Spending the afternoon cutting out some tenon joints for a small church table gave me the opptunity to re-plan the workshop. When I underwent my buisness down sizing project the plan was to work from one small space, which would combine workspace and office, at a low premium. All was working well untill a large kitchen project came up. This was to be the type of project that had promised myself not to take on, but the clients had given me a steady supply of work over the years, and I was very fond of them. So I rented another small studio next to mine, with the intention of storing the kitchen components until the project was completed, and then letting it go. The kitchen project was completed a year ago, and yes I still have the studio. It is now full of timber, tools and the projects made for my next book. I have resigned myself to the fact that the extra studio is here to stay, like it or not. Furniture making always requires space, a lot of joinery and carpentry work can be carried out on site useing a well equipped van, however when making furniture you need a good bench, a few basic machines, somewhere to properly store expencive timbers and veneers and an area to apply finishes. All of which is hard to fit in a van.
One condition i have for keeping the studio is that it must earn its keep. Right now it's a handy storage area and that's it. My plan is to turn it into the machine shop, this will have the twin benefits of freeing up space in a very cramped workshop, and it will also mean a lot of dust and noise can be contained in one place.
So as I chop away at my tenons, my mind is planing how the new workshop will look and work.
