The Crispin Colloquy

This is my bench area:some tools look like they are just hanging in mid air. I use velcro for some.

My wording may not be correct. This is what I think is called a jack stand:{stand}it will rotate on the bottom and I can angle the whole stand 10-15 degrees

Sorry :

This is where I do my tooling:

Brian, it doesn't look like the same shop you left does it?

Gary, the shop look great and lots of light! If Jake can covert my pics, I will post the shop in Oklahoma and the boots too.

Gary,
Nice looking shop. Looks like a guy could spend hours in there. Wondering if you have the address for the custom knife maker whose pictures are posted on the forum? Thanks, AL Franklin

Thanks It took me for every. I wanted everything in a perfect place. I still have a lot of stuff just sitting out and it drives me crazy. I just needed to build it about 2 times bigger.

Al if you are talking about Ron’s tools that make edgers and supposedly starting to make round knifes their number is: 406.756.8134.
I think you are talking about Danny Marlin. One time I could order from him in Blanket TX. yet wait a year or so.
Now Hadlock and Fox carry his knives: 830.625.6017
Ron’s and Danny's tools are OUTSTANDING in quality!!

All,

As promised, I thought I would give you a glimpse of the new shop...trouble is, I went from 2000 sq. foot to about 850 sq. ft.. Believe me, space is like money--the more you have, the more you spend...or in this case fill up. It's quite a "come down"...I had to try to cram about 1200 sq. ft. of "stuff' into 800 sq. ft... but a lot of it was just that--"stuff." And stuff that could be given away or junked. Of course, right now there's so much 'stuff" piled up on the porch and in the parking area that it looks like there ought to be an old blue tick hound sitting by the door. That's slowly being eliminated, however.

I'm still wading through boxes and piles so I'm not really prepared to offer any photos of the interior but I think in a week or so, I'll be ready to start back to making boots. 'Course, I'll probably be futzing around with benches, and shifting stuff from one shelf to another, for the next six months or so.

But here it is....writ large...



Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
The shop looks great. It's almost what I had pictured that you would build. The double doors really set it off. Will be looking for the pictures from the inside. Let me know if I need to come and take some of that stuff as you call it off your hands. Take care and get back to making boots.

Mike

DW,

Great looking shop dude! Perhaps you could bore us with the details, for the benefit of others here who might be contemplating similar projects

You know: Wiring, plumbing, insulation, siding materials, HV/AC, floor plans, cost per square foot, what you choose and why, as well as how you handled your county/city building code and zoning guys, all that fun stuff.

I hope to see it soon, and spill some Lagavullin on your nice new flooring. What kind of flooring did you end up with? Did you build sheet metal drip trays to go under your stitchers to catch the seepage? Fume venting? How 'bout the all important guy stuff like sound system, cigar smoking lounge, and nap area?

Mike, Al, et al...

Thanks! You know what, though?! The shop is almost entirely Randee's vision. She does the books. And after looking at the money (coming and going) decided that if we could pull it off, we'd be better off in our own building.

We paid off the mortgage on the house last summer--so no we were "landed gentry." Randee figured that even if we took a second mortgage on the house to pay off the shop, we'd cut our monthly outlay by 2/3's.

Let's say that in the spring of 2002 we had a gross overhead of $2100.00 per month. That's looking at rent on the old shop, mortgage payments on the house and electricity/gas (power and heat). I don't know how accurate those figures are but it's somewhere in the ball park and gives you a feel for the situation.

We borrowed roughly $30,000.00 to build the new shop.

In the spring of 2003, our gross overhead will be roughly $700.00 per month! This is a life altering difference!

Randee essentially did all the contracting. She puzzled out the permits, she lined up the subs, she did the rough designs, and she shepherded the laggards and choused the unbelievers...and she gets all the credit, believe me.

Specifics...permits would not allow us to do just anything. We couldn't build "new" on the property without all kinds of permit hassles. So we knocked down the old (circa 1940's) garage and built on the slab. Using the old slab allowed us to bypass most of the permit hassle but limited our potential space. We couldn't build any wider than the original "footprint" (18x24) so to get more space we went upward rather than outward.

The shop has a cement floor (again using the original slab...although we did pour more cement what was there) and radiant heating in the slab. The radiant heating was expensive but the shop is a nice even heat always. The only drawback is that the cement may not take well to all the hammering on iron lasting jacks, vibration from stitchers, etc.. We'll see. I intend to put one of those office floor protectors under my stool and lasting area.

