Working in a small garage shop has its challenges. My favorite analogy comes from one of the greatest TV fantasy shows ever – Dr. Who. Your shop needs to be “bigger on the inside” like a Tardis.
We started with our crazy pile of wood. Everything was jumbled at one end of the shop. Even if you knew what you were looking for, finding it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
While we do buy new lumber, Boyd is a believer in scavenging for good wood, and I can’t fault him on that. Truth is people toss out perfectly good lumber just because they want to change things in the décor. Wood may be a “renewable resource” but wasting it is a sin. That means much of what we had on hand when we first started Merry Men Woodcrafts was not standard sized lumber. Since we make smalls, it isn’t really necessary to have a full eight food 2x4 piece of pine. Not to mention the used stuff is great for making our specialized jigs and patterns.
We started by sorting everything by type of material and average size dimensions. Boyd took some of the used materials and built a rack at the back of garage that allowed for organized storage of extra-long lumber, short lumber, and sheet goods.
This made a dramatic difference. We ended up being able to store more wood in the same space and can find what we need quickly.
Next time the multi-purpose stations…...