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51K views 368 replies 96 participants last post by  robscastle 
#1 ·
Site Selection and Shop Orientation

This whole year has not been very productive for me. A little over a year ago we lost our plant to a fire and since I've always worked hard long hours for over 40 years it certainly knocked me for a loop. I was planning on working another five years or more. However, after much soul searching my brother, his wife, and I decided that since we were in our sixties and had all worked so hard for many years that we really didn't think we had it in us to start over from scratch. We decided that it was best to just retire.

Since I wanted a shop at least 25 X 25 and there was no where for a shop that size where we lived we had to start looking for a house with a shop or at least enough land to build one on. After much hunting we finally found one and moved in about six months ago. It has taken me this long to decide exactly what I want to do and I have decided to build a 30 X 30 shop with 10 ft high walls.



There is an older small red barn on the property (pic above) that will make a great place to store some lumber, jigs, and hardware, among other things, and it is roughly 15 X 24. I have decided to place my shop near the back of this barn.



The picture above shows the barn by looking across my back yard. My shop will be a short walk from the back door of our basement. I have an office in the basement where my computer and all of my books are and there is also a bathroom connected to my office. So my shop will not be far from my office and bathroom. The shop will not have any water.



The site of the shop (above) will be a few feet behind the red barn and turned to an angle so that it can be more easily worked in with the existing gravel driveway. Since the driveway will need to have access to the back yard and basement this orientation of the shop will give me a good easy way to walk back and forth from the shop and basement.



As you can also see (above), the shop location will also be easily accessible from the driveway and garage on the main floor of the house.



I will be able to easily back my pickup to either the barn or the shop or continue on to the basement.



From the picture above you can see the garage and driveway. From the corner of the drive to the garage, the shop will be down from the right of the picture about 50 feet or so.



The picture above gives a better view of the section of the driveway that passes in front of the shop location and going back toward the basement. By removing the tree and two bushes near the center of the picture we will be able to turn the driveway more directly toward the basement.

The next segment will show the beginning of the construction of my shop. Thanks for reading.
 
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#30 ·
Paul, you have a great shop and a lot of know how and skil. I would love to have a 30 X 40 shop or even bigger. However, a 30 X 30 is the biggest that I could talk myself into. You have some good points about the floor. I will be putting some wiring in the floor but I am on a very strict budget. Thanks for the kind comments and advice.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#31 ·
Joe, you're right! Me and you go way back. Lumbrjocks has a lot of wonderful people that come here, both guys and gals. Far too many to even name. I've seen a lot of great comments on here and a whole lot of craftsmanship and know how.

A lot of people who know me personally tell me that I'm too old fashioned for my own good. I reckon that's true. I love computers, electronics, and the internet; however, I'm not so sure that I've ever caught up with it all. So I guess I'm just a little overcautious about things.

So far as my choice of using Dusty, our plant night watchman for 13 years, for my avatar…......... well that's an easy one. He was a beautiful dog with a wonderful personality and I loved him better than any dog that I ever knew and I'm a dog lover from way back. Besides, his wonderful face is far better looking than my old ugly mug. ;-|

I'm hoping that I can come here for many more years because I love the people on here.

You're just like me, a regular character you are and I appreciate you.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#32 ·
I'm really happy for you, Charles…..I know you've wanted your own shop for a long time now…..Once you get 'er built, I will be able to comment on yours as you have done on mine a time or two….Looking forward to seeing it come together….It's one of those"I can't hardly wait" things…..Design it the way you want it, and you're good to go…..Your new home is beautiful w/ great surroundings, and a good place for your new shop…...Have fun, and enjoy….I'll be watching your progress…......
 
#33 ·
Hey Charles
This is great ,you have a wonderful setting for a new shop. You have worked long and hard now it's time to play.
This is going to be a fantastic adventure.
I'm building a 35×35 shop right now for one of my students ,we are a little ahead of you given that we are ready to pour our slab in a day or so. I wish you all the best in retirement and your shop build.
 
#35 ·
Thanks for the good advice, Mike. I agree. This will be the only shop that I every build so cutting corners too much would be foolish. Nevertheless, when something costs money there will invariable be some compromises. Thanks for the your friendly comments.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#40 ·
Canadian Chips. Thanks for the friendly comment. I bet that you have really enjoyed working on your shop and I hope that you will always be happy in your work.

Joe, thanks for the comment and I appreciate your following along.

Rick, thanks for the warm friendly comments; they really mean a lot to me. BTW, I still think that your shop is one of the best and nicest shops that I have ever seen and I still visit your shop page every so often. Thanks for the support and I hope that you are still enjoying your fishing.

Jim, thanks for the nice comments. That sounds exciting about building one of your students a 35 X 35 shop. He's a lucky man to have someone with your knowledge and craftsmanship to be advising him on his shop. Since you're also building it then so much the better. I hope that it goes well. Thanks. BTW, I think that your shop is one of the most interesting shops that I have seen and I visit it every so often. I love your collection of routers.
 
