Shop Shots

[Dan Miller]

This is a thread where anyone can share photos of their shop, and especially the ways you make your shop more effective. Things that might make them more effective are storage strategies, work flows, dust collection, the strategic location of your Moaning Chair or Magic Fridge.

I'll start with a shot I posted on another forum discussing dust collection (in case you don't want to wade further into this post, the canoe is a strip-built Spanish cedar canoe built by the St. Lawrence River Skiff, Canoe & Steam Launch Co., just down the road from me in Clayton, circa 1885-1990) :

The main collection is Jet 1100cfm, formerly a two-bag mobile collector, now the guts are mounted on the wall. The exit filter is from Oneida - I forget the size but is very fine micron level. The Oneida Dust Deputy empties into a 35 gallon metal trash can. The light above that is supposed to notify when the bin is full, but it's never worked properly

. The duct work is simply 5" and 4" metal duct from the local hvac shop. Permanent connections are made to the router table, table saw, and band saw. A fourth drop ends in 4" flex hose that gets switched between jointer, planer, combo sander and whatever else. The 2 1/2" drop over the table saw is mounted to Shark Guard (stowed for non-through cuts in this photo).

Overhead, between the TS and BS is a box 3-stage dust filter - it's connected to a timer switch, so I can turn it on and leave, without having to remember to turn it back off.

Barely visible just behind the TS is my brand spanking new Festool dust extractor with Oneida Systainer Dust Deputy onboard. And further beyond that is a Rigid Shop-vac with Dust Deputy mounted alongside.

I'd like to replace the heart of the DCS with an Oneida Supercell, and almost did a couple weeks ago when the Jet motor crapped out. However, a new start cap was a lot cheaper, and easier to justify when this set up is working pretty well.

 

[dtdcanoes]

WOW, Dan..I would need another lifetime if I had that workshop ! I looked for the " Keuka Rushton " and don't see it. Best New Year to you two.
Dave DeVivo

 

[Andre Cloutier]

tools and machinery aside, this adequately demonstrates the flexible mood prevalent in my work area. never say man cave.

 

[Todd F]

Dan, amazing shop and appreciate you showing me around the other day. Will certainly take you up for advice in the future.

 

[Dan Miller]

Dan, amazing shop and appreciate you showing me around the other day. Will certainly take you up for advice in the future.

Nice to meet you too, Todd. You can attest that my shop is much smaller than it appears in the lead post. I expect you can also attest that picking up any canoe in sub-zero (F) temps, free or not, can be painful. Hope the coffee helped!

 

[Dan Miller]

WOW, Dan..I would need another lifetime if I had that workshop ! I looked for the " Keuka Rushton " and don't see it. Best New Year to you two.
Dave DeVivo

Hi Dave, the Keuka Rushton is just the other side of the wall with the machinery, under the shed. It may very well be the next project in the shop! When that happens is unclear, because Izzy and Alex are planning to move into our Cape house this summer, and as of today, it has most of its (sub) floors, but still no plumbing, heat, or electric.

 

[JClearwater]

Dan Miller opened the door with this thread so here are a few pictures and a description of our new shop.

This pole barn was built in 1994 as a horse barn with four stalls, tack room and wash stall. It is 36’x36’ with a hayloft on the second floor. The ceiling height of the ground floor is ten feet. After my ex-wife left with the horses in 2007 I ripped out the stall partitions and filled the loft with canoes. I worked on canoes as time permitted but only seasonally because there was no heat and the wind and birds flew through at will. The floor was mostly dirt and lighting was poor on a good day. I also had to share the space with my father’s 1953 Ford pickup. In 2015 Jean and I got married. After we finished extensive work on our house including an addition we turned to the barn in 2021. First we excavated for and poured a new concrete floor, installed seven new Anderson windows, a new overhead garage door to replace the drafty sliding doors, installed a tongue & groove pine ceiling, blew in cellulose insulation into the walls and ceiling, installed new electric outlets throughout, new LED lighting and propane heat. I installed another workbench on top of Craigslist kitchen cabinets. I am still sharing the space with the ’53 but only for another month or so. We added a 16’x24’ garage addition to the barn to store the truck. It will be moved in there as soon as the second garage door arrives. We have been waiting four months for it. When completed I will have a1300 sq.ft. first floor shop with a 10’ ceiling plus another 1000 sq.ft. on the second floor to store canoes etc. After the truck is moved I plan to build a long bench down the middle of the space and move the shop tools to more useable locations. Those include a 10” table saw, 14” ban saw, chop saw, planer, router table, drill press and a lathe. After I settle on locations for the tools I will think about dust collection. Jean said I can even have a mini-frig for cold adult beverages but I think I’ll pass on that because power tools and beer don’t mix well. To make things fair we put up a She-shed for Jean. It’s a 10’x12’ greenhouse that will have water and electric next spring. The last picture is of the She-shed. I just have to get her to retire. I retired for the most part in 2020 after 46 years as a NYS Licensed Land Surveyor. The canoe being worked on is a Rushton Indian Girl that is test of will and a testament to my need for therapy.

Best regards to everyone and Happy New Year,
Jim & Jean

 

[Todd F]

I have only met Dan once but some of you may have met him more. I will attest that there may be bigger shops but few are as organized or functional. As most of you know, what appears as chaos is eloquent organization! I have 2 canoes in my living room and one at my brothers in NY. Drawing up plans for a "storage shed" that will function as my workshop soonest!

