2025 Shop Tour

When I was 19, I bought an acre of land and found this house trailer. It was in such bad shape that the owner said that if I move it, I could have it. $440 later, I was the king of my castle, and I turned the gutted living room into a wood shop. This was my very first wood shop. A few years later, I married the love of my life, and I found myself doing maintenance work at an apartment complex. I cleaned out this junk three-bedroom unit, put some of my woodworking tools in it, acquired some more woodworking tools, and called it my second wood shop. It was here where I started this thing called a YouTube channel in 2012. In 2014, we purchased our first home, and I turned this 20x 20 ft two-car garage into my third wood shop. I learned a lot and built a lot in this space, and shortly before leaving, our daughter was born, and life slowed down quite a bit. Right after paying off our first house early and doing our debt-free scream, we sold and found a nice home in a nice community with a nice 30ftx40 ft poleb barn out back. I turned the automotive man cave shop into the woodworking shop of my dreams. We snowballed the new house debt and once again yelled out a debt-free scream. Life was great. Life was easy. And sometimes when you eliminate challenges, life can get a little bit boring. We're in a town that we had no connections to and we're about an hour and a half away from our closest family. The housing market was high and we wanted to get closer to family. So, we sold almost everything in the house and a few spaceconsuming machines, packed all of our remaining belongings into a 40ft shipping container and moved 6 minutes away from my wife's family compound. And then life truly, truly began. We bought a 100 acre chunk of forest with a single four-wheeler trail and a creek running through it. There was no driveway. We cleared the wall of trees to find a gate. Cut perimeter trails to better look after the entire property. Hired out the driveway excavation and bulldozer work. Marked off two acres to clear for a shop and a home site. Had those trees taken down with an excavator. Cut up several trees into logs before burning up my chainsaw. stacked the remaining trees into a 300 foot long burn pile. Had one heck of a controlled burn and that was hot. We realized most of the trees didn't burn, so we fished those out and gave them to some friends. We cleaned up the clearing in preparation for a shop build. Had underground electrical ran by our utility company and a dirt pad for the shop installed. Forestry mulched an area behind the shop for a future orchard. We trenched 1,300 ft and installed water pipe. Finally, the muddy driveway was covered in concrete wash out and then 57 limestone so that concrete trucks could make their way to the workshop site. Before the shop structure was built, I started taking down beetle damaged trees that could potentially hit the shop. The shop materials were delivered. And on day 214 of this venture, the shop assembly began. Day 228 was the final shop build day as well as the septic installation day. On December 1st, 2024, 237 days after purchasing the property, we moved our camper into the shop and started really living the good life. The front of the shop got some much needed dirt attention. We welcomed two Belgian Malininoa puppies to our family. The ConX was emptied as the tools finally made their way to the shop. And I knocked my jointer over in a really dumb dumb moment. I covered the dirt with more concrete wash out and oh yeah it it snowed. It snowed a lot. We got 6 in of snow and we built a snowman. More concrete wash out under the leanto. I hired a powerlifter named Clark so that we could utilize pallet racking in the shop. I completed phase one of four of installing my favorite shop lighting from American Green Lights and then completed phase two of four of installing my favorite shop lights from American Green Lights under the 20x 60 ft lean tube. The machines were put into place and I unpacked and I unpacked and I unpacked and I unpacked and I unpacked some more. Powered the tools with a sub panel and here we are day 430 of living the good life. It is June 12, 2025, and my Forever shop on our Forever Generational property is finally set up and operational. It's a 40ftx60 ft welded I-beam structure with 14 ft walls and a 20 ftx 60 ft lean tube. With the goal of not taking on any debt, we could only afford to buy the land and build either a shop or a house. We chose to build a shop first and live comfortably in our camper until we can afford to build the house. Well, I'd uh I'd like to give you a tour of my shop. Now, the shop colors, I believe, are ocean blue and polar white. So, coincidentally, it's like the Detroit Lions colors. That was not planned at all. As a matter of fact, this was planned to be a darker blue and then a copper color for the roof, but when we went to go pay for the materials, they hit us right then and there saying, "We can't do those colors in a commercial grade thickness." So, we had to change. And we picked this right at the last second. All right. Front of the shop, we have a 12t x 12t rollup door. And under the leanto, which is 20 ftx 60 ft, I have a man door, six windows, and then another man door. The doors stay open sun up to sun down. This is not a heated or cooled space. Next year, we're going to heat the inside with a wood burning stove, but we're not going to cool the space at all. Uh there's a theme of clutter, right? This there's a a to-do list taller than I am, but this is the outdoor working space. I typically uh use one side of or one bay, I guess you could say, 120 ft section on the far side to park the Jeep or the tractor. Uh this front side is where Jamie parks her vehicle, our daily driver, so we can unload groceries under the roof. And then this wall is just a cluttered mess of stuff of stuff of stuff of stuff of stuff. I don't have any organization solutions out here just yet. Uh I want to wait till the sawmill arrives before I can build all this stuff with lumber on the property. I've got a bunch of trees down already with logs everywhere stacked throughout the property. There's going to be a lot of lot of lumber milling and using the wood on the property to make stuff. This is my chainsaw outside working area. Essentially, I want to make a essentially a chainsaw cabinet. Just this big large cabinet that has a workbench in the middle with storage to keep the dust off the chainsaws. Dust isn't going to hurt the chainsaws, but dust around here is absolutely insane. 