I waited patiently for many years to build my first shop (the one we still occupy and love). Janis encouraged me to build it plenty big, which I thought I did. I remember clearly wandering that cavernous space when it was new, thinking it was overly large. There was even a double garage off the main shop as well. But it wasn’t long until things began filling up. The first big tool acquisition, the MultiCam CNC router, used up a ton of square footage. It wasn’t long until that machine was moved into the adjoining double garage. The hot rod and spare parts were displaced into a 40’ shipping container. Ten years later we added the MultiCam CNC plasma cutter which meant a new 24’ x 32’ addition to the back of the shop. Then came the forklift which needed to be stored under cover. That used up all the spare space in the plasma cutter addition. There’s three containers tucked into the bone yard out back these days, all full of ‘good stuff’. We’ve gotten pretty good at palletizing our projects as we build them, complete with dolly wheels, so we can move them around easily when needed.

Typically, we have three or four projects on the go in the shop in various stages of completion. Large, bulky projects, like the giant robot, really tax our floor space however. As we began disassembling it for paint, the free space quickly is at a premium. So for the next week or so we’ll hold off on starting new projects until we can push a few of the current pieces out the door as they are finished.