Randall's Blog

I was scanning old photos (yes, I do a lot of that) and came across a Polaroid of the workshop in Patchogue. I have enjoyed making things for a long time and have put together small workshops in various places I have lived. In Patchogue it was in an area I made by extending the "barn" past the kitchen. I can't remember if I made the space for a workshop or decided later to put my tools there. I had a radial arm saw and that was the major shop tool. Here's what the shop looked like:

There were other places that didn't lend themselves to creating a shop. The house in Amsterdam had a space but the ceiling was really low. I remember setting up the same radial arm saw but it wasn't really that elaborate a shop.

In Epping I had another "barn" to work with but it had a lot of stuff in it and it took a while to really set things up as a shop. Here's the bench from the Epping barn just after I built it:

The radial arm saw was gone and I used this chop saw for cutting. The Epping barn did work out to be a fairly useful shop. I got a small table saw on sale at some point and this has worked out well. It's just a portable saw but I put a good blade on it and this helps. I also have a small jointer I acquired along the way.

Here in Delmar we have a really nice barn to work with. I've been moving things around to make some space and I have set up a fairly nice workshop area.

The table saw fits next to the rolling bench I built and I have some new machines. My latest minor project was to hook up a long tube to connect the machines to the dust collector:

Now, to to put it all to good use....

Lastly, my plants are looking good in the greenhouse - almost ready to transplant to the garden: