6FPS V8#4: Shop Tour

6FPS
Written By Chuq Von Rospach

Shop Tour

6FPS V8#4: April 13, 2026

E-mail: chuqvr@gmail.com • Site: https://chuq.me

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Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

Spring is definitely here. The Purple Finches have returned and the Varied Thrushes have left. We had at least three pairs of Purple Finches within my earshot here at the house, which is nice. I did a survey of the property and found 17 species in one day; the only missing spring/summer birds now are Western Tanagers, Black-Headed Grosbeaks and Swainson’s Thrush. The first rangers are being seen in the county this week, but ours haven’t arrived yet.

March has been really busy and really expensive. As we move into spring it’s time for the annual, preventive maintenance for the well pump (and filter replacement), the HVAC and Generator, the annual winter cleanup by the landscaping team — it took them about four hours, but the place looks really nice. The daffodils are up and doing well, and the tulips are now starting to join them. 

And we also decided to invest in a couple of big projects: we’re replacing the second set of curtains — we did seven windows after we moved in and planned to finish it off, but between a new generator, new water heater, landscaping work and etc, we kept delaying it. Well, we have window covering replacements for the master bedroom and the downstairs areas on order for install sometime in April, a total of ten more windows. 

That wasn’t enough fun. I sat down with one of the owners of the company that took over the sprinkler maintenance last year because there are three circuits I’m just not happy wth how things are working, and we came up with a plan to resolve those issues. Another issue is that some of the wiring is funky and all of it is aging, and we ended up deciding to upgrade the controller so that it can communicate via radio to circuit valves the don’t have working wiring available, allowing those to be controlled by the controller again. We also decided on some other changes to bring the system up to what they consider best practices. The controller is enough cost to make me wince a bit approving the bid, but I do think it’s worth it and it future proofs us from future issues with the system. 

Of course, once that’s done, I’ll be sitting down with my landscapers to talk about spring and fall planting — I expect to plant another 500 or so daffodils this fall. We’re also adding two new raised beds in the veggie garden, and I expect we’ll make some more changes there over the next couple of years. 

There’s always something that needs your attention, but it’s nice to have these significant projects in progress.

My Secret Project

Last month I hinted about a secret project firing off that I couldn’t talk about yet. Well, it’s now public so I can. In the last year I took on a twice a year survey project through Kitsap Audubon, and I’ve been slowly looking for some other project to invest some time and energy in. Kitsap Audubon has been soliciting new volunteers to help out with the organization, and I reached out and coming out of that conversation I’ve agreed to run for Vice President of the group (unopposed) for a term starting June 1. I’ll also be joining the board, and taking on other responsibilities as we sort out where it makes sense to get involved. 

I’m going to start working with them on some off their conservation work, and I’m looking to start leading a bird outing at Point No Point a few times a year. We’ve explored a few other things, but mostly, I’m getting involved to help them do what they’re doing and not bringing any specific agenda with me. I’m just happy to be able to start helping out here. 

It’ll be interesting to see what this turns into over the next year (and hopefully more). 

Apple at 50

Apple is turning 50 this month, and so there’s a lot of commenting about Apple and celebrating the company. I decided to join in, so I’ve started writing a series of pieces looking at it from the point of view of someone who spend a large chunk of my professional life working at Apple, and as someone Apple’s products have been fundamental in shaping the life I have had and continue to enjoy today. As I write this two pieces are out and I right now am working on two more, plus possibly one specifically answering questions I’m getting from people — so this is your chance to ask questions if there are things about Apple and what I’ve been involved in over the years. Feel free to email me with them and while I can’t promise to answer everything, I’ve already gotten some interesting topics to dig into.

See you next issue!


What’s New From Chuq


Shop Tour

I’m finally using the shop as a shop, instead of a room I’m trying to turn into a working shop. It’s been interesting trying to figure out what works for me, with a big issue being how to make the table saw easily usable without it clogging up the middle of the shop. Dediding to put it on a cart with the planer underneath solved that nicely; I can get to any of the power machines with just a minute or two of setup, and for long stock, I can aim them out into the garage proper to have enough indeed and outfeed space if needed. 

I primarily built the shop around 2 vendors: DeWalt (hand tools, table saw) and Wen (Planer, Jointer, Drill Press). DeWalt tends to be one of the brands pros use, and are a bit pricier but well-built (and the best man of my sister’s husband was the DeWalt rep for the construction of SoFi stadium, and he offered me some nice advice as I was starting to fill up the shop. Wen is a Chinese manufacturer but generally builds good quality tools at a lower price. I also chose the Wen planer over the more typical DeWalt because the DeWalt uses straight knives and the Wen uses a carbide spiral blade that I think gives cleaner cuts and will last longer. 

I’ve been spending the last month or so, on and off, trying to clean up the last little annoyances — which led to a complete re-organization of the shop where I moved the bench from the window to it’s spot on the other side of the space, and me pulling things from about half of the drawers and placing things back in a more accessible setup given the change to the bench location. 

When I moved the miter saw behind the bench, I lost the ability to use the stove as an outfield area for it, but I solved that problem by adding a folding/locking hinge that I can raise to hold longer work and chop it up safely. 

Overall, I’m finally finding it a place that’s nice to be in an flexible, with enough space for larger projects as well — including putting together a new king-sized bed frame when we replaced our mattress recently. Having that kind of flexibility was one of the big struggles I fought trying to figure out how to organize the place. 

Unfinished business

There are a few infrastructure things I still need to do. I haven’t sharpened my chisels and planes yet, and I have some okay options for outfield support on the table saw, but it really needs an outfield table I can easily hook up and take off and store against the wall. This won’t be hard to set up, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. My parts storage is sort of based on Adam Savage’s use of Sortimo boxes but I do need to build a case that lets me slide boxes out, because right now I need to move all of the boxes on top of one to get to one buried underneath. A minor hassle, but a fixable problem. 

