Shop Tour (Part 1)

Hi! Welcome to my blog! I thought the best way to get started would be a tour of my workshop, so you will be familiar with the basic tools I use during the course of a day.

Here's a picture of my shop from the entrance in the garage:



Over here in the corner, we have the horizontal/vertical bandsaw. These saws are really nice. They can handle small to really large pieces of steel and you can cut multiple pieces at once.



Next is the table I have sitting next to the anvil. I use it to store my hammers, tongs, and any other stuff I might need while I'm working:



These are two trestles I made for assembling gates and railings. They work really well if you don't have a big layout table, or you just want to keep whatever you are working on out of the way. They don't take up much space when you aren't using them.



Here is the pipe forge I'm building. It has a ribbon burner that I learned how to make from an article written by John Emmeriling in Hammer's Blow magazine. I still need to finish it up, but the ribbon burner is supposed to be really hot and efficient.



There's my torch and a stump I use for shaping hot metal:



Next is the centerpiece of the shop, the anvil. It has a tray to hold tools I use while I'm working.



This is the quenching bucket. It's filled with water to cool hot steel.



Here's my forge. It's a pretty nice one, but it's about time to upgrade to something that fits my needs a little better. I use propane gas right now, but I'm thinking of switching over to natural gas. I know how to run a coal forge, but right now I only use gas.



That's it for part one. Stay tuned for part II!