America’s Best Home Workshops

Let’s face it: For decades, this hobby we love so much tended to be a solo endeavor. Nothing but you, the wood, and your tools, tucked away in the shop—your haven!—in a basement, garage, or outbuilding. Nobody to tell you what to do. But, nobody to bounce ideas off when you ran into a puzzler. Well, it’s a changing world. These days, help is often merely a mouse click or text message away, and woodworkers are sharing more ideas than ever via computers, clubs and guilds, and online communities. In this issue (which is all about sharing ideas), you’ll learn how the shops of several woodworkers exemplify that community building. For example, Bernie Burke (page 4) and Dan Martin (page 40) serve as presidents of growing woodworking clubs and regularly…

From the street, the structure looks like any other in the neighborhood. Yep, it could easily pass for a mother-in-law’s apartment, a home office, or a guesthouse. But, walk up for a closer look, swing open the front door, and bam! You’ve just entered Bernie Burke’s nicely appointed shop. Ever the planner, Bernie built this addition to his ranch-style house understanding that the next owner might not be as interested in woodworking. Thus, the neighborhood-appropriate addition was permitted as a living space or a shop. The wall where clamps hang today? It’s stubbed for wiring and plumbing for a kitchen. The mortiser and sanding station sit along the wall of what could be a king-size bedroom. Bernie’s finishing room could convert to a walk-in closet. And new owners would just…

Until Herb Mathay builds his dream shop, he’ll make the best of a woodworking shop in a 13×20'6" garage stall walled off from the remainder of the three-car garage. Although most equipment rolls around on mobile bases, Herb found a splendid solution to the puzzle that many home woodworkers face: How do you create a compound mitersaw station that doesn’t gobble up all the floor space? “Besides a compact footprint,” Herb says, “I wanted to incorporate a dust-collection system that worked at all angle settings. That dictated a design that left space behind the saw for the collection hose.”…

You won’t see many woodshops with a carpeted floor. But for Bill Melchione, carpeting was a practical and professionally reasoned decision when planning his shop. For more than three decades as a physical therapist, Bill has treated scores of patients with skeletal and muscular damage from standing on concrete floors. “Walking across a wood floor in the house,” Bill explains, “you feel the give. The wood absorbs shock instead of transferring it to your body. But on concrete, your body absorbs all the shock.” Bill got lucky finding a bargain supply of carpet. “A nearby carpet manufacturer sometimes has remnants or off-square carpet that it makes available to employees,” Bill explains. “One of my patients worked at the plant and a few months after I mentioned that I was looking…

Bill Shannon’s move from a cramped basement shop brought more than a welcome flood of daylight through six windows in his new shop. Now, he can work his way through a project without shuffling tools around on mobile bases and without whacking lumber on the low ceiling. From engineered wall panels and radiant floor heating to wallmounted machines and dust runs in the wall and floor, Bill researched improvements at every opportunity. SHOP SPECS TYPE: Dedicated building SIZE: 520 sq. ft. with 9' walls CONSTRUCTION: Structural insulated panels (SIPs) with R25 rating, wrapped on the exterior with building felt, mesh netting, and T1-11 siding; R45 roof HEATING: Radiant floor heating via Rinnai on-demand tankless propane-fired water heater COOLING: Window air conditioner when necessary in summer months ELECTRICAL: 200-amp service with…

It’s a long journey from an unheated 6×10' basement workshop to a spacious 1,132-square-foot backyard shop, but along the way, Ruth Walker has filled her shop with tools and her life with a legion of woodworking friends. After her dad introduced Ruth to tools, she quickly showed a knack for woodworking. With her husband’s encouragement and tool gifts from him for every special occasion, she acquired enough basic equipment and confidence to set up a small shop and part-time business in the corner of a friend’s sawmill. Then, a sea change. After her husband died of cancer, Ruth made a big leap to build this shop to help fill her empty days and nights. “My hubby knew that woodworking was one of my biggest passions,” Ruth recalls, “and this was…