Bins

You’ll see from the photos that I use a bunch of bins to store stuff. They’re all labelled, and early I standardized on three sizes, which has made creating storage areas for them easy. All three are from Sterilite, with most of them being the 15 quart size (about the size of a shoebox), along with the smaller 6 quart units. For large storage I also use their 64 Quart boxes (these hold things like my extension cords and etc). Over time I’ve used the 15 quart ones extensively, and there are about 75 of them in use now — they’re solidly built and just the right size for most of my needs. I highly recommend them (and also to the idea of standardizing on a few sizes to reduce the chaos of trying to organize things)

Projects

I’ve got two projects I’ve started working on — I’ll go into detail on them when they’re done. One is simple and will only take a couple of days to complete, and the second is a week or two of work (I think). Unlike my shop projects, they’ll both be getting finish and live inside the house, so I’m trying to be thoughtful about how they’re built. 

The 2nd project needed a fair bit of wood, and I decided to use Cherry. I decided to try getting it from a mail order supply house called Woodworker’s Supply, and it ended up costing me about $450. There are no hardwood suppliers near me, only big box stores, and to be honest, the wood in those stores is McDonald’s quality wood, sold to you at Applebees prices. 

The nearest hardwood supplier is about an hour from here, and while out birding in that direction I stopped in to do a price comparison. I’d been there one three years ago and was impressed with the stock; this trip, they’d changed their stock significantly and are now selling primarily slabs and very high end exotic woods — Michelin 1 star restaurant quality wood and appropriate prices. Unfortunately, not what I need. 

There are a couple of other options for me, one the Rockler store in Tukwila, and another hardware supplier in the same general area, both a solid hour away and over the bridge. I need to schedule a time for me to go and visit both (they’re 20 minutes away from each other) and check prices. I’m guessing the prices will be better than the mail order wood, but will it be two hours of traffic better? We’ll see. 

Shop Layout

The garage is a standard 2 car garage, with a shop area attached to the back that’s about the same size. 

As you enter the shop, you can see my work area and desk (that is mostly storage, I rarely hook a computer up out here). To the left of the desk is a tool box of misc supplies, the one on the right behind the chair is my photography storage. To the right of the desk is where the 3D printer lives.

The entrance to the workshop. On the left is the 3D printer, on the right is the “noxious fluids” storage. 

The Southwest corner. The only piece of the bill in bench I kept, with my grinder and vise installed. Chargers to the left, and underneath is storage of heavy/bulky stuff. The dust collector is the Rockler Dust Right, which works quite nicely, and I’ve adapted it to use magnet connectors which I much prefer for easy moving between machines. It supports all of the devices except the drill press, miter saw, sander and router table. I’ll figure out dust collection on the router table eventually. 

The Northwest corner. on the right is the jointer (Wen) with storage underneath. I’ve got a wall of bins of things I don’t use regularly but need easy access to. The 2nd cart has the table saw (DeWalt) and Planer (Wen), and there’s a Husky tool cart with the Drill Press (Wen) and compressor (Makita).

The Northeast corner. Having the stove in the shop makes placement a bit tricky, but is more than welcome in the cooler months. It turns out to be a nice place to store things on the wall that can’t burn, so it makes for a great location for clamp storage. To the right of he stove is the bandsaw (Jet) and my parts storage. 

The Southeast corner, where I had the sink installed next to the toilet, with the miter saw (DeWalt) and spindle sander (Rigid) connected up to a shop vac. On the left is my parts storage (a work in progress), topped by an air filter unit (Wen). The tool cart under them is from Husky and I quite like the beast. On the left on the door is my safety and PPE gear, in full view and easy to grab as I enter the shop. On the bottom shelf of the cart is my router table (Bosch) which can be placed on the cart or the work bench (Rockler), and the cart is used for general “holding stuff as I’m working on things” storage. 


Recent Photography

As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area. 

I’ve been out a few times, but the only time I hauled out the camera was a trip I made out to Nordland in search of a rare bird (no luck), where I ran across an opportunity to take some nice photos of Bonaparte’s Gulls that were hanging out along the shoreline along with a number of Short-Billed (formerly Mew) gulls. Bonaparte’s Gulls around here are more commonly seen offshore out of decent photo range, so it was nice to add some nice images of them to my library.


For Your Consideration

Birds and Birding

Photography

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff



Free Wallpapers just for Subscribers

New Wallpapers (January, 2026). A new set of 12 wallpapers are now available. 

You can download this new set from the 6FPS Secret Wallpaper. The previous set of wallpapers are now with the full public set at Public Wallpaper page.

These are available only to you, my favorite people who happen to be subscribers to 6FPS. The previous set of images I released here are now available to the general public.

 

Download an E-book

I have eight e-books available. All are free for you to download and read with no obligation. You can download them from my e-book page on the web site. 

These are the books that are available:

  • Birding 101: Hints and Tips for the New Birder

  • Merced National Wildlife Refuge

  • And the Geese Exploded: A Life With Birds

  • Birds of Santa Clara County

  • 2021.1: A Year of Transitions

  • 2020.1: Images from the year when Covid changed everything

  • 2019 (1)

  • 2019 (2)

About 6FPS

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com). 6FPS is Copyright © 2025 by Chuq Von Rospach. All Rights Reserved.

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find. 

And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun. 

Where to Find Chuq

 



Chuq Von Rospach

Birder, Nature and Wildlife Photography in Silicon Valley

http://www.chuq.me
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Apple at 50 (Part 4): Apple Today (and your Q’s Answered)