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29K views 153 replies 47 participants last post by  lysdexic 
#1 ·
A New Shop and a New Mantra

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?"

The above is a quote from Coach John Wooden of UCLA. As my family and I have moved into a new house I'll be moving into a new shop. Considering that I have a completely blank slate to work with that quote will hopefully be my new mantra as I venture into creating a new workspace for my woodworking and general hacketry.

Here's how things looked when we moved into the new house at the beginning of September. Bare concrete walls, 4 single bulb light fixtures, and not an outlet to be seen:

Wood Cabinetry Floor Flooring House


Wood Flooring Floor House Building


As soon as I began spending any time down in the "shop" I quickly realized that it was dark. Real dark, and a bit gloomy to boot. I quickly remedied that with 5 gallons of masonry paint rolled on in 2 coats.

Property Building Floor Flooring House


The white paint had helped out some but it was still dark and shadowy. I needed light and lots of it. This is where being a demolition contractor came in mighty handy. We had just started a new project in a care facility and were contracted to demolish some light fixtures. So last week the boys scabbed me 5 T8 light fixtures off the job. I wired them all together in parallel.

Furniture Table Wood Floor Building


Building Wood House Flooring Hall


Table Furniture Building Interior design Wood


This is where I currently sit vaguely 2 months into the new shop project. Up next is gathering the funds and the supplies for a new 100 amp subpanel and all new electrical wiring for wall outlets.
 

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#27 ·
Ready for Power

Last time we left off I had just finished up painting the walls, installing new lights and preparing for the electrical installation. Over the last two months, utilizing Grizzly's shop lay out tool, ive done my best at placing all the equipment with ample room for infeed and outfeed. I ran all new 3/4" PVC conduit and hung a new 100 amp, 20 slot, subpanel.

Wood Table Building Floor Flooring


Wood Gas Machine Flooring Office equipment


There will be a total of 24 new receptacles on 8 circuits. 21 receptacles will be 110v, one will be dedicated circuit for the dust collector, and the balance will be 3, 220v outlets to serve the larger machines. Ive got sparky coming over this coming Saturday morning to hook the sub panel to the main, install all the breakers, and help me along with the wiring until I feel comfortable finishing on my own. Ill have him back for a final inspection and then we'll throw the switch!

Automotive tire Gas Bumper Automotive wheel system Sports equipment


With any luck the next episode in the saga of slow and steady we will have live power and I can begin on setting up outfeed tables, work surfaces, tool storage, and the much anticipated bench build.
 

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#28 ·
Ready for Power

Last time we left off I had just finished up painting the walls, installing new lights and preparing for the electrical installation. Over the last two months, utilizing Grizzly's shop lay out tool, ive done my best at placing all the equipment with ample room for infeed and outfeed. I ran all new 3/4" PVC conduit and hung a new 100 amp, 20 slot, subpanel.

Wood Table Building Floor Flooring


Wood Gas Machine Flooring Office equipment


There will be a total of 24 new receptacles on 8 circuits. 21 receptacles will be 110v, one will be dedicated circuit for the dust collector, and the balance will be 3, 220v outlets to serve the larger machines. Ive got sparky coming over this coming Saturday morning to hook the sub panel to the main, install all the breakers, and help me along with the wiring until I feel comfortable finishing on my own. Ill have him back for a final inspection and then we'll throw the switch!

Automotive tire Gas Bumper Automotive wheel system Sports equipment


With any luck the next episode in the saga of slow and steady we will have live power and I can begin on setting up outfeed tables, work surfaces, tool storage, and the much anticipated bench build.
Like.

Reading the title reminded me of this:
 

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#40 ·
All juiced up

This weekend was a big weekend. I was lucky enough to have a very good friend whos grandfather is a retired master electrician and part time teacher of electrical at a local technical school who was willing to help me out. Saturday morning we put on a pot of coffee and got to work wiring up the new shop. We hooked up the new subpanel and ran 7 new circuits for the shop. 350' of romex, 300' of thhn,17 outlets and 5 hours later we have this:

Gas Wood Flooring Machine Room

Outlets From L to R: 110/110, 110/220, 220, 110/220, dedicated 110

Wood Gas House Machine Room


Table Wood Flooring Building Ceiling

Both runs here are all 110.

Gas Electrical wiring Machine Wire Electronic engineering

100 amp subpanel, 6 20A single pole breakers, 1 20A double pole all fed from a 40A breaker in the main panel.

There's a couple of things that Mr. Parker did that i thought were important as well. One of which is to keep all the lights on the main panel and not in the sub panel. Having a young son who will certainly be into everything shortly ill be able to kill all of the outlets in the shop by throwing the breaker in the main while keeping the lights on. He also suggested that i buy a panel with plenty of room for expansion and 3/4" conduit instead of 1/2". Ive got enough room to run 1 more circuit inside the conduit if the need ever arises.

On to machine tune up!
 

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#41 ·
All juiced up

This weekend was a big weekend. I was lucky enough to have a very good friend whos grandfather is a retired master electrician and part time teacher of electrical at a local technical school who was willing to help me out. Saturday morning we put on a pot of coffee and got to work wiring up the new shop. We hooked up the new subpanel and ran 7 new circuits for the shop. 350' of romex, 300' of thhn,17 outlets and 5 hours later we have this:

Gas Wood Flooring Machine Room

Outlets From L to R: 110/110, 110/220, 220, 110/220, dedicated 110

Wood Gas House Machine Room


Table Wood Flooring Building Ceiling

Both runs here are all 110.

