Thread: New Shop in Seattle!

I've been pretty estranged from the forums since moving back to the US. For a while, it was simply because I wasn't doing any woodworking, which was a function of the fact that I didn't have a shop. Since getting re-established, it's mostly been just procrastinating in getting that elusive round tuit that's been keeping me from it.

But I'm really hoping to change that... I hope that this will be the first of a few posts detailing my return to woodworking and the projects on which I've been working.

A bit of backstory...

I moved to Seattle, Washington, USA back in August. Given that we sent out possessions via sea freight, I knew that I had some time to find a workshop before my stuff arrived.

In the first few weeks I did some casual searching, but we were mostly focused on finding a place to live. That took us about three weeks, and we were approved almost immediately for our apartment.

At this stage, I focused fully on finding a place to set up a shop. I called a few space rental locations which would've required me to buy all new machinery. I was prepared to do this, but I also called some dedicated woodworking shops which rented everything from appointment-based machine time to full blown workbench space with communal machines.

It was one of the latter varieties of location that I was referred to because it was "near my apartment".

I called the owner and went to check it out. At this stage we were still living with some family members in another part of town from where we would ultimately be living.

Let me reiterate... We had already been approved and committed to living in this apartment before I went to check out this shop.

And lo and behold, it turned out to be RIGHT next door. Not across the street, or across a vacant lot, or "caddy cornered", but immediately next door. About 250mm away from my apartment building.

And they had space for ONE PERSON. It was kind of crazy, honestly. It's as though it was meant to be.

The shop is called the Wisteria Design Group, and is owned by a couple who are professional woodworkers. There are about seven other woodworkers, and maybe ten or so other varieties of artists like painters, sculptors, and one guy who makes colorful rugs out of linoleum.

And it is absolutely the best shop I've ever been in. All of the machines are immaculately maintained to an extremely high standard (and all machine maintenance is included in the rental price). There is a 12" single block cutter jointer, an 8" helical cutter jointer, a 12" helical thicknesser, two table saws with about 5m of outfeed, four bandsaws set up for various tasks, including a 3" blade resawing saw with virtually zero drift, an entire room dedicated to sanding machines, a veneer press, radial arm saw... I'm probably forgetting something. All of the machines are hooked up to hard sided ducting and equipped with vibration sensors which trigger the DC to come on when the machines come on.

Here are some photos:

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And here is a photo of the shop dog, whose name, appropriately, is "Mortise":

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I have a good sized corner of the shop for my bench, tools, etc. Some of my first few projects were to make some shelves, etc. and to get modestly organized.

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I also got this cool, 60s era lamp, which gives me better light than I've ever had in a workshop:

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And here's a shot of my little slice of heaven:

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My next project is a cabinet for my saws and moulding planes which will hang to the left of the tin snips you see on the left side of the work area. Shortly thereafter, I plan to build a small cabinet for my grinder with some cabinet space and drawers for my less glamorous tools (spanners, etc).

So all in all it's a great space, probably the best shop I'll ever have, and I look forward to sharing some of the stuff I make in it on here.

Cheers,
Luke