Why finish your shop furniture?

[DogwoodTales]

Oh gad! I hope you're kidding me. I simply meant that having a nice looking shop would do wonders ... for me anyway. My shop is not nearly close to that. Someday ... lol

[Eric Commarato]

Hopefully this won't come over as snobby, but here goes.  I study lots of shops in my spare time on both the internet and Youtube shop tours, and notice a lot of woodworker's in general and weekend warriors don't really take very good care of their workspaces, machinery, or tools, and this all migrates down to the care and attitude that you take with workshop furniture and workshop jigs.  For instance I have see lots of photos of very functional table saw sleds that were just thrown together with a few screws, and while these jigs are functional, they are not aesthetically pleasing or "purdied up" so to speak.  Why not take a little extra time, use some quality hardwood and make a sled that your grandson would be proud to use.  To me workshop furniture and jigs should be this.  If your going to take the time to make a jig, tool cabinet, storage cabinet, etc., why not use the skills you have and make the best your abilities will allow.  After all, you might have a client in your shop at some time, and how clean and organized you keep you shop and the quality of the fixtures and tools you use, might just land you that next job.

I'm adding this to my comments above to justify my snobbiness. Check Jonathan White's blog, The Bench Blog. Jonathan is a craftsman when it comes to organizing his shop, and building heirloom quality workshop jigs and fixtures. We can all use a lesson from Jonathan regarding workshop furniture and the quality we live with in the workshop.