The porch sort of evolved. The siding is a composite material that looks like cement boards. The windows on the sides are all high--barely at eye level for me--to allow machinery to fit in underneath them. Skylights on the second floor. Drywall throughout...this to reduce cost and to give a light and uniform feel to the place.

The plumbing was the big fiasco, in my opinion. And it's, at least functional. But the plumber was a real hack (or deliberately trying to sabotage the project). Don't get me wrong, everything is to code. It's just clumsily realized. Pipes are exposed and situated such that some valuable storage space is denied us. If it weren't for the radiant heating in the slab it might have been worthwhile making him jack hammer the slab and re-situate the drains, etc. (he was told...by the framer...before the slab was poured but he chose to ignore the advice). But heck, it's just a shop...we're not putting in a porcelain bidet or gilded fixtures anytime soon...so, as I said it's functional.

Sorry to say the drip trays and fume vents were not part of the plans and the nap area is all too close to the shop as it is--my bedroom being a short crawl out those double doors. Somewhere, somehow I must dig deep into an already overtaxed reservoir of discipline just to drag myself out of bed at my usual 4:30 AM and get into the shop at a decent time. Once there, I'm OK but going into lunch, I hear the siren song of my Posturepedic and nap time threatens to become an early night.My philosophy has always been that a short nap at noon is good...but that the nap area should be just a little uncomfortable to discourage layabouts and lackwills.

Overall, we have about 800 sq. feet of functional, working space...this doesn't include the bathroom or the stair well. And although it was tight, we fit.The overall price was about $36.00 a sq. ft..

A solid week into fitting out and organizing the shop, I am beginning to feel comfortable in there. A great deal of that is the fact that much of the "furniture" is familiar stuff...no time to build rosewood benches...and I think that barring something unforeseen, I'll be back to making boots on Monday, the 6th of January. Note the building hadn't even been stated by the middle of October. Pretty good.

And to Randee...good on ya mate!

Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,

You just proved what they said all long. Behind every great man is a greater women. Tell Randee that my hat is off to her.

Every plumber that I have ever worked around has been a jerk. Must be something that goes along with the trade.

I hope to be over that way as soon as spring comes along so I can see the shop in person. Randee and you should take a vacation I know how stressful all that building can be. Take care.

Mike

With request in hand for photos of the inside of my shop, I offer this little tour. Remember that this shop is all of 800+ square feet...so it's really little more than a ginned up double garage. But the double decker layout offers some possibilities that might not be quite as fortunate with a single floor.

Coming in the door and looking off to the left (on the immediate right is the stairwell):


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Going to the far corner of the previous photo (down by the curved needle stitcher) and turning to the right...


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Turning again to t he right and looking back at the doors...


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

up the stairs...


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

looking to the left on the second floor.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

Finally, looking towards the stairway and the front of the building, with the big cutting table in the center.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

D.W.,

Looks really great! Can hardly wait to see it in person some day.

Looks like vinyl flooring upstairs with concrete floors below.

I still think you need that Blue-Tick Hound on the front porch. Just like back home!

D.W.,
The shop really looks great, it looks like it would be easy to get to work in. The red boots got my eye, very nice. I think you and Randee should be very proud of yourselves. It will still be a couple of months before I make it over to see you, but I'll be there. thanks for the pictures.

Mike

Thought some might enjoy the final version of my new shop. You can see the attached greenhouse on the close (south) side. The greenhouse will come in handy when dress leathers in this country finally go to the devil completely and we're forced to fall back on banana skins.


Tight Stitches
DWFII--Member HCC

DW,
Looks like a place that'd be hard to stay out of.

Congratulatrions. It looks beautiful.
PK

D.W.,

Gosh! That looks really great! I bet that's an enjoyable spot to drink a glass of lemonade after a hard day in the shop. Good for You!

Now ain't that better than Main Street?

Here's something I received the other day from my good friend Dick Anderson of Thornapple River Boots. I call it an "outsole stitching stand". This device allows you to hand sew the outsole without fumbling the boot around in your lap. You have both hands free to take care of business. This stand also allows the operator to turn or rotate the boot while sewing. Great job Dick!

If anyone is interested, you can contact Dick at thornapple.boots@usa.net, or give him a hollar at 715-532-6301.