 

[David Satter]

What's left of an old dairy barn. 24 x 60 . Cinder block walls. Big sliding bay doors. Unisulated, Cold in winter hot in summer. I do have a separate paint room and office though that's always heated. A real treat. Lots of my dads old hand tools that I use a lot. Best addition to the shop this year was a Laguna 14/12 bandsaw, WOW! I should have bought one of these years ago. Hope the photos come out ok. I can build things but I'm not to good with computers or photos. Jim on dust collection, I just had to buy a new one. I bought one of those wall hanging units from Rockler. I just didn't want to run hose and piping all around the shop. With it I tried their blue flexible stretch hose. They have the quick disconnect handles. So far it's great. You can stretch the hose to connect different machines around the shop. Dave

 

[Gary]

Hey Dave, I love it lots of history in the building I'm sure. Do I see water in the last photo behind the backboard? Even better if so?
Here is what my workshop looks like from the outside. 12' x 24'. I have 6 canoes stored in there for now awaiting restoration but I only work on one at time. Seasonal only, April to November. I'm Canadian but the American flag was for my Son-in-law while away on tour in Afghanistan.

 

[David Satter]

Love those doors on your shop Gary! Yes , A couple of photos from out the back door of the shop. 12 acre pond. Spring fed and clean. Thank your son in law for his service 10 inches of ice out there today. I used to play hockey with my kids and their friends when they were little there. Now their all bigger than me and now I'm the one who gets beat up when playing.

 

[Gary]

Ha, time marches on. Great spot to float a canoe for a test paddle! Thanks, the doors open individually top and bottom and I can lift them off if needed. I do most of my work in there with the top one open. I'll pass along the thank you, they make major sacrifices on our behalf for sure!

 

[martin ferwerda]

Fairly small for me, second floor of a 24 x 24 garage, tools have to be reasonable weight to get them up the stairs, but it meets my needs.

 

[Dan Miller]

Fairly small for me, second floor of a 24 x 24 garage, tools have to be reasonable weight to get them up the stairs, but it meets my needs.

Hmmm. I don't see a certain Thompson Hiawatha form in there.

 

[martin ferwerda]

That would be in the ground level part of the garage, currently shared with a couple of tons of bags of pellets for the pellet stove and old Ford Ranger, but this from last summer

 

[David Satter]

This blue stretch hose is working great. From my little wall mounted unit I can reach my table saw, planer and big Grizzly sander. Just plug in the hose to either. I do have an old Delta dust collector on the other tools like lathe and bandsaw. But the little shop Fox and hose is great.

 

[Todd F]

Dan, cant recall if you have a separate circuit panel in your shop. Working on the design of a 14' x 24' two story building out back for my shop. Looking on folks thoughts for power supply to their shops. About all I know about electricity is that it hurts to stick a fork in an outlet. Any thoughts and recommendation are appreciated.

 

[pklonowski]

Your local building code will give you the maximum spacing between outlets. You'll want more than that, so plan to reduce that space; I went with 4 feet between outlets, and it was enough... mostly. Also, plan on more lights than they recommend. There's also a maximum number of outlets per circuit.

I used GFI breakers in the service panel. This was over & above NEC requirements, but that's okay.

Plan to have at least two circuits from your service panel for lights, so if one breaker flips, you still have light. Same with outlets. With a 2-story shop, you'll probably want to do that for both floors.

Plan to use 20amp circuit breakers and wiring appropriate for 20amp circuits. Some woodshop machines can draw 15amps on power up or under load, although the modern "soft start" machines are better than the old ones.

Each 220v outlet needs to be on its own circuit, if you have any.

If you're considering not having the circuits inspected, check your homeowner's insurance, as there may be a clause that says if you have a fire, and there is uninspected wiring, you're not covered for fires. It doesn't matter if the uninspected wiring actually caused the fire... long ago, a guy I worked with found out the hard way.

That's my $0.02 worth...

 

[Dan Miller]

Hi Todd,

The shop is on a 60 amp sub panel. The dust collector runs on an independent 220v circuit. The east wall (power tools) has two boxes in each bent (space between posts). There is a duplex 110v and single 220v outlet in each box. The duplex outlets are split so that each half is on a separate circuit. (Thus, you can plug the shop vac in an upper outlet and a sander in the lower, and they will be on separate circuits.

The west and south walls (primarily hand tools) have the split circuit 110v outlets. The lights are on a separate circuit, and the outside outlets are on either a GFCI breaker or are a GFCI receptacle. The overhead dust filter is on one of the east wall circuits, hard wired through a timer switch, so I can run it and leave, and it will shut itself off.

The west wall receptacles are positioned more than 4' off the floor - this allows you to lean sheet goods below them and still access them. The power tool outlets I put low, but finding it harder to lean over as I get old, I'm adding a second 110 outlet 4' above the originals.

Everything is on 20amp breakers wired with 12ga wire.

If you are not familiar with wiring, get a copy of Wiring a House: Taunton's for Pros by Pros by Rex Cauldwell.

Finally, it pays to loop in your building/electrical inspector at the start. Do neat work, and wire the outlets with pigtails.

 

[Todd F]

Will certainly pull in an pro electrician and inspector for the electrical! Good advice by both you and Paul. While I am willing to cut across the grain on many things electrocuting myself or family and burning down the house are not something I want to happen! For my orientation, are your front doors the north wall? I think it pointed to our northern friends. Do you have any ventilation for fumes? Down here off the Chesapeake it gets slightly humid so I may not have doors / windows open as much as you all up north.

Thanks for the advice and start points, very helpful as I sketch things out.