Welcome and thanks for checking out the Dusty Dog Workshop.
The Dusty Dog Workshop is a project I started in 2020 when developing a space to build and repair wooden pieces for our century old home. From 2020 to 2024 I built a small workshop in the bottom floor of our house and in 2025 I established JRileyWorkshop, LLC which operates as The Dusty Dog Workshop. The name comes from our two silly boys Smokey and Irwin who frequent the shop to supervise my efforts, collect shavings and offcuts and remind me that its time for a snack or a tea break. Irwin has a knack for gravitating towards my swept up piles of shavings. It’s not uncommon to find him laying in the shop in the middle of the day. I think he’s contemplating the next project and I wish I had his free time. My wife came up with the name when we were brainstorming what to call the shop.
I’d like to introduce you to the workshop team.
The Dusty Dog Workshop’s focus
Here at the workshop we focus on creating unique wooden pieces from a blend of traditional and modern methods. We focus on making traditional wooden bench components, including wooden vise screws and other types of work holding whether this be a Ruobo style bench, a shaving mule, marquetry mule, or treadle lathes. These are all types of work holding that serve specific functions in the workshop.
All of our wooden vise screws are manufactured on a house made machine treadle lathe. I built the lathe in the Spring of 2022 while contemplating how to recreate the wooden vise screw that I had seen in a number of workbench books. Check out my blog “Dusty dog tidbits” to read more about the construction of the lathe, the process of making the vise screws, and other woodworking projects.