Workshop Construction Progress

Looking good. Less than a week left is it on schedule?

-- I've been blessed with a father who liked to tinker in wood, and a wife who lets me tinker in wood. Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Looks awesome! Do you have a floorplan for tool location? The group might be able to provide some input into workflow, dust collection and wiring if we had that.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

I am extremely envious!

-- Owen Johnson - aka IowaWoodcrafter

Tom.
Yes, I do have a floorplan….....but, due to a thunderstorm, I lost my harddrive and my printer. I didn’t loose any memory on the hard drive, it just wouldn’t boot up. The computer is fixed now, but the printer is gone forever. It may not have been the thunderstorm, because I do have an APC protector, plus I had an electrician install a surge protector in my main panel for the whole house. Anyway, the only copy of the floor plan is at Grizzly.com and that site won’t let me save it to my computer…..all I can do is print it and then scan it into my computer…..but since I can’t print…......

I’ll get something online because I really need those suggestions and comments before we get the dust piping laid, after that, I’m more limited on moving things around.

-- Forget the health food, I need all the preservatives I can get !

Calgirl – If you can see the plan on you computer screen the just hold down the control key and press the Print Screen Button. Then open the paint program and paste it there.

Very cool!

You might want to think about 2 or three rows of lights in the ceiling, with a switch for each row.

That would allow you to turn on lights as needed, and not running the electric bill. I have 3 rows in my shop
and I find that I do turn them on and off as needed.

I also ran my power in the floor. While you’re at it it wouldn’t hurt to run a 110V along with the 220V for the Unisaw. It’s nice to have additional power there.

I put my 4” ducts under the slab so that they wouldn’t be in the way.

I like the skylights. I have mixed emotions about not adding them to mine. I just put 3 big windows in south
facing wall. That way in the summer when the sun is high in the sky I don’t get the heat from the sun.
Then in the winter I get the sunlight through the windows when the sun is lower in the sky.

Great looking job.

Gary

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX

Gary,
Thanks for the lighting ideas. Seems logical to have a switch for each row. I’ll incorporate that into the plan.

Your idea about adding another 110v outlet next to the 220v Uniisaw outlet is an idea I need to consider. May be that someday, I may want to put the router in the saw table. Or some new thingy just might intrigue me and I won’t be able to have it without hanging an electrical cord from the ceiling! We’ve got to keep up with all the new thingies you know! As it stands now, the general contractor wants me to tell the electrician exactly what I need in addition to the plan I submitted, so I can add ideas you’all have. I’m concerned that I will not have enough electrical feed in my main panel for the house, garage, and workshop! I’m trying not to borrow trouble so I don’t worry needlessly. But I have a big electrical need in that shop and I hope the electrician can provide it.

My window light situation is bad for the shop. The east and south sides are lined with trees and the west side is 8’ from the garage. The only window light I will get is from the north and the skylights which is why I have to have a great flourescent system.

-- Forget the health food, I need all the preservatives I can get !

Calgirl,

If you want to see what you will be looking at as far as the construction goes, check out my pictures from
before clearing the ground to moving in the equipment.

http://www.arealnice.com/shop/

As far as having enough power goes it’s really how much you use at once. You could have 500 outlets and as long you used only a few at a time it won’t matter. Just don’t start everything at once.

Before I forget, I used 10 foot high walls instead of 8. That extra head room really comes in handy. Then a trussed roof which allowed 360 sq ft of storage in the attic.

Gary

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX

Gary,
And you built your shop yourself? Looks really fine! I was looking at some of your projects and noticed that you like Queen Ann and Chippendale too. I just love it.

Where is your dust collector? Have you had any problems with your 4” pipe getting clogged? Do you have any suggestions for insulating the collector/compressor room to cut down on noise?

As soon as my shop is built, I’ll be in the market for a 16 or 18” Bandsaw. There is so much wood around Jacksonville just waiting to be resawn. Every time a storm comes thru or the wind blows, there are trees and branches laying in front of houses waiting for the garbage men. I plan on getting a lot of regular wood that way. The more exotic stuff will have to be paid for.

Thanks for the cheer-me-up about my electricity worries. It won’t be a problem when I’m the only one in there, but when my friend Mike is in there with me, it may be a problem.

-- Forget the health food, I need all the preservatives I can get !

No, I didn’t build it myself. I did the wiring, insulation, drywall, and built the office.

I haven’t had any problems with the 4” ducting. I figured that if it did get plugged up I have a few options.
1. Running an electricians snake to clear it. I would at the very least be able to poke through any wood plugged in there. Then I would push it past the plugged up area to where is comes above the floor again.
Then I could tie something big to it and pull it back through taking the plugged section with it.
2. Compressed air
3. Something else that I haven’t thought of yet.

Realisitcally you won’t get anything stuck in the long straight sections, but at the elbows, and on mine at least, that is where it exits the concrete, so you should be able to get your hand in there to clear anything.
4” is a lot cheaper than 6” also.

My dust collector and compressor are in my shop right now, so I just use ear muffs. As soon as it’s cool enough I will be building a 3.5×8 foot shed against the wall on the outside of the shop. Then they will both go in there. I had that planned all along, but wanted the shop built first.

If you look here:
http://www.arealnice.com/shop/301%20inside.JPG

You can see my PVC pipe coming out ot the floor. The one in front is for my Table saw, and the one farther back is for my workbench. (Not using it yet but it’s nice to have it there. Probably use it for a downdraft
sanding table.) The ones at the far back left and right are just one long piece going across the floor so that I have access along that wall. What you can’t see along the right side of the wall is where the ones from the middle of the room pop up at. (Well, if you look between the scaffold legs you can see one). I have cut then down to just a couple of inches above the level of the floor since that picture was taken.

You can see it connected to my Unisaw here:
http://www.arealnice.com/shop/316%20inside.JPG
I have since changed the elbow to a WYE fitting to allow another hose to be connected there for my router table.

I plan to put my DC just outside where that last duct on the right pops up at. The only ducts that run above the floor are along the right hand wall just above the floor.

The best thing to do to cut down noise is to put them outside. With the DC inside you will always have that super fine dust sticking to everything. Other than that you can box them in and insulate them. I would at least vent a hole to the outside to give the fine dust and air someplace to go. The DC will suck all the air inside the box. so you will have to provide a place for it to go.

Machines draw most of their power when you turn them on. That’s why you see lights dim when something big starts. Then power use drops a lot. So just don’t start your DC, tablesaw, bandsaw, and mitersaw
all at once.

-- Gary - Never pass up the opportunity to make a mistake look like you planned it that way - Tyler, TX