As a woodworker, your woodworking workshop or woodshop is your universe. It is your office, very often your second home, and always your place to get lost in yourself. My woodworking workshop has evolved over the years from just a small lathe machine to a full-blown workshop with everything I need to sustain this addiction.
Allow me to share this evolution as I enter eight full years of learning woodworking today. I can group the evolution of my woodworking workshop into three phases: the beginning, the Dark Ages, and the return of the Jedi.
My First Woodworking Workshop
When I had a successful software start-up, I rented a 1500-square-foot office and spent money renovating it. When my business collapsed, I held on to the office and worked alone doing freelance jobs. Eventually, I bought a WEN woodworking lathe. That was my first venture into woodturning and woodworking in general, but I soon started buying more.
A Bosch table saw, a drill press, a benchtop sander, and a load of other tools followed. I converted the back portion of my office into my workshop, which was air-conditioned. Working in this space was excellent, as I had a clean washroom and a fully stocked pantry. It was five minutes away from my home.
As I worked on my freelance digital marketing business, I would take breaks and try some of the woodworking techniques I’d seen on YouTube. I learned a lot during this time; the more I learned, the more tools I acquired. It was fun and perhaps the only thing that stopped me from sliding into depression. I experienced the magic of creating something with my hands, and I was hooked.
This woodworking workshop lasted for three full years, and I still recall the good times I had when I turned bowls and pens while planning my woodworking empire. I started my Etsy store and sold a few boxes and pens. For a moment, I dreamed of becoming a full-time woodworker.
My Second Shared Workshop Space
The Dark Ages started, as with most of the significant events in my life, including my divorce, with an unknown virus out of China. It threw my life out of balance.
It was May 2020, and I had been in complete lockdown for almost two months. I had lost my job and had almost no stable income source. Finding a new job proved difficult, as no one was hiring based on Zoom interviews alone. I was stuck.
Luckily, my woodworking workshop was within the 5km radius we were restricted to. I had spent a good amount of time in my workshop for a few weeks and was producing some of my best work ever. I was enjoying my woodworking hobby and improving my craft.
However, there was so much uncertainty. No one knew how long the COVID pandemic would last or what the world would look like in its aftermath. The office space I rented was a huge financial burden now, and my ex-wife pressured me to give it up. She also said I should give up my woodworking hobby, which she saw as wasting time and money.
For the first time, I had to consider this seriously.
My Etsy sales increased during COVID, but there was a problem. Courier companies who had temporarily paused operations during the initial stages of the pandemic were back, but their rates were 3x higher. This ate into my margins completely, so I decided not to focus on my Etsy sales and deactivated most of my listings. Instead, I spent my weekend shop time experimenting with different woodworking techniques.
In July 2020, the restrictions were lifted for the first time, making travel within my state possible. I had negotiated a small space in my friend’s wood supply warehouse, which seemed perfect for a woodworking workshop. As seen in this picture, I rented a 12″‘ by 10″ space in the middle of the warehouse and carefully laid out all my equipment.
It was cramped, stuffy, and lacked a bathroom. But the cost was 1/5 of what I paid for my office space, and I had easy access to a fantastic wood supply. I was determined to make something out of it, and I tried my best to create woodworking projects over the weekend.
Looking back, these were some of my most productive months. I made beautiful wooden boxes, vases, pencil holders, and more. I sold all the watch boxes I made during this time to local buyers.
There was one big problem with the new woodworking workshop; it was 40 kilometers away. The distance didn’t seem to matter as the roads were empty. But over the next few months, traffic started building up, and it took me close to an hour to get to my space.
Eventually, I only started going there on the weekends, which was difficult due to the stuffiness and lack of amenities. My visits dropped to twice a month.
During these difficult two years, I considered giving up my woodworking hobby. I barely had enough time on the weekends to do anything other than search for my tools. And then it happened.
One weekend, the monsoon rains in Malaysia reminded us of the power of nature. My woodworking workshop was flooded.
Up to 1 foot of water and mud seeped into almost everything on the floor, including my good maple and sapele wood supply. My office racks and cabinets, which I had moved from the previous place, were utterly destroyed. I spent the next five weeks breaking down the MDF furniture and disposing of them.
Then came the hard part of building my shop cabinets from 1/2″ plywood to replace them. I spent almost five months cleaning up, making my lathe stand and other cabinets on castor wheels. Remember, I only had one weekend day to do all this stuff. Almost nothing else came out of my workshop during this time.
No wooden boxes, no Slimline pens, nothing. I did, however, learn how to create decent cabinets from plywood and my stock of Southern Yellow Pine.
My New and Growing Woodshop
The Return of the Jedi.
After a year of trying to clean up the mess left behind by the flood, I got a dose of divine intervention. My friend had decided to quit the lease on his warehouse, and I had two months to find another place. Surely, this was a sign from God that I had to give up woodworking. Or at least that’s what I thought.
Luckily, my new girlfriend (upgraded to wife later) encouraged me to pursue my passion and helped me hunt for a new place. This was the first time I realized that few people wanted to share a space with woodworkers. I can’t blame them. I tried many industrial and commercial units, but they were either too expensive, too run down, or too far away.
And then I found it. Just the right distance from my home, in an older commercial zone, at the right price. The catch is that I had to rent the entire place three times larger than the space I needed.
By this time I had found a higher-paying job, so financially I was stable. I decided to take the plunge and hired movers to help me move everything to my new woodworking workshop. It was way more space than I needed, but I could work comfortably and plan out my new workshop however I wanted.
My new workshop has two main sections – the cutting and milling section and the assembly and fine woodworking section. I learned from my previous two workshops that while it’s better to mill lumber myself instead of getting S2S or S4S lumber, the dust produced must be contained. Although I don’t have a good dust collection yet, I have good ventilation and a solid wall separating the milling area from everything else.
I don’t have air conditioning yet in this new place, so it gets warm and humid in the afternoons. I’ll make do with a few strategically placed industrial fans for now. It’s got two bathrooms, which is such a blessing.
I finally have the woodworking workshop I dreamt of, with the time and money to make something of this 8-year hobby. I’m revamping my Etsy store along with my own online shop. It’s now or never.