#41 ·
Hi Charles. I just stumbled upon this post and I am glad I did. Congrats on the soon-to-be new shop. So exciting! Lots of decisions to make but that's part of the excitement. HVAC, how to finish the interior walls, etc. If I may offer a suggestion, consider skylights. They are wonderful in a shop for letting in additional natural light. I wish you the best on the shop build and in general. You are always so supportive with our comments, it's great to be offering YOU support in this endeavor.
 
#43 ·
Last but not least, David, I just want to say that you and I go way back and I've always appreciated your generous support and I'm sure there are many who would say the same thing of you. You and I have spoken about loosing the plant, here and there, and you know how upset I was about the loss of it. It's taken me a good while to get to moving back toward a positive outlook and building the new shop is part of that process. You sent me that wonderful box that you made for me at a time when I was especially feeling low and I was touched by the nice warm letter inside the box. The box is beautiful and is the nicest gift any friend has ever given to me. I have put it in a prominent place in our great room where all of my friend's, family, and loved ones gather. It's a great conversation piece and many people ask if I made it. That makes me smile because it's when I get to brag on it and to tell a little bit about you and your craftsmanship and about how much that I appreciate it. Every box that you have is something that you want to put something special in. The only thing that is going in that box is the nice handwritten letter that you sent me. Thanks for the box and for being a friend. As you know I have not made a post about the box because I haven't felt like taking any photographs for quite a while. I haven't even felt like doing any woodworking in fact. But now I've recently started doing a little carving and also a little photography so I'm going to put the post up shortly. I appreciate your patience with me and all of your help.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#44 ·
Thanks Charles my student is a she :))
I have to stop myself when I start thinking my shop's way to small and complaining, when so many have very small shops or none at all. I can't wait to see your shop come together.
 
#46 ·
Regarding your new shop: A few suggestions. The height of 10 feet is not necessary. I poured my concrete pad, then used 2 X 10's to for a curb (or rat wall) upon which I used traditional pre-cut 2 X 4's to go another 8 feet. In essence, this gives me 8'-9" for ceiling height, enough to flip a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood.

Do some floor planning. Decide which tools will best be placed where. I used graph paper and colored construction paper cut-outs scaled to size to move around until positioned in a pleasing manner. Make the leading edge of your table saw blade an appropriate distance from that wall. Mine is 10'-6" to accommodate my longest boards. I cut my logs to 8'-6" OR 10'-6" allowing three inches on each end for the inevitable cracks. Also, on that rear wall I have the left side of my radial arm saw cabinet, at about the same height as my table saw. Any board longer than 10-6 is crosscut on that radial arm first.

Make certain to bury some electrical receptacles in your concrete floor. Put 110 AND 220 in all of them. I used a square box with one 220 and two 110's. One is near the table saw and assembly table for sanders, routers, etc. Anther is near a lower assembly table and near my 37-inch Performax dual-drum sander.

Put electrical outlets around the perimeter of the shop. I thought one every 4-6 feet might be overkill, but it is NOT. Mine is 32' X 32' with three adjoining rooms and enough rafter pitch on the 32 to allow six feet of attic height at the ridge-more storage.

I thought THREE rows of ceiling lights would be sufficient. It is NOT. My two outside rows are too far from the walls. It's a little too dimly lit on the edges of the shop. If done again, I'd have FOUR ROWS, with the outer two only about two feet from the walls.

I chose white metal roofing material as a ceiling. It was only about 65 cents a square foot 10 years ago, and goes up quite easily with self-tapping metal hex-head screws. Think about-who wants to wrestle heavy, heavy sheets of OSB, for instance? And finally, who wants to paint a ceiling two or three times. White helps with the lighting.

I also used this thin, slick sheeting like dry-erase chalkboards are made of. Again, it was cheap and already painted a shiny white, and easy to keep clean. A word of caution here, though-allow about 1/16th or 3/32ths for expansion between sheets to avoid buckling in damp weather. I used divider strips and corner strips for appearance.

For heat I chose a hanging natural gas furnace in one corner. Works good. With most thermostats you can opt for "continuous" fan, allowing for continuous circulation.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, plan your ductwork for your dust collection system. My unit is a 2-1/2 HP unit from Penn State. I hang it high in one corner of a storage room. This helps keep a lot of the noise out of the shop. Even then, many don't realize most of the noise from that unit is at the exhaust side where the exhaust come back into the shop. So for under $100 I bought a 6-inch muffle from Penn State. Cuts noise in half.

I ran 6-inch spiral pipe along two sides of the shop, near the ceiling, with one branch cutting over to the center of the shop (for drum sander, mostly. Further on I reduce to 5-inch. Most drop-downs are 4-inch, usually flexible tubing. Once in awhile, depending on the final tool, I reduce to 2- or 3-inch. I have a couple of cut-off gates in the larger tubing to prevent the inevitable leakage from those branches.

My cyclone was made by a local tin shop (heating and A/C business). They're pretty simple creatures, but you can google and learn a lot. Buying components is a lot cheaper than buying one of those $1200-$2000 packages. Mine was under $700. However, I had the luck of having a distributor of spiral piping just two miles from my shop/residence.

