Hi all. I tell ya, almost was going to hold off posting this even more than I have after seeing the pics of Tincup’s shop. Beautiful, beautiful shop you’ve got there Tincup! But being a newbie hobbyist to the world of ww, I thought it might do other newbies good to see that yes, you can build a shop for less than, well, more than I want to think about right now.
I show you first the storage shed that the shop replaced just for contrast. The new shop is 12×16. I did the painting, insulation, drywall, and electrical. It’s got 12 outlets around the walls on 3 different lines, plus another line of 4 outlets going down the middle of the shop on the ceiling joists. I estimate that what you see in the last picture (including the bandsaw, jointer/planer, and tablesaw) represents a total cost of about $5,000. As you can see, all three of these tools are NOT brand new cutting edge, state of the art tools. They’re all oldies but goodies I hunted down after extensive classified ad monitoring. The table saw’s a vintage cast-iron Craftsman that the guy stored new and never used after buying a new Powermatic. The combo jointer/planer is a vintage Hitachi P12RA that guys keep wanting to buy off of me. The bandsaw is a generic 14 incher that was rehabbed by the guy before me.
I’ve got other stuff….mainly some nice old vintage planes, saws, and chisels. About the only thing new that’ll be in the shop is a couple of Bosch routers, a Bosch router table, and a benchtop drill press. Dust control are those two fans you see mounted up at each end (I can swivel and point them anywhere….like out those two 3 foot doors), a high quality respirator mask, and a shop vac.
There’s still organizing and set-up to do: building a tool wall cabinet is first on the list. I’ve got the work bench to move in and lumber storage racks to set up. But my woodworking has a real home now, I’m out of the garage (finally), and you can’t get much better than that.
Take care, all. If ya got questions feel free to ask.
charlie — “Count your blessings….it could always be worse!”
Edited 11/13/2007 4:45 pm by charlie4444
Replies
That's fantastic Charlie. I love small shops like yours, especially when I see great workmanship coming from modest shops like this. Show us some of your work when you get to it!
Jeff
Lookin' good.. Have fun in your shop...
Charlie, thanks for putting up these photos. I've always wondered about converting a storage shed into a shop like that, and you've shown it can be done.
Right now I'm squeezed between the furnace and the oil tank. I've been thinking about converting a portion of the basement to a shop, but am getting a lot of pressure to turn the whole basement into a teen center, so the teens can hang around the house instead of the local Dunkin Donuts. They might not be too keen on having the old man nearby in his shop.
Did you have to get permits and such from the town for this? What were the regs? Also, do you have any heating or cooling set up? I'm in New England, where the winters are cold and the summers are humid.
Norman
Norman - yep, had to do it the official permit way. I live in a small rural town so it was more laid back but if nothing else the electrical had to be looked at. From what I know the permit process varies greatly in the U.S., even within the same state. I've heard of places that don't require much of anything at all and others that regulate you to death. I wired it via a 60 amp breaker off my main panel to a subpanel in the shop.
I've got heat using an electric in-wall heater that's about 10,000 BTU's wired for 220...you can see it in picture #525. I've also got a portable air conditioner (looks kind of like R2D2, wheels and all) for the summer that will vent outside through a window....that white hose mounted to plywood in the last picture is the vent connection for it. I still need to cut the plywood to the right size so I can slide it in a window when I need it. The A/C is about the same number of BTU's as the heater.
We get down to just below freezing a few days every winter and up to around 105 for about a week every summer. We're the opposite of you: winters are humid (extremely foggy), summers are dry.
I did a lot of research as I was putting this thing together so if you have any other questions at all just let me know.
charlie -- "Count your blessings....it could always be worse!"
Edited 11/9/2007 10:32 am by charlie4444
Charlie, thanks for the info. I sure will pick your brain more if I do go this route.Best,
Norman
Thanks for the compliment Charlie, let me return the favor. I think you did a terrific job converting the shed in to a shop. Nothing to be ashamed of there! You know, when I built my shop, I wasn't trying to out-do anyone, lord knows, mine would fit inside some of the shops I have seen here and other places. I built what I thought would serve the purpose, get me out of the garage, get me into something heated and cooled, perhaps add some value to the property, and not be an eye sore to the surrounding area. It looks like you accomplished the same thing. I have finally gotten to a point in my life where I could build this shop and not have to worry about kids tuition etc. I can build pretty much anything I want in there, for the type of work I do, but old habits die hard. I still move the tool to the dust collector, or the other way araound. I considered a central system but felt it wasn't necessary as I do more and more by hand tools. So enjoy what you have my friend, I am sure you will appreciate it even more now the weather is turning. Good luck and share some photos of what you crank out of that building ! Rick
Rick - thanks for the kind words!
LOL.....besides the sizes of shops another difference, and very much related, is I've still got college age kids that I'm not quite free of yet.
Take care,
charlie -- "Count your blessings....it could always be worse!"
I bet that shop won't stay that clean for long! Mine didn't.
You have a fine shop! I remember my first one. It was the living room of my 1 bedroom apartment with a 10" lowes table top saw (what a piece of junk), but it made stuff. I think you will do fine with that. I have a question for you, what is the fan thing hanging from the ceiling? Is that heat or just a fan. Looked very interesting.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Hello there bones. That's a fan. An Air King 3-speed Pivoting Utility Blower with Grounded Outlets, to be exact. I've got 2 of them in the shop, one on each end. I attached each upside down to a wheel and then mounted the wheel to the rafter. The wheel can turn 360 and the fan pivots so I can point them anywhere in the shop from both ends. As John White on this forum once said, it's the old fashioned method of dust control: Open up the windows and doors and turn on the fan. I figure mostly I'll be aiming them both towards the open doors and putting them on high to clear out the shop as needed. I can also aim each of them out the gable vents if I want.
Thanks for the encouragement. It's coming together....it's definitely going to be an exercise in space efficiency. charlie -- "Count your blessings....it could always be worse!"
I remember my first one.And I remember my last one.. Same size shop just a bit more less space to work in! The same place! AND I had a Skeeter Screen over the doors also!I once had a skeeter that crashed onto my driveway and the feds came to investigated he crash.. I told them I was lucky.. I had my leafblower on cleaning up the shop and it must have crashed because of wind shear!
Edited 11/11/2007 7:45 am by WillGeorge
Thanks for posting.
Just about to build my first shop, Been using a back of the garage (8x6 feet). My new shop is going to be a huge 20x12 can't wait, more storage than I have ever dreamed of, and at last, room to assemble things in doors !!
Thanks again
Yettiman - Cool! Yours is going to be about the same size as mine then...but you'll have an additional 50 sq ft to play with. If you have any questions about anything as you build it feel free to ask. If I don't know the answer I still might know where you need to go to get it. The biggest learning curve I had was doing the electrical....I ended up buying the NEC book and a companion book that cross referenced it for each room and area of a house. Also asked a lot of questions here and in Breaktime. I saved at least a couple thousand bucks doing the electrical myself and pulling my own permits.charlie -- "Count your blessings....it could always be worse!"
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