stuff out of the way i only did it
probably three or four times and then i kind of bagged it but i still liked the configurability
when i made savage builds i was able to transport much of this shop specifically
all of these which is all my expendables all of these were able just to go onto a truck in one day
and get on our set for savage builds the wheels are phenomenal i buy my wheels on amazon i also
buy them on ebay i like searching for casters lot lot um because that's me buying a batch of casters
that have been removed by some reseller so i sometimes buy those for pennies on the dollar
you know probably i think the last time i bought some i bought some little red two-inch casters
24 of them for maybe 40 bucks it's a great deal all that being said
uh while i love having things on wheels and even my brand new parts washer uh is now on a wheeled
stance so i can configure and reconfigure things and i do i move things from the shop
out into the display area sometimes when i need a little more room in here but for the most part
what you see is in here is usually what stays in here and the anchor points i think your original
analogy is really accurate like a kitchen each shop has its big anchor tools that don't move
in a wood shop it might be the joiner and it might be you know the the the milling machine
for making boards uh here in my shop it's definitely the lathe that's 3 500 pounds
uh table saw which is a heavy bit of kit actually is on wheels i move that in and out as needed
but the 3 500 pound mill that is well maybe it's just 3000 pounds i can't quite remember
this also doesn't move and almost everything else does except for the drill press my powermatic here
um and my beautiful beautiful beautiful disc sander this this this is one of my favorite
tools in the whole shop i love this thing um but you wanted to know about how i configure the space
you know so i'm standing actually in the zone this is usually where my sewing machine lives it
lies right here and i end up stacking stuff on top of it and like it becomes sort of excess storage
and this is really the best place to store it i'd love there to be more room in here but there isn't
right now the reason it's not in here is because i've moved it into the display area
um just to clear out part of the shop while i'm cleaning excuse me pollen bloom for almost every
shop space is at a premium that means when you are acquiring new tools you need to account for
how they're going to work in and with the space that you have allotted to you and for that tool
and this dovetails with another super common question which is should i get a joiner should
i get a mortiser should i get x tool that is big and a kind of a lifetime tool and i'm always
advising people and for the same reasons sorry i'm always advising people to buy the cheapest
version of a big tool that you can to see if it's useful to you my first mill was 1500 bucks
right because i needed to know if i would you know really utilize something like that in my shop
before eventually buying a real one um and you know when you are a budding maker and you're
wondering whether or not the joiner or this or that tool is going to like be the thing that bumps
you up to the next level and makes your production that much more professional and saves you that
much more time those are all questions you can't really answer until the thing is in your space
and if it's a heavy tool if it's an anchor point yeah it's a big decision to make which is why
again i like to go to craigslist for those tools in the first pass of how useful they'll be um i
hope that is somewhat useful it is an ongoing project there is no set of rules that i follow
that are consistent every single time but these are sort of the general parameters i work under
in terms of keeping this shop configured thanks for joining me for this q a tested patrons keep
submitting your questions now keep answering them and stay safe and i will see you guys next
time