Best-Ever Workshops 2008

[james.miller]

Shopsmiths are featured in two of the "9 Home Workshops that Work" section. That's 22% of the shops in their magazine using Shopsmith this year.

Hopefully more people will learn just how useful Shopsmith can be in a small shop.

Best-Ever Workshops 2008 is from Better Homes and Gardens the editors of Wood Magazine.

[dusty]

Jim, is this Best Ever Workshop part of a standard Wood publication or have they done some sort of special.

I subscribe to Wood but I haven't seen this.....yet.

[jb41339]

Dusty..

Go to http://www.woodstore.net/bewo20.html and you can buy Best-Ever Workshops 2008 for $7.95. It's got 128 pages.

jb41339

[charlese]

I pass this along especially to you folks in Minnesota. Maybe this would be an incentive to attend the Minnesota Woodworker's Guild.

Just read the first and last paragraphs of the attached.
http://www.woodworkersjournal.com/wwj/index.cfm/free.todayswoodworker

[etc92guy]

Jim - You made me get curious, so I pulled out my 2005 issue. Same percentage!!! 2 out of 9 workshops feature a Shopsmith. Some observations on the 2005 installations:

Both are in standalone buildings
Both have accessories such as bandsaw, etc.

One is in a 12x12 size shop, has the Mark V and a Powerstation. From the picture it appears that every woodworking tool is a Shopsmith.

The other shop is 20x20. While it centers around the Mark V, and the Shopsmith bandsaw is shown, there appears to be a 8-inch benchtop drillpress, and a non-Shopsmith dust collector.

So, does this mean that Shopsmith has 20+% of the woodworking market?

Does anyone have the 2006 and 2007 or earlier issues of this special and if so, does the 20% hold from year to year?

[dusty]

This is a very interesting magazine. I subscribe to Wood and have for many years but I don't believe I have ever seen this special edition before.

I must look through my past issues. I would like to see what has been presented in past years. Shop #8 in this issue looks familiar to me; maybe it has been featured somewhere else.

Shop #8 is, IMHO, a very usable work space. It is in a 12'x12' standalone outbuilding with an overhead door masking up one wall. I see a Mark V set up as a lathe, a power station hosting a jointer, and a badsaw and belt sander hanging on the wall. The rest of the shop is full of neatly organized tools with a very good selection of turning chisels.

Shop #9 is 20x20 and is full of mostly open space. It has a wall full of lower cabinets with drawers. Maybe the small tools and hand tools that clutter my shop are all neatly tucked away out of sight. This shop is just too clean and neat for me. It comes complete with two six over 6 windows that are complete with bright colored curtains, pulled back and tied on the sides. Neat but not my sort of work area.

Actually, I see photos on the forum of shops that I believe would fit into this magazine article with no problem at all. I only get to see narrow views of the shop because the shop is never what is being featured but it is obvious to me that the forum could offer up some stiff competition.

I shall be looking for details on how to be considered for inclusion in future issues.

[seajay62]

In line with the Wood Magazine special publication, I borrowed a book from my local library titled "WOODSHOP LUST, American Woodshops and the men who love them" by David Thiel, Editor of Popular Woodworking Books, copyright 2008 and published by Popular Woodworking Books.

As the title suggests, it is a photo essay of shops and described by the owners. This book categorizes the shops by garage, basement, and stand alone. Some very interesting shops, 25 in total and 2 of them have Shopsmiths. They have a different percentage of SS to other machines but interesting shops to see.

Both shops that have SS are listed in the stand alone section but one shop was in a spare bedroom and moved to a 24' x 30' rented garage with a contractors saw as the main table saw. The owner is a retired person.

The other person is a home builder by trade and has a 24' x 30' building that is fully insulated, heated, and air-conditioned. This shop has a Delta cabinet saw plus a bunch of Shopsmith equipment. It looks like a 500 plus a few SPTs with their own power stands.

David Thiel is look for shops for his next edition, next year. Anyone interested, can contact him at: david.thiel@fwpubs.com

[etc92guy]

Dusty's comments are interesting. In my 2005 edition, shop #8 is a 12x12 shop owned by Harold Cator in Rochester, New York. The Shopsmith is set up for a lathe. Shop #9 is owned by Kenneth Bragg of Huntsville, Alabama. It doesn't have upper cabinets and there are curtains on the windows with tie backs.

Think we have some content recycling going on here?