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The making of a woodshop

28K views 53 replies 33 participants last post by  Beginningwoodworker 
#1 ·
And so it begins

Well this started last fall when the shop class at the HS I teach in poured the slab. Since they were building two garages and the other on belongs to the superintendent…guess which one has walls and a roof. The slab is 20' X 20' and will join with my old garage. I'm hoping this spring they will get back to me and I can make some updates as we go along. I also included a picture of the current garage/workshop and you can see that things are pretty tight in there.

 
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#4 ·
Some sketch-up views

I've made a sketch-up model of what I hope it will look like in the future. I'll share those views with you. The shop teacher said they are finishing the other garage and will be working on mine next week! yipeeee, I will continue to take pictures when the construction gets started.


 
#11 ·
Looks finished enough to get started on a woodworking project…
Just kidding. When I started building my new shop 2 years ago the rain kept causing my delays. My shop is about 175 ft behind my house and trucks kept getting stuck in the wet ground since I did not have a driveway going to the shop at that time. Contractors do not care about what they do to your yard, they just want to get their part of the job done.
 
#13 ·
Walls get sheathing and rafters

The weather's cleared up a bit and the boys got back to work. The walls got some OSB and they made the 10 rafters in the shop and installed them today. I can almost smell the sweet smell of sawdust in the air. Now if all the mud around would just dry up. I'm thinking about putting one or more of the tube skylights in, has anyone else put those in a shop and how did you like them?



 
#19 ·
The roof and first big tool purchase

Ok, with a week of decent weather the boys are back at work. The sheathing on the roof is up, and now they have started to shingle.



I've decided to put in a couple of sun tubes I think the brand is Velux with 10" tube. I'm hoping they will provide some nice natural light during the day.


My first major purchase in tools has been done. I've ordered a Laguan tools, 5 in 1 combination machine. I'll have it delivered in June when the shop is more or less ready for it.


the bad news is that tommorow we are supposed to ge 1-3 inches of snow :(
 
#24 ·
Little by little

With fair weather this week the boys finished the roof, and started putting soffit up so things are making some progress. In a couple of weeks my nephew is coming to help me wire the project. I've been working on a wiring plan so will be making a trip to Menards soon to get all of that.
For lighting I've got four 8' double fluorescents and one 4' that I'm planning on putting up there, I hope that will provide plenty of light for these old eyes. Along with the 2 suntubes, you'll see in the photos I think it will be pretty well lit.



Here's a picture from inside looking north where the garage door and entry will be.


I have to admit I'm getting pretty anxious to get this done!
 
#27 ·
Starting to look like a building on the outside at least

Well the shop class is about done with their part of the project (the outside). You can see that my nephew got the electrical roughed in a couple of weeks ago. Three 220 outlets a number of 110s and plenty of lights, I hope. Since its the middle of track season I haven't gotten much else done on the inside. I'm hoping to start putting up the ceiling this weekend, I think I'm going with all OSB on the ceiling and walls, paint it white for a nice clean look. I still have to put a door in between the old garage and the shop. My plan is to put in a solid door and cut it so I can have a dutch door there. That way I can leave the top open in the summer and the bottom will keep the pack of little mongrels from escaping out to the front. I've been reading some of the posts on here about a floor treatment and I'm still up in the air about what to do there. I know I don't want to stay with the concrete, just too hard on my old back.

This is the west-side with the doors open.

This is the north-side with the doors closed, there's one more light to put up on the other side of the window.

Here you can see the panel, and the hole for the other outside light.
 
#40 ·
Getting Close

Well it's been awhile since I posted on the project, but I wanted to be able to show some progress. I've gotten the outside all painted, and lights up.


Here you can see the outside, finally matching the rest of the house.



Here you can see the walls on the inside, I insulated and covered them with OSB. They then got a coat of primer and a couple coats in satin white, except for the south wall that I painted Avalanche blue. Just wanted to give it a little color. I was going to go with Bronco orange and blue but thought that might be a little much. You can also see the door that gives me access to the old garage, which makes moving tools and all the other stuff I've got for woodworking a much easier task.



This is looking NW and shows the door to the back yard and the garage door. You can see the floor got painted with an epoxy coat. I really wavered over what to do with the floor, looking at a number of options. I finally went with the epoxy coat and a number of anti-fatigue mats. I got a pretty good deal at Menards on some mats and I already had 3 others from the garage so I think that will work for me. You can also see the guard dog who keeps the back yard safe from intruders.
My next step will be to do some trim work around the doors, windows, baseboard and ceiling.
My new combination machine is being shipped today, so with any luck it will be in the shop and set-up by the middle part of next week. Yipeeee!
 
#50 ·
Making lots of saw dust!

I've started moving most of my woodworking stuff in from the garage, and building projects to fill up the space.



Here's an old bookshelf I made in college years ago, a little paint and it makes some good temporary storage, the cart that looks like a coffee table I just built to hold all the accessories for my 5 function machine.



Here's my workbench (a project in progress) and the pegboard tool storage I made a couple weeks ago, I'll be putting it in the projects section soon.



That's my temporary chop saw station (I want to build something permanent in the future), once I decide where I want it to go and find a set up that I like. I've had my Laguna 5 function machine now for about 2 weeks and am still learning my way around it. I'll write a review once I've had enough time to make some valid judgements on it. One thing I do know is my goodness it is heavy! The lumber yard brought down their forklift and set in the door, then I went across the street (one advantage of living in a small town) and borrowed the pallet jack from the grocery store and moved it close to where I wanted it. My son said he brings some guys over to get it off the pallet and I told him I thought it would take 5 of us. I think he thought I was crazy, but it did take all five of us to lift it and move it over about four feet.



I'd like to build a station for the sander and router that might integrate with the chop saw station along that west wall.
 
#51 ·
Jim you know your nearing the end when you start to move tools in. Though I am never sure if it ever ends. At least you look like your well on your way to start making things in your new shop. Looks really good. I
am envious. I am still trying to build my separate building. Good Luck
 
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