Tony Baggett Shop Tour

My name is Tony Baggett and I live in Summerdale, AL. If you’d like to friend or follow me I’m at Facebook @tonythemaker, Instagram @tonybaggett, twitter @TonyBaggett, and my email is wabaggett@gmail.com . For my day-to-day job I’m a real estate appraiser for my family’s business in Baldwin County, AL. If you’d like to check out our website it’s baggettappraisals.com . For my second job I enjoy doing anything and everything with my hands. So my shop will always be set up to be multiuse and not for one particular application. My shop has a little bit of a story to it. I bought my house and barn from a family that had come into a lot of money, but didn’t know how to spend it properly and gotten into financial trouble. One of their projects was to build on what is now my property a 40’ x 120’ building with spray foam insulation and use it as a huge dog kennel. If you’d like to read more about what happened this is an article about it here , but just to warn you it’s pretty sad. As you’ll see, I removed the kennels and modified a 40’ x 40’ area in the front of the building and that is my work space. The remaining kennels I use for storage.

This is a looking from back to front in my shop. The door is 12’ x 12’ and is just awesome for pulling in the various material that I use and the projects I work on. Of course my supervisor Gunny is there to oversee this tour.

This is my vise, bandsaw, and drill press. I bought the drill press and bandsaw as a pair and brought them back to working order. Note the trailer jack I use as a crank for the drill press. The table on the press is 35lbs and had no crank! Where I mounted the jack is where another tilting table that weighs another 35 lbs is supposed to go. How they expected some one to adjust 70 lbs of tables on a drill press without a crank I’ll never know. I try to make mobile bases for everything. All of my bases are made of scrap iron and casters from the internet.

This is a tool cart from Harbor Freight that sees a lot of use. I keep all of my most used “pick through” tools in this cart. A “pick through” tool is like pliers, sockets, punches, etc. Stuff you don’t know exactly what you need just about what you need. I can roll this cart to a project and have all of my most used tools in arms reach. Every other tool is on the wall or out in the open using the “first order of retrieval” system. The plier rack in the drawers is made from cut down wire closet shelving.

This is my Ron Paulk inspired tool cubby and Jay Bates inspired miter station. I built this using the square tubing taken down from my shop modification and plywood. My current “dust management” for the miter saw is the hood you see and a collection box on wheels under the saw. The is nothing holding the saw up but 2x4s so the dust just falls down.

This is my second greatest purchase to date. I had been saving up to buy a good table saw and found this Saw Stop at a trade school auction for an about a ¼ of the price new. I jumped on it and it’s been great.

This is my wood and metal lathes which I’m letting marinate till I get the time and funds to get them going properly. This 13in South Bend is my greatest purchase because I literally paid nothing for it at an estate sale. You’ll also see that I had to run a 125 amp remote electrical service to the front from the main breaker box.

This is the back portion of my shop and the way the front looked before I changed it. As you can tell it’s very similar to a metal carport.

This is the air compressor I built. The tank is a 125 gallon propane tank and the compressor pump is from the 1960s. Runs like a top and is remarkably quite compared to the other compressors I’ve heard.

Here is another view to help give you a better look at how the building is built. Basically just a huge carport with additions on the side.

To modify the front I encased and built headers using 2x materials around the tubing. I then cut away the tubing  to open up the sides of the building.

This is another area of tool marination. I built more mobile bases for the tools which is an absolute must for an adaptable shop. For the Ryobi saw, I have an idea for a job site table saw/ miter station that I don’t think has been done before. The green machine is a planer. While only being a 13in it is a hoss and there is literally no wood that it will bog it down.

This is some industrial shelving I got from my brother. I had to modify it to fit. It’s just awesome and can literally hold tons of weight.

This is some fireproof filing cabinets I was given that I use for storage. Filing cabinets can be found for cheap and have full extension drawers. That makes them awesome to be modified for shop use. These are super heavy.

These are the carts I built for my welder and piece milled torch set.

I believe in utilizing every bit of space. So this is my broom\ safety equipment area.

This shop fan is an old attic fan. It was crazy rusted and the motor was gone when I found it. With a little work I got it going. It’s insanely quite and pushes a ton of air. I have an idea for a shop air cleaner using this fan and some home A/C filters.

This is my main tool as you can see. It’s a metal work table that I got from an older lady. It’s 4’ x 6’ and made of ½ plate. It was bad rusted when I got it but a little TLC and it’s been a jewel. I highly recommend putting a power strip on your work table like this. If you use a lot of corded tools, it’s a game changer.

This is the cart I welded up for underneath the table. It’s on stationary casters so I can pull it in and out either side with my foot.

So there is my shop. It’s about half way where I want it but it’s getting there. Some suggestions I have in shop building is be patient when buying stuff and building your shop, you won’t regret it. Remember that the new fancy tools are cool, but really most of that stuff is advertisement and tools really haven’t changed all that much except for a few exceptions. Remember focus on your enjoyment of your shop not the tools or size/fanciness of your shop (unless that is your thing). If you are focused on this or that you’ll never enjoy it no matter how big or fancy. If you have any questions, suggestions, etc. my info is  at Facebook @tonythemaker, Instagram @tonybaggett, twitter @TonyBaggett, and my email is wabaggett@gmail.com. If you need any appraisal work in Baldwin County, AL be sure to check out our website at baggettappraisals.com.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Sad what the previous owners did with it. Glad you were able to turn it into a positive use for it. Looks like lots of room!

  2. This is an awesome workshop. The only thing I would change is the Alabama flags…A nice Eye of the Tiger flag would compliment nicely! Geaux Tigers!

  3. Good advice regarding patience. Hard to have at times. Thank you for sharing your shop and perspectives.

  4. When I saw the 1st picture in Jay’s email, I that it was a picture of Army barracks he was doing a Veterans charity for! Goodluck!

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