Troy's Doctor's Office_Oops I Meant Saddle Shop

[gtwister09]

Troy asked me to post this for him. So here goes. The panoramas have a little distortion to them but it allows you to see all of one wall at a time.

Well it's not a doctor office but it sure is NICE. I remember a thread on the ideal home studio. Well this one goes a long way towards that end. I would venture to say that this isn't just a saddle shop but a saddle studio. Troy West Studio or something more appropriate.

He has tray ceilings with exposed beams and crown moulding. The trays carry 24 can lights in them around the perimeter of the room. Notice the crown molding on the tray portion of the ceiling as well as in between the beam ceiling portion. Exposed stained beams are actually the 2 bys for the roof. Another feature of the crown moldings is the end blocks for the inside corners that tie the theme of stars together throughout the room...the molding, fan/light fixture and the floor mosaic. In the center of the mosaic/medallion is a quarter. The outside entry into the shop has a large star on it as well. The color selection and contrast is very good.

On the North wall is his cutting bench and soldering station. Other things on the right side of the bench is a buffing station with a vacuum attached to it and a stitching clamp. All of his cutting tools as well as layout and other leather tools are on this bench (edgers, dividers, pounder, spikes, pliers, knives, punches, etc). There is a small area that he uses as an anvil on the right side of the bench. You can't see it at this time but there is a Landis 3 in 1 that is an a hinge and comes down over the round steel being used as an anvil.

The east wall has the bench and an air conditioning unit. The Landis 3 and soldering station are also on that wall.

As mentioned before there are also a 24 of the can lights in the tray ceiling portion. Both the stamping bench and the cutting bench have a set of florescents over them to add more light. Notice that almost all of the electrical outlets are at bench height as well.

The South wall has the sewing machines, stamping and silver bench as well as a band knife. The machines are a Landis 3, a Cobra 4 and a Singer 31-15. Next is the stamping bench with a piece of granite inset into the top. The tools are also in a drawer as well. The engraving bench has a ball, GraverMax and other engraving items used to cut out silver and such. There's also an air operated shop press as well. There are a couple of Nikkel trees and one of Troy's that isn't finished.

The West wall is the entry into the shop. The band knife, a saddle stand, a break/press, the wooden sink (make from wood and epoxy to allow him to be able to sit a saddle over the edge and wash it), a cabinet with mirror, some file cabinets and steamer. The mirrored cabinet holds all the leather finishing supplies and a few other things. Below the sink is various cleaners and so forth.

Here's his drawdown stand and stirrup stretcher.

Troy can add to this or make any corrections on describing things that I forgot or have incorrectly stated.

Regards,

Ben

[McJeep]

Dearest Troy ... YOU SUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bison]

Thanks for posting these. It's really nice to see how other folks set up their space. And I agree, this is a Studio...and it should be referred to as such...Studios command higher prices than shops!

[King's X]

You have to be comfortable in your work space. Very nice.

[bruce johnson]

Awesome. One question, where is the leather storage?

On another note, there are a few of us that have bandied about definitions for the terms "studio" vs. a "shop". Guys, this is a studio.

[Denise]

So, does he have a tree "studio" too? That's what I want to see next!!

[TroyWest]

Thanks for the kind words, and thanks to Ben for posting these. He's far more computer literate than I am.

This started out as a pretty dirty garage on a slab. I worked on it for 5 months. I hired the cheapest guy I could find to do this (me), so I didn't have a real carpenter except for a couple of weeks.A friend of mine (Micheal Stapleton), came and spent 2 weeks helping me. He builds houses for a living. He was a wealth of knowledge in construction and his 2 weeks helping me was invaluable. I made the comment that I thought a ceramic tile floor would be good in a saddle shop. He said let's do it! He lays a lot of tile floors and wanted to do something special on mine. He made several suggestions and one was a Texas star. I said that would be fine. He went out there with a calculator and a pencil and drew that on the floor. He cut out the star parts all by hand. I thought it turned out nice. I wanted OSB on the walls (oriented strand board) for those who don't know. That way I would have wooden walls to hang heavy items on. I didn't want the look of OSB so I taped and mudded and textured it to look like sheet rock. Then painted it. Found some inexpensive crown molding on line near me. I put a wall of windows to have natural light on my tooling and engraving bench and painted the shop a light color to keep it things bright. Now that the walls are so pretty I hate to hang stuff.

Ben didn't show the whole blockout table but I had skirting leather under it. I can put a whole roll of skirting under it. Currently my chap leather, latigo, and woolskins are in the room next door. I still have more stuff to put in the shop. I have already hung more stuff on the walls since Ben took these photos.

My tree shop isn't near this nice and and It really won't be. But it will be pretty nice. I'll be working on it as money and time allow, but it is functional.

Thanks for taking a look,

Troy

[gtwister09]

Sorry! Here's the east wall with the table.

Regards,

Ben

Edited January 31, 2012 by gtwister09

[King's X]

Still a nice place to work out of.....be proud!