The New Guy

**IronArmadillo** · Feb 12, 2015, 01:19 PM

I joined this site about 2 months ago and am finally getting around to introducing my self.

I'm an old fart (63) who has been an avid DIYer and maker since I was about 6. Having been raised in a family with very little discretionary income I learned how to make toys I wanted from virtually nothing.

I am in the process of building my retirement home on some lake property I own (4 years into a 5+ year project). In fact, what I tell people who ask when the new house will be finished is "I figure about another year".

One of the first things I built on the property is a 32' x 53' x 10' ceiling workshop. I consider this the most important tool I have. The basic shop building was built by my builder. Since then I've added an oak hardwood floor, 200 amp service panel, all the interior wiring (110 and 220), very good shadowless lighting, plumbing, spray foam insulation, 4-ton central air conditioning (my son is an HVAC installer), pneumatic air system and a loading dock (pick up bed height).

For homemade tools I've built a router table, a horizontal router table (for making my own baseboard and casement for the new house), an adjustable height 4' x 8' assembly table, bent wood lamination forming jigs, a high capacity portable clamp rack and a series of small workbenches I can easily move around with a pneumatic lift cart. And there will be more tools I plan to make as I need them. I plan on posting these items on this site as I get around to it.

I am a huge advocate of SketchUp Make for all my homemade tool designs. It's free, easy to learn and allows me to make all my mistakes before I commit any materials to a project. I can't tell you how invaluable using this software has been for me.

**kbalch** · Feb 12, 2015, 01:24 PM

Hi IronArmadillo,

Welcome - very glad to have you here!

Sounds as though you've got a great workshop setup, so let's see some pics. What are you working on at the moment?

When you're ready to share those homemade tools, we'd love to see them. Please post them directly in the Homemade Tools subforum. We'll add each one to the database, as well as to your builder page on the site.

Non-tool items should be shared in the Not a Tool, but Homemade subforum.

Ken