1st Time Shop Tour April Wilkerson

okay guys so I built this shop in 2018 so it's been almost two full years since I broke ground on it and I've yet to do a shop tour and big exciting news for me in my business realm is I just bought a commercial building here locally and so big changes are gonna be happening in my personal shop so I'm gonna be moving some of the equipment into the new one and so before that happens I really wanted to show off what the current scene looks like and then give you guys updates later on so for the first time ever welcome into my shop let's do a shop tour so this is the east side of my shop where I built the porch typically I come in through my man door and then if it's nice weather I immediately open up my giant bay doors and then this is really where I keep most of my like sentimental things knickknacks I keep mementos from different events and then things along the way I also have been getting in the habit to where I keep little drop offs or keepsakes from different projects that I just think are cool up on the wall and then all of this is kind of where I have my French cleat system and my power tools as I'm walking around my shop and remember that I have videos on everything that I've done and for the vast majority of them plans as well so you see something you like and want to know how I did it then I'll leave you links to all of the videos down in the description and then also plans if you'd like to make it your own I absolutely love the French cleat system I love having everything very easy to grab and accessible and visible that's just been kind of my mantra since I since I've established a shop of course I have a pegboard where I keep some of the lower key items some of the smaller items that are always grabbed up on the ceiling I really love utilizing ceiling space so I put up some of these rocks in order to just throw up totes and in the totes I've labeled the bottoms of them so that I can very easily look up and say okay that's all of my flooring stuff that's all my drywall stuff over in this corner this is a little bit messy keep in mind that of course it's a work in progress it took me and I think three years to establish my old 600 square foot shop the exact way that I wanted it this is three thousand four thousand square feet if you include the porch so I have tons of plans that I simply haven't been able to get to yet but here's where I keep all of my extra saw blades the breaks for my saw stops my insert plates the dedos my table saw jigs again I put things in the areas where they're the most accessible for the items that I'm going to be using it for over here in the corner I have the filter for my dust collector I do have a really awesome clear view cyclone on the outside and this is a heated and cooled space and so what I did is I put the main outside they cut down on some of the noise and also allow me to then outside whenever I'm not running this central air but whenever I am i piped in the filter to the inside so that if the doors are down and the AC is running I'm not just sucking all of my school out and then disposing of it this will get rid of the dust on the outside and some of the noise but then filter back in the the cooled or heated air and then you can see the top one is the main pipe that goes along the main trunk of my dust collection system that then drops down to a few of my different tools this is the only painting that I have in my shop it's called the song of the Lark and I actually saw it in a museum I'm not one to go to an art museum but I did and it just struck me and so I went and picked up a print it actually covers up my electrical panel so that's what her purpose is this is my old miter saw stand and I've just been keeping it around because I knew I was I've been trying to find a commercial building that I can purchase and I've just been hanging on to anything extra that I have because once I bought it then I can have equipment and furnishings to quickly throw in there so this is the north end of my shop and what I had planned for it was the big tool equipment to be on along this wall so that I could just have big trunk drop downs from the main DC trunk and so yeah I have my jointer my drill press I bought a purchase is dis sander but I've yet to it's three-phase so I either need to put a one phase motor on it or a single-phase motor or I need to get a converter for the entire shop but then I have my sharpening stone and my bandsaw and my lathe over there coming this way I have the old pegboard I originally made this pegboard yeah I think this was one of the first projects I did in my old shop whenever I realized that woodworking and making things was something I was gonna be into and even though this is no longer my logo I didn't have the heart to throw it away so this is kind of here for sentimental sake I have my mobile clamp rack and you I don't want to turn it around but on the backside I also have it full of clamps and what I like about this is I can move this entire unit wherever I'm working on the workbench instead of like loading up my arms with clamps I can just quickly throw them back on and then here I have my 50 inch drum sander I've been in the process of painting all of my equipment plumb but you can see that I didn't actually finish it so that's something on the list whenever I have a free weekend and then I have it plumbed into its standalone dust right which is the dust collection unit