Myka Guitars Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 After 3 weeks of tearing down my old shop, packing it up, and driving across the country, and then setting up a new shop I am finally working this week on some guitars instead of shop building. It has been a long 4 weeks building out this new space. It started as a pretty empty old shop/breakroom in an old factory building in Georgetown, WA just south of downtown Seattle. I ripped out a wall, painted the all the walls and beams, put in a new electrical panel and ran all the circuits, built in new benches (the space is 20' X 40' and I built a nice bank of benches along the back 20' wall to be my work center), set up a nice dust collection system, and finally organized most of my stash of wood and templates. The space is huge for me at 800 sqft. At the end of the month I am taking over another 400 sqft for a spray booth and office area (separate rooms, of course). The best part about this space are the high ceilings and big windows. There is so much natural light here it is amazing. After emerging from a long WNY winter spent in a basement shop this is such an inspiring place to be working in. I am totally excited and looking forward to the next phase of my work. Here are some before and after pictures: New Shop I really can't wait to get back in full swing. I have some awesome projects on the horizon and a few new ideas that I have been developing for a couple of years. This is looking to be the most productiv year yet. I will certainly keep everyone posted now that I am back online in the shop again (a month without direct internet access is harder that I thought). Anyway, I thought you all might like to see some pics of the new place. Enjoy! ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammy Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Wow! What a space! One day.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bentwood999 Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 hi myka ive seen your work very nice indeed >must have been a heck of a move for ya hope everything goes>>>>>>>> smoooth with the new place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegarehanman Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Glad you've got a new, inspiring place to crank out the geetars. Looks nice. You said that you share the building with some other artists? That must be cool. How's that dust collection system working for you? Is that jet unit strong enough to generate adequate suction despite all of the hoses and gates in the system? I ask because I have the harbor freight equivalent of that unit but haven't had a chance to run permanent piping for it yet. peace, russ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick500 Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Very nice! I have the run of 1/3 of a 2-car garage and am now officially jealous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ooten2 Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Congrats on the new space. I can't wait to see the projects that come out of there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Awesome! Also looking forward to seeing the new projects. Glad the move and the new shop setup went relatively smoothly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim_ado Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 strewth that things as big as a wood tech room at school lucky you dont have 30 13 year old kid running around.......if they lucky enough to do wood tech ...........sorry im still bitter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmrentis Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Very nice! I have the run of 1/3 of a 2-car garage and am now officially jealous. Hehe, same here. Very nice stuff Myka, I love organization it makes life so much easier. I think that what I would like about a nice big shop is to have a place for everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Sweet shop! Looking forward to seeing what wonderful instrument you manage to churn out next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Congrats on the successful move David. Best of luck with everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikhailgtrski Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Glad you're settled in! Congrats - it looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fryovanni Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Wow, that is a good size space . I can't wait to check it out in person. Peace,Rich P.S. The wood is paid for and he is palletizing it for me. I will probably have to have him hold it till the second week in July(my schedule is making it tuff to make a trip up, busy weekends). I am looking forward to touring the local wood dealers while I am up in your neck of the woods(a little treasure hunting!!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Welcome to the left coast -- land of fleece and Birkenstocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted June 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Russ, so far the dust collection system works great. It basically is a straight run from the turbine to the hose. I used 4" drainage pipe which is way cheaper than anything else I found. I have a blast gate at each split and then one at each machine. This way I can attempt to minimize any loss of suction. I was resawing some wood and sanding it yesterday and that worked perfectly. I also tried sanding it with another gate open and that also worked well. Compared to the smaller, portable system I had in my NY space this system captures almost everything. There is a little residual dust but that is to be expected (unless it's a Festool machine!). I am not sure I would have done anything differently at this point. If anything comes up I'll let you know. Rich, I can't wait to see some of that spruce. I just found some 11' boards of quartersawn Honduran at one of the local places. We can certainly do some treasure hunting while you are in town. There are a couple places nearby that have some good stuff, plus I got number of a guy out in the foothills that supposedly has some great stuff all the time. I'll let you know what I find out. Thanks all for the comments. It really is a great shop, and very spacious. Now I just need to get back to building guitars. On that note... Adios! ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsilver Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 David, congratulations on the new workshop. How exciting, and that on top of a move, etc, etc. All the best in your new digs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihocky2 Posted June 13, 2007 Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 Very nice new shop. How do you like that radial arm drill press? I am considering the bench version of it. How hard is it to keep it plumb when moving the head back and forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myka Guitars Posted June 13, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 13, 2007 None of the Grizzly tools are mine, they belong to my shopmate, so they are new to me. After setting them up this week and using them for a while I will repeat what has been told to me about cheaper tools: "You get what you pay for." Of the 3 Grizzly tools in the shop the drill press is the worst in terms of fit and adjusment. The shaft that holds the spinning drillhead is a little too big so it moves around. The adjustment is a v-groove machined into the shaft and a set screw which either produces a very tight movement, or it catches when slightly loose, but in all instances the shaft likes to move at the beginning and the end of its movement making it pretty useless for precision work. My Delta 12" bench drill is a more precision tool that the Grizzly by far. I will eventually purchase a nicer drill press to replace this one. As nice as it is to have it the tool just is not worth dealing with for me. To be fair the jointer, with the spiral cutterhead, works great. It can take a 1/64" pass and make a dead flat surface. The trouble with it is that the fence has a bow and a twist. This makes it useless for jointing perpendicular to a previously jointed edge. The bandsaw is actually pretty nice (for a bandsaw that means the wheels spin true and are aligned with each other, the blade guides do the rest). It had to be a lot to get the fence perfectly square to the table which I found to be highly annoying since the fence has no adjustment whatsover and the bracket had to be shimmed to make it work. Alo the moveale arm that holds the upper blade guide did not drop straight up and down but moved towards the fence amking your cuts thinner as the guide was lower. So I mean the bandsaw was nice only after adjusting everything which took a few hours until it was dialed in (this reminds me of a handplane thread a while back). Once it was heavily tweaked it worked fine. With the upgraded guide bearings and some time setting it all up right it cuts very well and can confidently be used as a resaw. I would probably have gotten the 17" or 18" personally but still the 14" has 10" of resaw capacity, which is plenty for most things. I would highly recommend testing any Grizzly tools before you buy them. It seems that quality is something that exists within their product rangebut it is not consistently found. But what can you really expect from these prices? I personally would not look at prices as the final determining factor when you are investing in tools. Find something that works well because you'll have it a long time. ~David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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