Back to Gallery Listing Back to House Main Page Home
New Shop Updates
Update July 23. I can't believe it's been over two months since my last update ... time has really been flying! Anyway, The wiring is done and the lights have been hung, I've installed the long work surface under the cabinets, and I've purchased a dust collector. I also installed a shelf for my TV, and I bought a couple of small base-type cabinets on sale (seen in the second photo below, still in the boxes, sitting by the water heater) which will go under the long work bench.
The first photo above was taken standing near the water heater, and the second was standing by the lathe (thanks to Beverly for taking both). Still to do:
 | Build the large work bench that will support the drill press ... I am planning a three-door cabinet underneath for power tool storage. |
| Route the piping to connect the primary tools to the dust collector ... table saw, belt sander, compound miter saw, lathe, sanding table, floor sweep ... I'm planning a central PVC pipe with flex pipe going to each tool. |
| Build a tool holder for the lathe ... something simple that will mount on the wall above the lathe in the corner. |
| Install bat insulation (for sound) in the ceiling and cover with heavy-gage plastic sheeting or something similar ... I don't need a real ceiling, but I don't want dust to build up in the insulation over time. |
| I'm going to hold off on building the wall shown with red lines in the sketch ... it will be too crowded for a "real" wall, so I'm working on concepts for some sort of dust shield at the very least |
Update May 11. I met with the electrician this past Thursday to review my wiring needs and he promised me a quote by Monday (tomorrow). Yesterday we purchased some flake board for the walls and handful of 4' light fixtures. Due to (even more) bad weather, I had more time to work on the shop than I had expected, so I put the skin on part of the wall, installed my cabinets, and shoved the large white cabinet into place and shimmed it level.
Update April 27. My new shop will be somewhat smaller than my previous shop, but not by enough to cause me any problems (I hope). Here's the planned layout:
The area outlined in blue is the space required to rip a full sheet of plywood on the table saw ... not something I do often (because most of my projects are small), but it will save me from taking my saw out into the garage or driveway when I need to rip a full sheet. Not shown are my router table, table saw material supports, and similar "portable" items.
Here is the short list of what needs to happen before I will be completely up and running (in approximately this order):
| Put a skin on the walls (note all of the bare studs in the photos). I also have to separate the shop from the adjacent area (with the water heater, furnace, and storage shelves) ... I've shown a propose wall in red above, but I'm not sure if I'm going to put in a permanent wall or just a simple dust barrier. |
| The biggest problem I face is power -- unfortunately, the electrician didn't run any spare circuits to the basement, so I'm either going to have to get a couple more circuits put in or rearrange the circuits that are down there. |
| Install lighting. |
| Hang wall cabinets (next to large white floor cabinet). |
| Build workbench under wall cabinets. |
| Build workbench for drill press (I already have the top). |
| Purchase and install a dust collector -- at my previous shop, dust was a big problem, and my poor little wall-mounted shop vac had no chance of keeping up (which was very readily apparent when we had to clean up everything from the shop before we could move) so I'm going to install a 1.5 or 2.0 HP dust collector before I get too crazy about making a lot of dust in the new shop. |
Here are a few "before" photos, taken April 27, 2008 ... the first was taken standing next to the water heater (shown as a circle in the sketch above) ... the second and third were taken from the opposite end of the room looking back toward the area with the water heater:
As you may (or may not) be able to see, I only have two bare bulbs for light, no outlets, and no walls except for the outer concrete walls, so there is much work to do. (You can also see that I've had the tools out for a number of moving-in type chores ...)