made from Rockler when I first moved into the shop I only had that one table salt over here and this is the three horse that I bought right after I graduated college it was my graduation present present to myself and then I just this year upgraded to the industrial one that has the the sliding arm over there and so instead of just getting rid of this one or selling it it's so convenient since I have the space to have two table cells so what I'm typically doing is running a single blade in this one and then keeping a dado stack in this one on this table saw I have the folding outfeed table out of wood that I made for it in my last job so now I don't really use it as an outfeed table as you can really just use it as a another workbench then another modification on the table saw that I did just last month I think maybe two months ago is I added the Infinity router table to the wing and even though I have a standalone router table this is a great option to conserve space and again if you're in a case like mine where the shop is rather large then having two on opposite ends just saved some walking time mm-hm and then I can also keep one bit in this one and another bit in the other without having to change mobile work benches even with a large shop I've always been a huge advocate for keeping everything mobile and everything in this space is mobile even with the large space I love the flexibility it gives you and so these are mertaw work benches not only are they great because then I can wield them out into the center of my workshop to work over there but then I can wheel them out if I'm needing that space for something else I can load it down with material in my truck and then haul it to the exact station and here that I'm gonna be working or load up a heavy piece of heavy project and then move it over into the other room in order to finish it anyway so big small I'm still an advocate of making everything mobile here is my giant workbench I really wanted something with a 4x8 top so this is one of the first things that I built whenever I was furnishing this space and as you can see along the workbench there is just a ton of add-on accessories to make this thing as functional as it can possibly be I have clamp storage I have bench cookie storage tape bits speed square holsters on every corner later on I added a downdraft table so I can actually do a bunch of sanding here with a shopback directly underneath I have a big open cavity that I can put anything but I mostly use it for tools and then along the bottom I have eight drawers four on each side in order to throw things in like hardware biscuits I think I have an entire drawer for sandpaper extra sandpaper and electrical equipment so just to be able to divide it up even though it's a large workbench I still made it mobile to give me the flexibility to move it around the shop and so these casters you can pick up at Rockler and they come in different weight ratings and you can flip down on the lever in order to prop it up on all four wheels and then you can pick it back up whenever you get into the position to make it stationary in the interim so regardless of what you're building try to make it mobile if you can moving back here to my west wall this is my rolling lumber rack Kush I love this thing it's been so long since I've made this back in my old shop so I love that it's still being utilized however its lifespan is gonna be very temporary now because the plan for this whole back wall is to have a top cat catwalk along the top and then all my material storage be up there but in the interim this thing is still going strong and working very well over here is my toolbox I keep all of my wrenches and sockets and a variety of other things and then it's also a catch-all for kitchen II items things like snacks and coffee and and water paper towel holder all of my woodpecker tools and then over here it's kind of like my finishing rack although this is also very very small and I have a have a really cool project in mind in order to retrofit this area whenever I originally designed the shop I wanted this to be my woodworking shop and then this side over here to be my metalworking shop and I plan to put a door here in between in order to keep the sparks out of the sawdust but as you can see I've never actually gotten around to it because you'll see later I'd never actually turned that into a metalworking shop so coming this way I have yet another small workbench or a toolbox that I can put things in and then then this is probably one of my favorite projects that I've done so far you can see that I just went directly into the studs and I keep it keep these little bins in here and it's just all of my hardware I try to cut off the labeling of the box of the hardware that I purchased and then they're see-through so that you can just pull out what you need I did a mountain mural just a because it was something fun and artistic II I did some French cleats in order to hold all of my router bits right next to the router table and all of this looks really crammed right now and it is because a lot of this stuff is gonna be going over to the new space you got the shop dogs of course they're kind of worthless my miter saw I found the best position for the miter saw to be at least near the table saw so I just put it in this little nook in between the folding outfeed table and this back portion of the saw here and I have the the foldable wings again even