This was the beginning of it all. I lived in a condo and had no place to set up so my Grandmother was kind enough to allow me to setup in the corner of her garage. I still had a full time job so I built evenings and weekends. I mitered everything by hand and used a work bench and v-blocks for a jig. I did finally purchase a Hank James jig but had very little else in the way of tools. While I was very grateful to have the garage, it was not heated and I shared it with a car so it was very crowded. I needed to find a place that I could spread out a little and work year-round. After about a year I found a little rental house with a heated detached garage so off I went to shop number two.

I don’t really have any pictures of this shop but it was pretty short lived, no heat in Montana doesn’t make for an ideal place to spend much time.

My first tacking fixture