Gas Electrical wiring Machine Wire Electronic engineering

100 amp subpanel, 6 20A single pole breakers, 1 20A double pole all fed from a 40A breaker in the main panel.

There's a couple of things that Mr. Parker did that i thought were important as well. One of which is to keep all the lights on the main panel and not in the sub panel. Having a young son who will certainly be into everything shortly ill be able to kill all of the outlets in the shop by throwing the breaker in the main while keeping the lights on. He also suggested that i buy a panel with plenty of room for expansion and 3/4" conduit instead of 1/2". Ive got enough room to run 1 more circuit inside the conduit if the need ever arises.

On to machine tune up!
Looking good Stef. I bet it felt good to tick off that milestone.
 

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#66 ·
Shaping Up

Since the electrical has been installed ive been slowly tuning up the machines, changing knives and blades along with those random house projects that pop up from time to time. While i have been getting some things done its been a battle to find the tools i need. Enough was enough and i needed to get my tools out of cardboard boxes.

I painted and reused a piece of peg board that came with the house. Hung my saw and plane tills and hung a couple of shelves for my block and specialty planes.

Feels better all ready.

Furniture Table Wood Picture frame Shelving


Building Wood Table Engineering Fixture


Wood Font Gas Door Art


Still plenty to go …

Wood Shipping box Table Flooring Box
 

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#67 ·
Shaping Up

Since the electrical has been installed ive been slowly tuning up the machines, changing knives and blades along with those random house projects that pop up from time to time. While i have been getting some things done its been a battle to find the tools i need. Enough was enough and i needed to get my tools out of cardboard boxes.

I painted and reused a piece of peg board that came with the house. Hung my saw and plane tills and hung a couple of shelves for my block and specialty planes.

Feels better all ready.

Furniture Table Wood Picture frame Shelving


Building Wood Table Engineering Fixture


Wood Font Gas Door Art


Still plenty to go …

Wood Shipping box Table Flooring Box
Almost set there Stef. Time to get to work!
 

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#97 ·
Introducing Sir Magnus Von Beefcake - A Workbench

My newest addition to the shop. Sir Magnus Von Beefcake.

A bit about the materials:
The top, legs, and stretchers are all reclaimed, old(er) growth doug fir timbers that were once the roof columns for a building on the Newington CT, VA campus. They started off as 6"x6" and currently sit at 5Ă—5. The vise chop, vice jaws and deadman came from a single piece of cherry that i bought off a customer who happened to run a sawmill. The handle for the QR vice was turned by LJ bhog, the vice screw was a trade between BigRedKnothead and I, the leg vice handle was another trade between CL810, who turned it, and I. The 203 bench clamp was a recent antique store find. The QR vice came from the relics of my work's warehouse. All in all ive got about $100 into this bench but uncounted for hours and even more jokes.

The build was pretty straight forward but kept well under wraps. After the beating ive taken in the 2 and a half years it took me to build you all deserve it lol. For those who dont know the bench was started sometime in 2012 maybe 2013, ive lost track. I acquired the lumber over that years winter but as soon as i managed to chop the leg mortises we decided to move, putting the bench on infinite hold. As normal my fat mouth got me in trouble challenging others to a bench off as well as making other obscene challenges. I lost most of them (lookin at you OldFart). We spruced up the old house, sold it, bought a new one and moved into the new house. New house, new shop, new electrical, blah blah blah. I restarted the bench.

Here's the pics

Table Furniture Wood Desk Floor


Table Furniture Wood Stool Desk


Table Wood Floor Wood stain Flooring


Next blog will fall back and detail the bench build.
 

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#98 ·
Introducing Sir Magnus Von Beefcake - A Workbench

My newest addition to the shop. Sir Magnus Von Beefcake.

A bit about the materials:
The top, legs, and stretchers are all reclaimed, old(er) growth doug fir timbers that were once the roof columns for a building on the Newington CT, VA campus. They started off as 6"x6" and currently sit at 5Ă—5. The vise chop, vice jaws and deadman came from a single piece of cherry that i bought off a customer who happened to run a sawmill. The handle for the QR vice was turned by LJ bhog, the vice screw was a trade between BigRedKnothead and I, the leg vice handle was another trade between CL810, who turned it, and I. The 203 bench clamp was a recent antique store find. The QR vice came from the relics of my work's warehouse. All in all ive got about $100 into this bench but uncounted for hours and even more jokes.

The build was pretty straight forward but kept well under wraps. After the beating ive taken in the 2 and a half years it took me to build you all deserve it lol. For those who dont know the bench was started sometime in 2012 maybe 2013, ive lost track. I acquired the lumber over that years winter but as soon as i managed to chop the leg mortises we decided to move, putting the bench on infinite hold. As normal my fat mouth got me in trouble challenging others to a bench off as well as making other obscene challenges. I lost most of them (lookin at you OldFart). We spruced up the old house, sold it, bought a new one and moved into the new house. New house, new shop, new electrical, blah blah blah. I restarted the bench.

Here's the pics

Table Furniture Wood Desk Floor


Table Furniture Wood Stool Desk


Table Wood Floor Wood stain Flooring


Next blog will fall back and detail the bench build.
Yay!! You sneaky bastage!!
 

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