Photo tour of Charlie Plesums shop

The garage door is blocked since

1. I now have heating and air conditioning so the door is rarely open
2. The electric opener died, and I haven't felt the need to replace it
3. I can still open it manually if I have a large wood delivery.

Walk in and look to the right and you see my work bench - a low bench on wheels that I used for years, with clamps to hold the work, instead of any vice. A few years ago I built a stand-up bench inspired by Steve Latta's mini-bench in Fine Woodworking - a bench that puts the work at a comfortable standing height. It also has a 2½ inch thick laminated MDF top, my first woodworking vice, and bench dog holes. Behind the bench is my MM24 bandsaw, normally with a 1 inch carbide blade used for resawing. In this compact shop, if I need to resaw a long board, the door behind the bandsaw, leading to the water heater, can be opened for outfeed space.

There is naturally space under the mini-bench, but it is positioned so that the 8.5 foot slider on my saw can go between the benches. In the rare event that I have to rip a wide board or piece of sheet goods the full 8 feet long, and more than a couple feet wide, the whole bench is on wheels and can move. The miter fence on the slider is stored on the machine in this funny position, but can quickly be moved to a useful angle (but then it doesn't fit through the hole between the benches)

The MiniMax CU410 Elite combo is the centerpiece of the shop - and at 2,200 pounds it rarely is moved. The outrigger can handle cross cuts in wood with almost 8 feet to the left of the blade, and by reconfiguring the fences, about 4 feet to the right of the blade. The saw itself has a 10 or 12 inch blade, plus a small scoring blade that rotates in the opposite direction, both driven by a 4.8 hp motor. The rip fence is on the saw, but is rarely used - the slider creates a more precise cut. The cast iron aircraft carrier standing vertically is the table for the 16 inch jointer, with the jointer fence on the table ready to go (but here being used as a shelf). With the combo the same cutters are used for the jointer and planer; here configured for planer use, with the work passing under the cutters, but with the jointer table down the work passes above the same cutters, and the jointer table becomes part of the saw table. It is driven by a separate 4.8 hp motor. Lurking below the saw table is a tilting shaper with a third 4.8 hp motor and choice of ¾ inch and 1¼ inch spindles.

Behind the jointer table you can see the 16 inch planer, and hanging off the side of the machine, the slot mortiser (driven by the jointer/planer motor). One of the lucky coincidences is that the infeed of the planer (from where the picture was taken) fits under the table of the MM24 bandsaw. The outfeed of the jointer is above the MM24 table. If the outfeed from the planer is over 8 feet long (extremely rare), the garage door can be opened.

Continuing counterclockwise around the shop you come to the small 14 inch bandsaw, a Grizzly G0555 that typically has a 3/16 inch blade on it. It, too, is on casters since it occasionally has to be moved to allow large pieces to be cut on the combo. On the floor behind it is the air compressor, and the trash can separator used to remove the jointer/planer chips from the dust going to the cyclone. You can also see my heat pump, raised for good air flow through the shop. During the coldest part of winter plain electric heat is more efficient, so I have a small space heater to supplement it at the other end of the shop (the black thing on the MM24 bandsaw table).

In addition to the shaper in the combo, I have a separate 5 hp Powermatic shaper. It has an outstanding fence, so is quick to set up and use, but it is extremely hard to remove the fence. The shaper on the MiniMax has a fence that is very time consuming to set up and use, but works extremely well when a fence isn't required. (The time to switch to and from the combo shaper with fence is the only transition that is slow on the combo - all the other function changeovers are quick and easy). Notice that the cross-cut fence from the combo saw fits over the shaper table - when using the shaper the sliding table is just pulled back out of the way. The mystery piece on the shaper table is some mesquite with epoxy fill, curing.

Behind the shaper is a Nova DVR lathe. The one or two dust hoses to the shaper are removed when using the lathe. To the left of the lathe is the infeed for the 38 inch drum sander. In practice, most of the pieces are far less than 38 inches wide, so can be sanded without moving the sander, but the sander is on casters, and can be pulled into the center of the room when necessary.

The wide sander has been sold to make room for a veneer cutter. Think of it as a 40 inch paper cutter, heavy enough to cut through wood.

Here you can see the outfeed side of the former drum sander. On top of the sander is a small belt/disc sander only used rarely (but I have owned it for decades). You can also see the bottom of the cyclone, with filters and the dust collection can.

I have numerous 4 wheel furniture dollies in the shop - with no real home, like the two here. They are normally under the work in process, or the stacks of material being processed for the current project.

The drill press is hidden behind the plywood and lumber storage. Actually this is a small part of the lumber. The entrance to the shop is from a hall with the pull-down stairs to the attic, aligned with the shop door. I have several hundred board-feet of lumber stored in the attic rafters.

Why is the miter saw on a furniture dolly on the floor? Because the ceiling is just under 10 feet tall, and many boards from the lumber yard come in 10 to 14 foot lengths. They are brought in and stay on the floor until they can be cut, at least to rough length, working at floor level, or can be moved to the attic.