Help Me Design My New Selfbow Workshop

[John Scifres]

Morning old friends.  Bowmaking season is upon me and I am spending the first part renovating my garage.  I have a workable shop now but I am completely renovating my garage so it is a blank slate. 

I have half the 2-car garage so it's 10'x20'.  The only thing that has to be in there other than a bench and tools is my chest freezer which actually serves as a nice horizontal work space when needed.  All wood storage is already in the attic so that is not a factor in the shop. 

I have a bandsaw on casters and a rolling tool cart that serves as space for my grinder, drill press, sander, and router table as needed. The long wall will also have my tiller tree on it. 

Show me your shops and anything you do that is creative or cool or just something you love about it. I'd love to hear about your dust collection methods.  I am pondering a unit in my attic. Right now I just use a shop-vac. The garage is insulated but not conditioned.  Some form of spray-booth is also a desire.  It will have to be takedown as I don't spray a lot.  I looked at a lot of older threads but many pics are missing.  Thanks.

[Roy from Pa]

Good to see you getting back into making bows, John.

The best dust collection system I have found is a cyclone system, they really work well.

I also have an air filter in the ceiling that works well.

[OldRawhide42]

I put a dust collector in a shed next to the shop. It helped with the noise. But it has a little less suck . Also a shop vac like Roys.

[Buggs]

Roy, do you prefer the cyclone over the wall mounted unit?

I also would love to see some examples of knockdown spray booths. Never have seen the perfect one, yet!

[Kirkll]

With only 10X20' to work with, id recommend a small 4' work bench on wheels that can be locked down, with flip up sides or ends to increase your space. I've use the 3-4" caster wheels with a good lock down on the wheels in the past and they work well.

I thought all you self bowyers prefered working outside under a tarp or something...

[wood carver 2]

One thing that I have learned is to put everything on wheels. I just got my workbench on wheels and now it’s easy to pull out and clean behind it or work on it’s other side.
A good space saver is a flip cart. I saw one on you tube and it’s a great idea. My two bench mounted belt sanders are bolted to it.
Here’s a picture.

Dave.

[Buggs]

And don't forget about lighting. I've been very happy since I saturated my main work space with cheap 4' LED shop lights.

[John Scifres]

Thank you all.  You are doing great.  More please

[Roy from Pa]

Roy, do you prefer the cyclone over the wall mounted unit?

They do different things buggs.
The cyclone connected to the power tools sucks up the sawdust like crazy and it all goes into the 5 gallon bucket, nothing goes into the shop vac. It's crazy how well it works...
The ceiling unit gets the dust that floats in the air.

[Roy from Pa]

I placed my workbench in the center of the shop so I can walk the entire way around it.
Have a vice mounted on both ends.

Have a vice on a post in the center of the shop for glue ups and I can walk all around it too..

[wood carver 2]

I’m in the middle of the second phase of re-working my garage shop too. I bought a few of those stackable plastic bins so that I can keep small pieces of wood organized and during the first part of the re-work, I built a couple of rolling wood storage bins. One is for boards and the other is for plywood. They have dividers in them to help keep things neat.

Dave.

[Kirkll]

I placed my workbench in the center of the shop so I can walk the entire way around it.
Have a vice mounted on both ends.

Have a vice on a post in the center of the shop for glue ups and I can walk all around it too..

Roy......  At's not a  bloody vise mate........

Now.... At's a vise mate.....

[Roy from Pa]

Ya happy?

[garyschuler]

You all wanna go there ——Really? I gotta go knock some glue snot off of mine for pics. First I gotta dig around in my shop to find my 4’x8’ workbench. !!!!!

[Mad Max]

I placed my workbench in the center of the shop so I can walk the entire way around it.
Have a vice mounted on both ends.



Have a vice on a post in the center of the shop for glue ups and I can walk all around it too..

Roy......  At's not a  bloody vise mate........

Selfbows have a 4" grip with fades wider than the grip, so no more than a 4" vice

[Buggs]

Actually I was referring to this unit;

[Roy from Pa]

That unit flat out sucks.
It won't even pull saw dust out of a machine.
It's all it can do to hold a piece of paper against the inlet hose.
From what I have been told, it's just to move some light dust in the air..
So I don't even use it and since I used it once, they would not take it back.

[Pat B]

I have my vice on my work bench but if I were to do it over I'd mount it on a post in the floor so I could work around it. I use it mainly for removing bark and sapwood to find a good back ring. I also use it to reduce the stave to floor tiller stage. This is where being able to work all around the stave would be handy. I use my Stave Master for the rest of the tillering process.

[Mad Max]

That unit flat out sucks.
It won't even pull saw dust out of a machine.
It's all it can do to hold a piece of paper against the inlet hose.
From what I have been told, it's just to move some light dust in the air..
So I don't even use it and since I used it once, they would not take it back.

Just saying
It will suck up a paper towel and block it off, take the hose off and see if anything is in there.
There has to be something in there roy
Mine works really good but the bag can clog too, I take the bag outside and snap it several times, turn it inside out and do it again, also I wash it.
I added a cyclone dust collector before it goes in there and it works better.

[Kirkll]

Ya happy?

Now  at's a vice mate.... 

  I put dense rubber pads on mine