Visiting David Buchsbaum

I went to see my friend and fellow ShopBotter David Buchsbaum in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago to get help with some cabinet software I'm working in for the new ShopBot Project Wizard. Since I know very little about the practical details of cabinetmaking I've been having a pretty tough time with this program. I'd seen David's work during the Camp that he hosted in Atlanta and was very impressed, so was excited when he said I could come to his shop for a day and pick his brain.

David got me pointed in the right direction with my program and filled in a lot of blank spots, but I think the best part of the visit may have been just poking around in his shop. Now I've been in a ton of shops over the years, from old rundown boat yards to some that that are so fancy and hi-tech that it doesn't look like any work is done there at all, but I think David's may be my favorite. Over the years he's refined his methods so that there's very little of the "head scratching" that seems to eat up so much time, and he's put a lot of time and thought into how to set things up to make efficient use of his time. He's not only got the hand and tool skills to build first-class custom cabinets, but also a great eye for design. Here are a few pictures of David's shop..I think you'll agree it looks like a great place to work.



Entering David's shop. His shop is attached to his 15-sided house so there are lots of interesting angles.



His PRTAlpha ShopBot is toward the back of the shop, behind the wide belt sander.



David uses all the space in the shop...including storage underneath his ShopBot.



Dust collection ductwork runs to all the tools and David has designed and built blast gates that he cuts on his ShopBot. Not only do they work better than the ones that you buy but they're also much cooler looking!



Here's a detail of one of his blast gates.



David uses a lot of shop carts...most of which he built himself...to not only move things around but also to keep track of where parts are in the process.



Moving some parts around.



Just about all the stationary tools have some sort of custom housing or table...here's his chopsaw enclosure.


This is his ShopBot-cut router table. I'm trying to talk David into putting together a collection of "David's shop jigs" part files to sell through the Project Wizard, with projects like this router table and his blast gates.



David drills hinge and drawer slide holes with his ShopBot using a program that he's written, and holds the panels against a fence with cams that are screwed to the tabletop.



David cuts gears for a guy that makes wooden clocks. Here's the vacuum jig that he uses to hold the gear blanks...



...and here are the gears in a finished clock.



A pile of drawer boxes for the job that he was working on when I visited.