Anyone use a spare bedroom for a shop?

[BigJohn]

Hello. I finally got moved from Statesville to Weaverville (North of Asheville).

We sold our house and rented a mobile home until we find another house and miss my shop terribly! Anyone use a spare bedroom or back porch or whatever for their shop? I use hand tools 95% of the time and wondered what other people do without a basement or building.

Would love some suggestions and pics of your shops in the house.

Thanks.

John

 

[Alan in Little Washington]

My first shop was a small 10' X 10' bedroom in Military housing. I had a little workbench made from 4X4s and particle board, very few hand tools. A router, corded drill, jig saw, and circular saw were my only power tools. The room had no furniture and linoleum floors that were easy to clean. My second shop was a carpeted, but empty rec room/spare bedroom in the basement of a rental townhouse- I had just a few more tools, a Shopsmith, and no dust collection except for a VERY NOISY, garage sale, shopvac- I tented the area around the Shopsmith with poly sheeting. I built my first big project, a solid oak rolltop desk, there!!

 

[ScottM]

John, hello. Welcome to NCWW. Please go to the Who We Are forum and tell us about yourself. My first shop was a 6 x 10 shed. Sorry no pictures. I do know of scrollsawers and carvers that have shops in spare bedrooms. I have seen great shops in car ports. Like any shop I think dust control is your biggest issue. If the room has a carpet you would need to remove or cover it completely.

 

[Kicbak]

I use a bedroom as my shop. Its a bit difficult and I do all of my planing and jointing outside.

My "shop" measures about 12' x 10'
Pros
1) Climate controlled
2) The door to my deck is right near the room so I can work outside with some tools.
3) Small is easy to clean :rotflm:

Cons
1) I live in an A-Frame so the 12' wall without a door is on a slant.
2) It also still has a bed in the room. I cover it with plastic sheets so it doesn't get all dusty.
3) Not alot of space so I don't have a workbench...I'm going to try and build something to go on top of the bed frame.
4) Get a lot of dust in the hallway outside the bedroom
5) Too small for a real DC, I use a shopvac in a insulated box to keep the noise down.

Wes

 

[skeeter]

Hello John and welcome to the site. My shop is in a double garage I have to share with wife's car but it works pretty good.

 

[Travis Porter]

I have done it a little. If you have carpet it will be a pain at times because the chips get logdged into the strands. For me there was only one other person in the house so it wasn't too bad, and it got me by until I got a segregated space.

Since you are a neanderthal, I think it should work pretty well. Hand planes, scrapers, chisels, handsaws, all in all will do you well. If I could swing it, I would have a separate vacuum or even better a small shop vac to get up the chips.

Finishing can be an experience. Hopefully you have a window in the room and can put a box fan in it to suck the fumes out. Otherwise you will stink up the entire house and it takes a LONGGGGG time to get the smell out. DAMHIKT.

 

[Rob]

My spare room is not storage/finishing. I moved all my wood into it. But it's right off the shop so not a big deal. My daughters old room has become the spare room now since she's moved out.

 

[Douglas Robinson]

Take a look at the first shop crawl pics (wherever they are) and look at Dick 541's shop It is built off the outside of their home on lake Jordan. As I remember it can de disassembled easily as no nails were use to put it together.

Dick feel free to chime in.

Doug

 

[DaveO]

Take a look at the first shop crawl pics (wherever they are) and look at Dick 541's shop
Doug

I think that you might find most of those pictures scattered throughout this thread - http://www.ncwoodworker.net/forums/...wonderful-success-13534/?highlight=shop+crawl

HTH,
Dave

 

[CaptnA]

Hello and welcome to you
Never used a bedroom for the shop, but I have set up and run a lathe in the kitchen. Didn't have a place out of the weather at the time. Wasn't too bad all in all until the sanding began. that was a bit much I suppose but hey what ya gonna do????

 

[rita541]

My shop is in a spare bedroom in my trailer on Jordan Lake. I do scroll sawing. I have 2 scroll saws, 1 sml drill press, a drum sander, a vertical sander, a band saw, aJET air filtration system and a built in vaccuum(spelling?) system to each machine. Pictures of it are in the spring '08 shop crawl pictures.
rita541

 

[dick541]

Welcome John. Rita's shop is only 8X10 work aera, she has a 5' office desk for a work table, with all the tools she said above. My shop is a 18x20 car port that I closed in with a wood floor and plastic on one end, and yes it has no nails and it can be removed when I have to move.
dick

 

[JimD]

When we were first married we lived in a two bedroom apartment. The only furniture I had was a matress and box spring and a little drop leaf table. I put a tarp down on the floor of the extra bedroom and started buying tools and cheap wood. My first creations were made of pine shelving boards, construction lumber, and plywood. We still have a few of those pieces, almost 30 years later. They are not so great to look at but they work. I had to make a deal with the upstairs neighbors about noise but once they understood what was going on and I consistently did not make noise when they were trying to sleep or entertain, I was OK. I finished only with wipe on finishes. It was limiting but it was a lot better than no woodworking or spending a bunch of money for furniture that falls apart.

Jim