though I have a larger shop I just love having the flexibility to not take up as much room as something with fixed wings so I fold them up whenever I need to and then I fold them down whenever I'm not using them and then of course it's mobile completely to where if I have a lot of material that I'm processing on the other side of my shop then I can wheel this to there instead of hauling the heavy material to this location and then the same thing I can also very easily move this out to the porch if it's a nice day real quick I want to thank this video sponsor which is simply safe if you've been following along you know that I've been using simply safe for my shop security for a while now it's an incredibly effective reliable home or shop security that will make sure your property is safe at a very fair price I can relax knowing my shop and my tools are professionally monitored 24/7 and if anything happens they'll make sure that the police are called the whole system is really easy and intuitive to use and it's equipped for worst-case scenarios so no worry if I lose power or Wi-Fi recently I decided to take my shop security one step further and add these simply safe walk which is designed to make sure my door is always locked my door now locks automatically on a timer as well as whenever I armed my system I can grant access remotely if necessary and I can even set up unique access code so I can get alerted as to exactly who is locking and unlocking the door over the years I've acquired lots of expensive equipment and protecting that space and the tools inside is a top priority if you're ready to have peace of mind on your home or Shop security and visit simply safecom slash April big thank you just simply say for keeping me in my tool safe and then that burgesses around to the other man door that links the two shops of course I have my knife-throwing target board right there but I need to get all of this cleared out before I can start throwing it this is again another finished unfinished doorway but I just never really saw the point on finishing out and so and I probably won't add a door unless I need to unless I see a me too I have the garage doors I love these garage doors they have windows in it that are insulated but whenever it's too hot outside and I'm running the air I absolutely love still being able to see outside whenever the doors can't be opened now this space it was my intention to have this as my metal shop however it very quickly turned into more of my CNC slash production shop because right after moving in I got my Laguna 4x8 CNC machine and that was something that of course got very obsessed over and wanted to start developing a kind of a different branch of my business rather than just making videos I also wanted to be making products to sell so this space turned into not only housing that but also of finishing out all of the projects that I was turning out on it there's just so much material that can very quickly be processed on such a large CNC and so having an abundance of plywood and India and just different assortment of material is very handy not only for this then of course also for my woodshop then for moving was such said material is my forklift this is a battery-operated forklift and I had no idea driving a forklift was so fun but it's very quickly turned into one of my favorites but yep this is gonna be going over to the new building like I said and then I was very fortunate to get my hands on a shop bought four by eight as well this one is non operational right now but the intention is to get this over into the new building and then put it in the work it needs to get it back up and running and then have two four by eights running now don't judge me on how cluttered this this corner of my shop is because this side has really just been a catch-all so that the woodworking side can be my main clean space for doing projects in the course the videos so over here all of this equipment will stay these are my welders my plasma cutters the generators a few extra superjaws in order to clamp and then all of this is equipment that I've been slowly accumulating again to put over into the new building so pretty much this section will be cleared out once I get things moved over I really wanted to show you all my shop crane this is a shop crane that was built in 1905 and I purchased it from a collector friend of mine who who was lucky enough to get his hands on it most of the time I'm in here by myself or I used to be another big thing about 20 20 as I hired four employees to do different things so that's kind of exciting as well but whenever I was by myself I would typically just be resourceful and use leverage in order to pick up heavy things or get heavy things move but the shop crane has drastically cut down the amount of pepper I can't really get it out right now because it's too cluttered but this thing is so much fun if you go back and watch the band sawmill videos you can see me putting this thing to use a few times over in this corner I have my shot bridge I have a very small sticker collection some snacks on top and then this is where I keep just a few adult beverages and a few snacks and a few Jets of water then along this wall which is the wall that is the partition wall in between the two shops I built a giant shop sauce station in order to cut down material and I built this for the whenever I was getting ready to build that bandsaw mill and this is just