Getting Set Up / Making a Plan
Over the past couple months I've really been getting in to this woodworking thing. I've spent way over $1000 on blades, bits, a new table saw, and woods and hardware for jigs.
I've been doing all this in a narrow strip of my 2 car garage thats about 5' wide and 12' long. Some genius decided that the homeower would only ever need 1 outlet in the whole 2 car garage, so I've been swapping plugs when I need to switch to a new tool, using extension cords, and using plug strips.
For dust collection I've been using a shopvac and for air filtration I've been using a box fan sitting behind me and blowing toward the door. It's less than ideal and not very safe- I'm very careful to cleanup afterwards but there is a disgusting amount of dust floating around in the garage when I'm routing or sanding, so I need a solution to that.
Oh yeah, I have a 17' long 1968 Fury III taking up 75% of the garage too.
To make matters worse, I've got a baby on the way. I can already feel my fun budget getting pinched Not to mention the fact that everyone tells me the wife is going to want to park in the garage with the baby so she can quickly and safely move the baby and it's 200 lbs of gear in to the Pilot when it's raining or hot out.
So, I need to make some changes.
Here are my plans:
Space:
Right now, I have an old car taking up 75% of the garage. To fix this, I'm going to buy a car cover and park it in the driveway. After that I'll do some heavy cleaning and move my "workshop" to the far wall of the garage where the Fury is now sitting.
This will empty my garage and and double my space for woodworking. This will also make room for my wife to park her car beside the door for when the baby comes. That, and if I need the whole garage for cutting sheet goods, big projects, etc. I can always pull the car out and get the full 2-car garage width.
Electrical:
The one outlet thing sucks. I can only run one tool at once or I'll trip a breaker, I have to use extension cords for everything, etc. To fix this my buddy noknot and I are going to run 2 new 20A circuits to the opposite wall where my workshop is going to be. This will let me run two big draw tools like a table saw and dust collector at the same time.
Because of the design of my finished garage with a bonus room up top, we're going to build a bulkhead off the side of a structural beam in the roof and run the wires across that way. Then we'll split the wall in to two circuits with 2 outlet boxes each.
Dust Collection:
I've done a lot of reading on lumberjocks and on other websites about dust collection and I've decided to go with the small rockler wall mount dust collector. I know the drawbacks, but I need something compact and I don't mind switching the hose between tools- I do that now with the shopvac. One day when I have more space I'll invest in a 2HP monster. It's going to go on one of the 20A circuits on the "woodworking wall". This with all their "dust right" accessories will be a big improvement over my tiny little shop vac.
Air Filtration:
I scored an old 800 CFM blower from the HVAC shop beside my office for free- I'm going to build an air filtration box similar to this one made by Bullgoose
Storage:
I've been looking at shopnotes and I think I'm going to do something similar to the cabinets in shopnotes #97, but thats a little way down the road.
Once I get the garage cleaned out I'll start taking pictures and document the process. I'm not sure if I should post it as a project or not, but I'll document the steps somehow.
Over the past couple months I've really been getting in to this woodworking thing. I've spent way over $1000 on blades, bits, a new table saw, and woods and hardware for jigs.
I've been doing all this in a narrow strip of my 2 car garage thats about 5' wide and 12' long. Some genius decided that the homeower would only ever need 1 outlet in the whole 2 car garage, so I've been swapping plugs when I need to switch to a new tool, using extension cords, and using plug strips.
For dust collection I've been using a shopvac and for air filtration I've been using a box fan sitting behind me and blowing toward the door. It's less than ideal and not very safe- I'm very careful to cleanup afterwards but there is a disgusting amount of dust floating around in the garage when I'm routing or sanding, so I need a solution to that.
Oh yeah, I have a 17' long 1968 Fury III taking up 75% of the garage too.
To make matters worse, I've got a baby on the way. I can already feel my fun budget getting pinched Not to mention the fact that everyone tells me the wife is going to want to park in the garage with the baby so she can quickly and safely move the baby and it's 200 lbs of gear in to the Pilot when it's raining or hot out.
So, I need to make some changes.
Here are my plans:
Space:
Right now, I have an old car taking up 75% of the garage. To fix this, I'm going to buy a car cover and park it in the driveway. After that I'll do some heavy cleaning and move my "workshop" to the far wall of the garage where the Fury is now sitting.
This will empty my garage and and double my space for woodworking. This will also make room for my wife to park her car beside the door for when the baby comes. That, and if I need the whole garage for cutting sheet goods, big projects, etc. I can always pull the car out and get the full 2-car garage width.
Electrical:
The one outlet thing sucks. I can only run one tool at once or I'll trip a breaker, I have to use extension cords for everything, etc. To fix this my buddy noknot and I are going to run 2 new 20A circuits to the opposite wall where my workshop is going to be. This will let me run two big draw tools like a table saw and dust collector at the same time.
Because of the design of my finished garage with a bonus room up top, we're going to build a bulkhead off the side of a structural beam in the roof and run the wires across that way. Then we'll split the wall in to two circuits with 2 outlet boxes each.
Dust Collection:
I've done a lot of reading on lumberjocks and on other websites about dust collection and I've decided to go with the small rockler wall mount dust collector. I know the drawbacks, but I need something compact and I don't mind switching the hose between tools- I do that now with the shopvac. One day when I have more space I'll invest in a 2HP monster. It's going to go on one of the 20A circuits on the "woodworking wall". This with all their "dust right" accessories will be a big improvement over my tiny little shop vac.
Air Filtration:
I scored an old 800 CFM blower from the HVAC shop beside my office for free- I'm going to build an air filtration box similar to this one made by Bullgoose
Storage:
I've been looking at shopnotes and I think I'm going to do something similar to the cabinets in shopnotes #97, but thats a little way down the road.
Once I get the garage cleaned out I'll start taking pictures and document the process. I'm not sure if I should post it as a project or not, but I'll document the steps somehow.