Shop Shelves: A closer look

I have had a few e-mail questions about the shelves in my shop. Folks have noticed that the bottom of each is unique. Well let's take a closer look:
The first shelf I built was to hold my driver. I always forget to charge the damn thing. With the shelf i have trained myself to look and charge every time I leave the shop. I also drilled a few holes to hold bits that I use regularly including my countersink, so that when I am assembling and holding something together I can reach for it easily. The other shelve are meant for screws and such but I have not gotten my smaller bins yet. The shelf also houses a surge strip for any hand tools i happen to be using just under the drill shelf.
The second shelf i customized to hold all of my Dremel bits. I hang my Dremel right next to it and use the flex-shaft to work with. It's nice to be able to reach out and pull out a bit for a fast switch.

Outside of that these shelves are 1x4 stock lust boxed out with a 1/4 inch channel cut with a dado blade down the interior of the sides and crosscuts for the shelves. I used 1/4 inch MDF for the shelves and back.

Hallway Table/ Key Catcher

This is a quick weekend project and for me it came in just under $10 for the whole deal unfinished. i never have anywhere to put my keys etc. when coming in and out of the house. I decided I'd try a little handy router work and whip up something reasonably pretty to do just that.

This guy is constructed for one 1x4 ripped in half lengthwise on the table saw and a short section of 1x6 and a 2'x2' scrap of 1/4 inch ply. I routed the top edges of the bottom runners, the bottom of the drawer sections, the drawer face and the edges of the top with a 1/2" quarter-round with bead bit.

Tinker Bell Project for Baby's Room

Upon finding out that our first child is to be a little girl, my wife decided to theme the room around Tinker Bell but to keep the concept mild. We decided that we would paint the room green and used butterflies, dragonflies and stars as decoration. The only Tinker Bell we decided would be over the crib and be a 3-d stacked wood sculpture. I set to work on this and picked at it over time. The final result was surprisingly cool. We decided on having her squeeze through a keyhole. The only real issue in the formulation of this was the size of the keyhole relative to her would have made it huge, so scaling back the keyhole resulted in a less recognizable for but still a pretty cool piece.

Welcome to my shop!

This is a quick photo tour of my still developing little shop. I just moved to this house a few months ago and with a new job and a baby on the way time and cash has been a little tight. i consider these the "before" shots.

Here I have my lumber rack and a pile of half-done projects. To the left is mt drill press and band saw. The green table acts as the center of my shop and is my assembly area.

Further left of the drill press and band saw is the router and sanding supplies. I am still holding out for a better price on a decent bench top sander. The cabinets in the corner hold my hardware and paint/stain supplies.

Further left above the cabinets you can see a box fan I am using right now for ventilation. I use the old coal door as my vent and as the main load=in for materials.I have installed pegboard and some small shelves over the junky bench that was left from whoever years back. I will be working on building a newer larger and better equipped work area in the future. I have also thrown together a small table for the scrollsaw but a proper stand with storage is on its way as soon as i get bored with other projects and do it.

Finally the last turn... There is an angled wall next to the door which I have been using for the table saw. The angle helps give plenty of area on either side for longer cuts, but plans are to move it to the center of the shop with future rebuilds. The pegboard that is installed there now will eventually become a clamping station.

This shop came together pretty well for a 2 hour quick fix in the middle of a hot july move-in. It's still a work in progress becuase I've been using it so much but having to pull it half together without what I need.

Dust collection will be a major planning issue in the future as well. Noise is already an issue I am struggling with. I have never felt the need for ear protection until I started working in a stone box.