so handy because most metal joints come in 20-foot joints and then you're responsible for chopping it down so having something with stationary very flat and long weave wings is very handy and then I utilize some of the wall space you can see here that I have some production items these are items that you don't see me make a video of but that I sell locally and things that are coming off in the CNC so that's just kind of an example of what I'm doing in the background with the CNC yeah a few other items that I sell that I'm making on the CNC er like whiskey flights for whiskey glasses fracturing the decimal charts and a few different material choices and the even a fresh egg holder so things like this I'm doing in my in my free time whenever I'm not making videos and that's a pretty good cover view of the inside of this shop again this space is gonna look drastically different in just a little bit let's go ahead and go outside to the porch building the porch wasn't added expense but I am so thankful that I did it especially here in Texas whenever I can work outside so much throughout the year I can just move things out since it is concreted and set up a miter saw some saw horses and do a lot of work out here and enjoy the weather I have a ton of material storage for wood regular things I just need to get unpackaged I moved my rocking chair out here so I can just take a break and enjoy the lovely hills I love this as well this is a giant scrap cart that's mobile that I could just throw a lot of things in haul it over to the whatever the compost or the mulching or the fire however what depending on what materials inside there and then you know I put some fans out here some lights I still have some other plans to do but you know every section is gonna have plans okay where do you want to go we have left to the bandsaw straight to the water collection tank and right to the garden let's go to the bandsaw this area to the Leslie this is the north end of my shop this used to be like all sunken down and so I've been doing a ton of dirt work as you can see I still have more to do but this is where we built the bandsaw mill on location and I was gonna just pick it up and grade around it and then probably pour a slab but now that I have this new building I'm actually gonna be moving the band sawmill over to that space so I've been holding off on this dirt because once I move the mill then I'll use that in order to grade this area you can't really see the mill but I do have videos on it if you're interested in checking out the process and then once it's over at the new space I'm gonna be doing an updated video on on it running oh yeah and then I have my truck I just spotted big over a long haul in truck it has the the 7-3 in it the super duty forward so that should should do it quite a bit of pooling let's see other improvements on this is coming to the east side of the shop I did some chips seal as a driveway in order to just keep down the amount of dust that I was always kicking up driving into the shop and then you can see out here this is also just a ton of dirt work that I've been doing it's I think close to 250 yards at this point that over time I've been bringing in a bed or two at a time and then just spending my my free time spreading it around so the ultimate plan will be to throw down grass and then use my new water collection system which you see behind me there that's a thirty thousand gallon water collection tank in order to keep this area irrigated and the grass growing I got some vlogs I got a tractor then I have a giant garden so this is on the I always have to say north east south this is on the south end of my shop again been doing dirt work actually this past week and on in front of it but this garden took three weeks to build it is massive and it's not completely done yet wanted to do something with the roof and a few other things but I think it'll be really nice to just take a break from the shop and be able to come out here and do a little bit of pickin or weed in or whatever it is and then and then get back to work all right and that is it for the shop tour for now keep in mind that I saw fit tons of projects and plans for just about every area that I've shown you but also remember that I do have videos on everything that you've seen inside as I've done it myself and I also have plans if you're interested in building it yourself I can't wait to show you the new commercial space I'm sure you're gonna have lots of questions on that and just to kind of give you a main summary this is still gonna be my personal shop and that commercial space is gonna be used for a few other plans that I have in mind so be looking for a standalone video explaining that and also showing it off I hope that you enjoyed the video and I'll see you on my next project come on you can do it Oh No

Channel: April Wilkerson

Views: 1,121,591

Keywords: april wilkerson, diy, triton tools, wilkerdos, wilker dos, how to, home improvement, shop project, wood, diy project, woodworking shop, outdoor project, female builder, diy shop project, april, female woodworker, female carpenter, diy projects, woodworking project, women who build, do it yourself, how to build, woman builder, shop tour, woodshop tour, Aprils shop, woodworking shop tour, shop tour 2020, shop layout, dream shop, workshop organization

Id: 4CFN0YQRW10

Length: 21min 29sec (1289 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 09 2020