Designer and furniture maker Michael Pate began his wood working experiences with his grandfather as a child. He has worked with top end furniture stores as well as extensively studying Early American Furniture and their craftsmen. The furniture of the settlers of Texas has been his focus for 34 years, with a true appreciation of the artisans who constructed it. He also teaches cabinet making and enjoys sharing the true beauty that wood has to offer.
Michael Pate - The Story
I have worked in all kinds of workshops and conditions. Some so bad that I literally moved out under a tree one time! But I have always been able to make do. I started in the back of an old metal warehouse, mainly refinishing. Of course you can imagine the dirt, dust, the heat and the cold. It made shooting lacquer pretty difficult at best, but I made do….
The next shop was a one car garage, just as old, dirty, hot and miserable. This is where I started accumulating my tool collection. I didn’t stay long because one summer night a tornado literally jumped the house and got me to thinking. I decided I had better find a direction….
So I moved to Stephenville, Texas, and returned to college. But to make a living I started The Homestead. This was in an old dog trot house (two rooms with a breezeway between them.) It was built by the first Republican gubenatorial candidate in Texas in the 1890’s, I was told. Now this was in 1976, and it had seen it’s better days to say the least. The floor around the table saw was a better trampoline, no heat, no air, but I made do. As I look back, it really was a great place, and had a lot of character!
In the early eighty’s I decided I needed a real job so I left my tools stored in the old house and moved on. Skip to the late eighties and I moved to the Panhandle of Texas and set up my tools up in another old two room house (no breezeway) that had been used for a barn and hog feeding area at one time. No windows, no doors, (the openings were there, but nothing blocking the elements), and another springy floor (I had experience with that!). Built some crude shutters and hung a canvas on the door, and didn’t go near the place if it was raining, snowing, if the wind was blowing over 20mph, or the temperature was over 100. (Now for those of you that know the Eastern Texas Panhandle, this pretty much took up the year. It can be trying there.) I moved a bench under an old Locust tree as much as possible. But I made do…
Then I got lucky and we built a metal barn and I claimed half of it for the shop. 14’ x 24’ with a double door on the front, a 2’ x 2’ window on the side, no insulation, no heat, no air, but I had my first “real” shop. I was able to get quite a bit done in between the heat, the cold, the storms and the farming I was doing at the time.
In 2002 we moved to this area where I taught Ag for two years, and was able to use that shop for some projects, but it was 35 miles from our house, so I didn’t spend any extra time there. And the next summer a tornado hit the place in the Panhandle where my tools and several unfinished projects were left. It tore the new shop up pretty good and rearranged the contents really well… and the old two room house? No roof at all, which was not a big change, no front wall, and a lot of scrambled stuff!
The Workshop
Which brings me to this shop… That year we were looking for a house to buy without much luck, hoping to find one with something we could make do for a shop…. We were about to give up when my son and I saw a hand made for sale sign in front of this house, literally 200 yards over a hill from where we were living. We coerced my wife to call and go look, she didn’t have any hope in the deal. But within 30 minutes she called and told me I had better come over there. The house was good, but when she went to the back she knew… And called me! At the time it was just a metal skin on a wooden frame but it was what we had wanted! And The Good Lord blessed us with the place! We have done a lot of work on it since, and here is what we are blessed to work in.
The shop is 50’ x 24’ with a front and rear door, and an 8’ garage door. We reskinned the front with siding, insulated the walls and ceiling and paneled the interior with OSB. A used AC system has made the place absolutely wonderful! I added some cement under the back lean to for wood storage. It has taken some serious discussions with the wife that there is absolutely no room for storage of otwws (other than woodworking stuff). Still work on that periodically! But since she works in here with me, its a little easier. With some florescent lights it is nice!
Tools are added or replaced only when ther is no other way! As you can see I have worn several out with the age of some of them still in use. I have taken a new turn in my thoughts with this and I make an effort to keep it clean and somewhat orderly. Use to think people would think I was busy if i was wading through dirt, dust and cutoffs. Since this turn in thought, I have not had a customer fail to compliment the shop and organization (I still can’t find things, but it looks like I should be able to. I think it’s a man thing. But don’t tell anyone!) Workbenches have been added designed by a popular guru, and they work really well. For the first time in my life I have an empty drawer. Never even had drawers at most of the shops…. But I’m making do!....