wichle's Workshop

We made the move from Wisconsin to Michigan 2 years ago. I left behind a pretty well configured and settled basement shop. Shop space here would be about the same. The new basement contained 2 HVAC units, a water heater and a number of support poles spaced about 8’apart down the center of the basement.
The ceiling is filled with duct work as the house was a duplex. We planned to make it a single family home but keep the separate heating and air conditioning for the two floors.
The far corner had a double sink and space for a washer and dryer. There are two 100 amp power drops to the house with separate meters and breaker panels. The basement had one single bare bulb light fixture and two duplex outlets for the laundry when we moved in..
My accommodating wife agreed that we could fit the shop into an area about 22 by 25 feet and make a little extra room in the area around the HVAC units for a compressor and the Delta dust collector. Thus the project began!
I have lined the walls of the shop area with insulation to moderate the winter cold. This is covered with half inch plywood which allows easy addition of shelves and hanging tools. I built a 12 foot long wall between the laundry and the shop to provide additional wall space and separate the shop from the laundry. The new walls were painted a sand color, something I liked in my old shop.
Lighting was a challenge! I put 18 fluorescent light fixtures in every space not taken up with duct work. 2 tube fixtures with shades where they would fit, down to single tube fixtures where nothing else would fit. There is a supplemental strip for incandescent lamps where fluorescent fixtures would not fit.
Power around the shop is provided by 22 double duplex outlets . These are mounted on the perimeter wall and on each of the steel columns. Each is on a single breaker. I also provided a 220V outlet for the table saw. These all terminate in a sub panel provided for shop power.

I have three work tables/benches. One is my dad’s oak table with home made risers on the legs. His heavy vice is on one end. The second is a sojberg wood working bench which I use for some gluing and smoothing. The third is a heavy duty bench made from a solid core door on top, storage underneath. All but my dad’s table are on casters.
I have a Jet Bench sander, a Sand Flea and a Miter saw in line on one side of the shop. I built the stand for the Miter saw 35 years ago as a stand for a tool box. I recently added a box behind the miter saw to catch the dust from this tool. (See Projects) Leaving an opening for access, my large worktable fills the space to the end wall. My router table and Drill Press stand against the end wall. Turning the corner to the left wall, you will find my Jet 14” Band Saw the Sjoberg bench and dads table. Commonly used tools have found a place on the shop wall. These include various jigs, squares, and other hand tools. A couple of old but honorable tool boxes contain some surprising and very handy tools. In the center of it all is my SawStop. The outfeed table is a tabletop from IKea with support legs from the same source. Loving wife encouraged me to not move the Contractor Saw and to buy the SawStop when I started to set up my new shop after I nicked the end off of my left little finger. Great woman!
Dust collection is handled by a 4” PVC home run mounted on a 6” electronic cable tray fastened to the support columns. A compressed air hose runs in the same tray as the DC and compressor are next to each other in the far end of the basement. I have a small steel city dust collector on the router table and a Jet dust filter mounted over my largest work table. At clean up time, 2 wall mounted Shop Vacs pick up what the dust collection system missed.
I have a computer workstation in the shop using a Dell Desktop computer rescued from a dumpster. I also have a pair of older small analog TV sets in the shop both running off the same digital cable terminal adapter.
I have posted pictures of the nearly 500 parts bins used to store basic hardware along with those things my dad told me would come in handy “even if you never used them!”

-- Bill, Michigan "People don't come preassebled, but are glued together by life"