2013, I made those saw horses. They're still kicking just fine. I eventually want to get the air compressor up and running with a dedicated piping system for the air compressor both inside as well as outside, but it's going to always live outside. Over here on this side of Lanto, we've got my uh grill and my smoker because this is my essentially outdoor kitchen right now. Don't mind the mess. Like I said, coming through here is the office corner and we have the dust collector on this side. So eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, I want to get rid of this filter stack, cut a hole in the wall right there, and then push the exhaust outside. The dust collection goes 40 ft before it reaches the first tool, right? Does that uh decrease performance? Well, probably so a little bit, but dust collection is still fantastic. This dust collector is the Clear View EF5. Clear View is no longer in business, unfortunately. Uh, but that dust collector is really, really good. So, we've got four corners here in the shop as the dogs are so loud drinking water. Everything's so loud here. All right. This corner is the utility room/off. We got the dog beds. My office is right there. The computer and whatnot. Utility room, washer and dryer. That's that corner. This corner of the shop is the living quarters. We've got our camper parked here. This is soon going to be pulled out and then we'll build an efficiency apartment up against that wall with a full bathroom and we'll have storage above it. The walls here are 14 ft walls and that's because I initially wanted to put the camper or put the rollup door in on one of these sidewalls so I could drive the camper in like so. The last minute I moved the rollup door from here behind me and then we forgot to lower the walls. So, we accidentally got 14t walls and we're taking advantage of that vertical space with pallet racking. So, behind me was office. This side is living quarters. This corner is the warehouse, I guess you could say. Behind my wife's mule is a forklift, and we can use uh the vertical storage and whatnot. This is flex space. My daughter's kung fu kick bag is over there and she's got some storage bins and it's kind of sort of cluttered right now, but that's Hey, that's the story of our life right now. And over here, the fourth corner is the actual workshop. So, I'll give you a little walk around and we'll talk about each station. Uh tool island number one, we've got three major power tools here. And camera's in the way. Uh the bandsaw we're going to be ripping. So, we have a full infeed and out feed for the ripping of the band saw as well as for the table saw. And of course, the router table's right here with all kinds of open space right there. Got a storage shelf right here for long-term stuff like finishes and whatnot. Walking through here, uh, a cart that I've been using for my whatever I'm working on cart. And this is going to be replaced, this area. There's enough space here for a 4ft by 8 ft assembly table that will also act as an outfeed table for the table saw. I don't know when, but that's definitely in the cards. Uh coming along this wall, let's back up to this wall. Once again, just random storage up against the wall. My horizontal sander. That's the only thing that's not currently hooked to dust collection because a shop project that I want to make is some type of hood. I've got a 6-in port right here at the source of the dust. And I just want to make a a box, a port of some kind to gather up all that dust right there. That's an upcoming shop project. My workbench that I made in 2016 still holding up just fine. Burn only bin. The leg vice, the original leg vice holding up just fine. However, through the years, I have found myself liking this one better. A uh just a cast iron vice that is a quick release. Well, if I actually do it right. There we go. Quick release. Pretty handy. Uh this back wall here is well, it's my tool wall. Got my mechanics cabinet that is in dire need of organiz organizing. some miscellaneous stuff hung up on the wall. Um, stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff. My hardware store is what I call it. This has been awesome. Uh, you can pick those up at Harbor Freight. Relatively inexpensive. Tremendous amount of storage for hardware. And this whole shop has kind of like a a library ladder vibe, right? So, you can kind of put a bunch of storage up on top. just miscellaneous stuff everywhere and use a step ladder to get to a uh a shelf. This this structure is just a bunch of C channel and S channel, whatever they call it, uh for these beams, and they allow a lot of places to hide stuff, tuck stuff away. And it's very, I call it Cracker Barrelish. Everything is just scattered, but it's also everything is first order of retrieval, so I don't really have to move anything to get to anything. Uh, I need to make a clamp rack of some kind. So, that's an upcoming shop project. Obviously, with the 12T door right here, I can get materials in very, very easily. Uh, my wife's uh mule is parked in here mainly when it rains. If it's not raining, it's outside. It's about to rain when I'm recording this. And then the last tool island is right here. So, one of the first tools in the milling process is the jointer, right? Well, this one is right off the main open area. Got a jointer. And the dogs are barking at leaves blowing or something. Got the jointer right here. I'll talk about that in just a second why that's missing. The planer. and it can go forward and backward as needed to provide more outfeed area for the uh table saw. It's got a really good mobile base. Mobile base on this planer has fixed wheels, so it rolls straight and