Roubo project - The "before" shop tour

So if you haven't heard about the "Roubo project" coming this summer, where have you been?  Seriously, go check it out here.  Well anyway, when it was announced back in early March, I thought man, that would be really really cool.  But I already had my classes signed up for the year and all my vacation time spoken for.  Furthermore, I figured there was no way my wife would let me dip into the savings to pay for it.

But the more I thought about it and the opportunity it presented, the more I got excited about it.  My wife, surprisingly, was more supportive about it than I figured.  Of course, she was concerned about the cash, but we discussed the options which included canceling my classes for the year.  I hated to cancel, but I felt I really could not pass up this opportunity to build probably the coolest bench I will ever own.

So, I emailed Jameel and surprisingly I got in!

Since then, I have been so excited and have been thinking about how I am going to incorporate this bench into my shop.  This will be my primary work space and a HUGE improvement over my current workbench; a Sjoberg entry level bench.  It has served me well, but I need a bigger and better bench.

So I have a little video documenting the before config of my shop.  It is completely trashed from the last couple projects, so don't judge me for my clutter and mess please.  haha.  I am definitely going to focus on organization and storage during this reconfig.  All of the horizontal surfaces in my shop get so cluttered because of the lack of storage.

I hope to get the majority of it completed before July.  I have a very busy schedule between now and then, so it may be tricky.  But it has to get done, or else my poor new bench will have to sit in the garage until its done.  And that ain't happenin!

So here is the video:  Shop tour

Sorry for the herky jerky as I shot it all on my iphone.  I have already made some progress and the chop saw has been moved.  I am working on the cabinets that will compliment the new chop saw station.  More on that later.

Thanks for looking!