We have found our new building for the Phoenix Guitar Company.  We will show with the following photographs, the progress of getting our new shop put together.

Day 1: May 1, 2006

As you can see, the building is just about 1600 sq ft, and is completely empty, except for a small bathroom in the corner.  We obviously have a lot of work to do.

 

Day 2: May 2, 2006

A lot has already happened:  We have gotten our refrigerator, water cooler, and microwave.  We have also gotten our table saw, and new thickness sander, since the first thing we'll do, is build our benches.  We have to build 6 benches for our guitarmaking class, and will need more for the shop, and for our multicarver (not yet purchased at this time, but in the plans).  In the third photo below, you can see the base for one of the student benches has been put together.

 

 

Within a few days, all the student benches are done, and we have a bandsaw and a compressor.  We have gotten some pegboard up on the wall for hanging tools.

 

 

My wife has given us her desk that she used while getting her degree, and the computer now has a great home.  In addition, we have gotten most of my shop tools and benches moved from my previous shop.  It's a little hard to see, but right about this time, we had a repair job come into the shop.  The guitar can be seen on top of the bench in the foreground.  A beautiful 7-string classical guitar, used by an excellent jazz player here in town had several cracks in the sides and back.  We got this fix done amid all the rest of the confusion going on in the shop.

 

Next, some large shelves were bought to store wood and jigs.  They are on the back wall.  Also, on the right, it can be seen that we now have tools and clamps hanging off our pegboard.  We also have an outline of the spray booth in tape on the floor by the compressor.

 

 

Here is the frame of our spray booth.  We are installing a pocket door in the wall, so the door won't open up into the shop.  We will also put a plywood ceiling on the booth, to be used to store cases--and get them off the floor. 

 

So much for all the boring details....Here's the shop on our grand opening day, July 22, 2006, after everything is complete.  you can see the exhaust from the spray booth on the far right side.

 

Here's a picture from the other side.  Our 3 main benches are in the foreground, and to the right, with the spray booth  in the background to the right.  To the center in the background, is the student benches for our guitarmaking classes.

 

Here's a better view of our duplicating carver, the student benches, and our tool wall.

 

Here is our showroom.  Here, we will be showing some of our instruments for sale, our straps, and t-shirts.  Above the slatboard are some of our graduating classes of students.

 

Here is our main vacuum system, and our home-built downdraft table...

 

And a better view of the downdraft plumbing...

 

Here are some of our grand opening guests starting to arrive.

 

Great to see so many good friends...

 

 

After a little while, the party really starts to heat up.

  

 

For more photos of the shop and its tools in action, please check out the current projects tab.