you got to pick up one side and twist it if you want to turn it. But in this orientation, it'll roll forward and backward very, very easily and get out of the way. So, this tool island has the jointer, the planer, my first real band saw. This is the Grizzly G05555 LV and it's the uh 30th anniversary band saw from Grizzly. I bought this exact band saw in 2013 and sold it to a friend who sold it to a second friend who gifted it back to me which was really really awesome. Thanks, Bill. I appreciate that. Still do. Wonderful. Um, other side of this island is my daughter's workbench, which it I mean, she uses this every single day. I am so excited. She uses this every every single day. And I ran the electrical uh piggy back the electrical off the dust collection. So, we have an outlet right here for both the bandsaw as well as anything that she wants to work with on her workbench. So, yeah, it's a it's a nice little cozy cozy kind of a shop. has all of my Oh, I just tripped on something. All of my equipment set up and ready to go, minus two things from the last shop that you probably already noticed. Where's the big CNC? Well, I I didn't have the space to store it. So, unfortunately, I had to move on from that. And I'd love to get another CNC machine in here. When the time is right, once the apartment is built along that wall, I'll have all kinds of floor space here and I could jet off from this dust collection 90° and that's where the CNC will be if slash when it happens. The next thing that you probably don't see is my big miter saw station that went to my friends uh Jason and Zach at Back 40 Customs Tupelo Mississippi make all kinds of wonderful tables and whatnot. Um, they got it. And I don't have a miter saw station. I have this miter saw on a stand. And one day, another upcoming shop project, whenever I can get around to it, this wall will be a miter saw station. So, when I put these boards up, oh, these boards, by the way, uh I gave some of the logs from this 2acre clearing to a friend of mine and he took obviously them and milled them up and brought me back a load of lumber and kept the rest. So, this is trees that were once where the shop was, which is super cool. Same with this stuff. These are trees. These are pine uh from a tree that was standing right here. Really, really cool. Uh, so the miter saw station is going to be up here somewhere. I put a little chair rail board right there. And basically from there down, I'm going to build some type of cabinet system with the miter saw on the left hand side. That way I have a long length of stop block on this side and then just open space over here for a uh mobile stand of some kind. And that's what it's going to be. This is Oh, I didn't I didn't mention this. So, when I moved the tools here, oh my goodness, I had a uh I had a dumb dumb moment. I I put a ratchet I put a a pulling strap on the machine base rather than the pallet that it was sitting on, thinking it would slide just fine. It didn't slide. It toppled over and fell forward. So, there's no real damage to the machine physically. I just think it was knocked out of calibration. So, I took the pieces off right here. the guards covers. Uh they're over there in the in the uh um with the intention to calibrate it. But I realized, well, hey, uh if it's not broke, don't fix it. So, I waited to get all the dust collection and electrical done so that I could actually run a board through it and measure the board. And if the board's coming out fine, don't tinker with it. Right. So, I paused and there we go. All the machine surfaces uh were covered in rust. This was rusty really bad. So, I sanded them off real fast, real easy, real lightly, and gently. This one didn't really get It had a little bit of a a small spot right there. But this got some horrible condensation while I was in the ConX, and it was completely rusty. I just sanded it off and uh put some wax on it. That's why all m all the surfaces look a little weird. I've got wax sitting on them right now. I haven't buffed off the wax. But yeah, that was the only real casualties was that one in the shipping container getting wet and then that one um dumb dumb me knocking it over. But the shop is built. The shop is set up. I've got a a million different things pulling my attention in different directions and I don't I don't know when I'll get back. The battery in my camera just died, so I figured I'd throw you on a tripod and finish this out. So, I don't know when slash if I'm going to get back to regularly scheduled content, but I'm definitely going to be producing a lot more content for this channel. And one of the strategies for me to do that is to continue making all of these slower paced casual type videos for my homestead channel. If you want to stay up to date with all the progress outside of the shop, subscribe to my homestead channel. It's BPO3 Homestead. BPO3 stands for Bates Party of Three. Uh, you know, when we adopted our daughter, we had that moment of like, oh, if we go get reservations somewhere, like dinner reservations. They finally say, "Bates party of three, your table is ready." Kind of felt really cool to be able to say that. So, the Homestead channel is BPO3, Bates Party of Three. Subscribe to that channel if you want to have a lot more content, slower pace, longer format type stuff. and I'll try to re-edit all of the woodworking aspects of that channel into a form that is more consistent with the videos that I've always produced on this channel. My website, jcustomcreations.com, you can go there as always. I'm still publishing everything on the website. You can sign up for my email newsletter, jcustomcreations.com/newsletter, and basically be notified of everything that I publish in video format on YouTube. Um, I think that's it. the shop set up. I'm ready to rock and roll. It feels really, really good. I've got a lot of projects in mind, but like I said, I'm scattered all over the property, both inside and outside the shop. So, it feels really good. It feels really, really good. And I hope you stick around for many, many more videos on this channel. Take care.