I prefer the metal blast gates. And to avoid the problem of gunk plugging the sliding slow, get the kind that slides all the way through on both opening and closing. Use long sweeping radii (radiuses) for going around corners AND Y-split-offs. Use joint sealer (like liquid nails) to make tight joints. And even if you do, use some of that aluminum sticky tape commonly used by furnace & A/C folks. Avoid the cheap flexible elbows as each portion that slides and flexes will leak.

In essence, your chips, sawdust, and sanding debri from various tools enters the cyclone. 99 percent of it drops into the container (mine is a 55-gallon barrel). The rest leaves the shop and goes past the impellor blades and back into the shop. There have some kind of cloth bags for a final filtering of the dust. Get the quality stuff. I like American Fabrication in Florida. They're friendly folks and will make you any size bag to fit any size opening you like. One of mine is round and goes clear to the floor for increased size. You need to have X-number of square feet to allow breathing of X-number of Cubic Feet Per Minute of air volume.

And don't forget one of those ceiling-mounted devices with a little fan and a lot of filter area to get rid of air-born dust.

Hope these ideas help. Norm in ILLLINOIS
 
#48 ·
when will you start on the shop, and some advice , which you might not need, if you do go with a wooden floor i hope you will use treated lumber, termites are prevalent as you know but, they do not like treated wood, but im sure you know that, looking forward to seeing the progress…grizz
 
#49 ·
Yes, a wooden floor is a good idea. I meant to put that in my long post of yesterday. Give you one more option for dust collection. BETTER option for table saw. And a lot easier to run electrical under a wooden floor than through concrete.

Incidentally, don't rush this job. Go slow and do it "right" the first time. And the "right" way on a concrete floor is to rent one of those "floor sanders" with the diamond cutters to get that floor as level and smooth as possible. I waited awhile for the concrete to cure, then coated it with an epoxy finish. VERY desirable. Makes sweeping a lot easier, and the tan color makes sawdust less conspicuous.
 
#50 ·
Clearing Site and Preparing Foundation for Pouring

Unfortunately I lost some pictures of clearing the underbrush and the trees that needed to come down. This was the most convenient site that I could find for the shop. Unfortunately it required a substantial foundation because of the slope which added to the cost somewhat, but in the long run I think that it will pay off because it is easily accessible to the basement and main floor of the house. It is also near the barn where I will be able to store some, lumber, jigs, and hardware.



The footing for the foundation walls had to be stepped because of the slope. The shop construction is being done under a permit and is being inspected at every key step.



The foundation wall will be 6 ft tall on the lower back left corner (diagonally toward the far corner as seen in the picture above)



The picture above shows the view from beyond the lower part of the footings looking back up toward the back part of the house where the garage is.



In the picture above you can see a view from the back yard of the forms that have been erected for pouring the walls.



This is another view of the forms from the front of the shop.



And a view as seen from a view that parallels the side of the barn. There is a 6 ft. wide door in this side of the barn which will be close to the front roll up door in the shop.



This is another view of the back left corner of the foundation wall.



The picture above shows the highest corner of the walls from the back side.



And above is another view looking up toward the barn from the lower part of the site.

Part 3 of this blog will be about the pouring of the walls. Thanks for reading my blog.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#51 ·
First thought was, a split level shop, second thought was, no, to late to change plans, he has been around
long enough to know what he wants. I will just set back and enjoy letting him do all the work on this one.
Thanks for sharing, and you have a great start there, I will keep my Monday morning quarterback under
control.
 
#82 ·
Pouring Foundation Walls, Backfilling Walls, Red Barn

The pouring of the walls went well. There was ample steel rebar in the footings and the walls were poured with rebar in them . These will be bent over into the floor so the concrete in the floor will be tied into the concrete in the walls. It is difficult to see the rebar sticking out of the walls but it can be seen if you look carefully. The concrete in the footings was given ample time to cure before the pouring of the walls. The concrete in the walls was given ample time to cure before the forms were removed.



The picture above shows a view of the walls after the forms have been removed.



The picture above and the two pictures below show three more views of the poured walls.





The front opening has been left on purpose in order to back fill the walls without damaging the walls. After the backfill has been put in this will be formed up and poured as well. Otherwise the footing would be damaged.



The backfill dirt was put down in layers and carefully packed down with a dirt tamper. Then a layer of gravel was placed on the top and leveled with the walls.



The picture above shows a vew of the walls after the backfull dirt and gravel has been placed inside the interior of the foundation walls and leveled with the top of the walls.



The picture above and the two below are three more views of the walls after all has been prepared for the pouring of the floor. The pipe for electrical power has been placed deep enough below the gravel to protect it against damage during the pouring of the floor.





It is very difficult to see the rebar and the pipe in these pictures. Additional rebar will be placed in the floor and tied into the rebar that in the walls.



The picture above is a view of the inside of the red barn as seen looking toward the back wall. I will be able to have a lot of room for storage inside this barn. The size is about 15' X 24'.



The picture above is a view of the front of the barn.



The picture above is another view of the inside of the barn.



The last picture above is a view of the front of the shop as seen through the 6ft door on the side of the barn. I will have easy access between the barn and the shop as well as to the house. The next main step will be the pouring of the floor. Thanks for reading my blog.
 
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