WORKING IN AN UNDERBUILT

A peek into a Spanish turner's workshop.

SHOP OWNER: Colin Spencer

LOCATION: Orba, Spain

My house is built on the side of a small mountain, so I have what is called an underbuilt here. This is a series of rooms that vary in height from about 18 inches to 8 feet plus in height. In my case, I have three rooms with full standing headroom and one of these is my workshop. It measures about 24 feet by 9 feet and is definitely too small, but, due to the mountain behind and the house above, I cannot extend.

I am primarily a turner but I do have a full selection of other power tools. My main lathe is a Nova DVR mounted on a homemade MDF bench that is filled with sand. I estimate that the total weight is about 350kgs (0.3 tons) so it doesn't move.

My vacuum compressor can just be seen mounted to the left side of the DVR bench. I also have a Record DML 24 with homemade electronic variable speed (three-phase converter) on the right hand side. I have my dust extractor and compressor sited in another unfinished room next to my workshop, so the dust extraction is ducted around the shop.

Luckily, in Spain a lot of use is made of wood burning stoves so 4" galvanized steel tube and fittings are readily available and cheap. I have added air conditioning as it gets to the high 30's C during the summer. During this winter, I have had it putting out hot air a couple of times. I have also fitted a small radiator that comes on with the house heating. Even though the room is properly built and insulated, I do suffer with a lot of humidity and so a portable dehumidifier runs 24x7, which also helps dry some of my wood.