A Magical Shop that is No Illusion
When Jed Wachlin walks into his garage shop to make a little magic, he's speaking literally. "I have enjoyed magic since I was a child," he says, "and now I'm lucky to have found a way to combine that love with woodworking." As a firefighter, Jed incorporates some magic tricks into his fire-prevention demonstrations at schools and public events. But he primarily focuses on building new illusions for a core of magician-customers.
Jed's shop occupies one stall of a two-car garage, so everything except the tablesaw is mobile to allow him to maximize space. Shop-built rolling stands for the drill press, planer, and sanders feature storage, reclaiming otherwise wasted space. Doors and drawers in the 8'-long mitersaw cabinet also swallow plenty of tools.
A 150-amp subpanel feeds five circuits that provide juice to nineteen 110-volt duplex outlets, and two 220-volt outlets, each with a faceplate color-coded to its circuit. Two 4" dust-collection lines beneath the concrete floor connect to the 1-hp dust collector sitting in an attached shed. One run serves the tablesaw; the other, the remaining tools.
A tricked-out router table
Jed says the best tool for an illusion builder is an imaginative brain, but you can't beat a good tablesaw and a router table—or two.
Generally, the router in the wing of his tablesaw holds a round-over bit. A stand-alone router table, also maximized for storage, steps in for other routing needs.
