11 October 2007 While no shop is ever finished or perfectly arranged, the workshop has been set-up and running smoothly for months now. It's quite a relief to have, for the first time in my life, heat, air, and efficient dust collection in my workplace. In the beginning, and in theory, I'd wanted to know exactly where every tool was going before the shop was even built. In actuality, I had a good idea beforehand, but there were endless tweaks after the construction was complete. The photos below are a quick tour of how the (for now) final shop looks and works. I also did an article on the workshop for the upcoming Tools and Shops issue put out by Fine Woodworking, which should hit the stands in a few weeks.
All toolboards and wall cabinets are hung on French cleats, making them easy to re-arrange. Hangers are screwed to the wall studs, which are aligned with the stiles in the wainscoting.
One corner of the shop is reserved for hand work. There are two freestanding benches, a sharpening station, and ample storage--for both tools and hardware--on the walls.
Double-thicknesses of plywood make up the L-shaped worksurface at the back corner of the shop. Cabinets above and open space below provide plenty of storage space.
Various rolling carts are stowed beneath the L-shaped worksurface. Rolling carts will be easier to amend or replace as my needs change in the future.
Two rolling carts are designed to work in unison: the hinged top on one opens up to lay flat on the other. The flexibility comes in handy when I need an extra worksurface for assembly or finishing.
The space under one cart is left open for tool storage.
The mating cart is outfitted with a case of quickly made shop drawers.
Under the lumber rack is a mobile bin for storing short cut-offs. The rotating planer cart is stored here in the closed position, where it serves as outfeed support for the chopsaw.
The top on the mobile planer cart rotates to expose the planer when needed. It is sized so that the tablesaw station can function as outfeed support for the planer. 6 April 2007 My latest article--on pegging joints--is due out any day in the new issue of Fine Woodworking. While the editor was in town taking photos for the article, he also shot a few minutes of video footage as I assembled a draw-bored mortise-and-tenon.
I first used this joinery method when I was gluing up a table apron that was longer than my longest clamp. Because the process was much quicker and less finicky than I imagined, I've since started using draw-bored pegs in all kinds of assemblies. The pegs not only lend interest to the design, but installing them is an easy way ensure that your joinery pulls together tightly. Also, because there's no need to use clamps, there's no waiting for glue to dry before you remove them.
12 March 2007 As I mentioned before, I wanted to have the shop up and running for a while before I ran dust collection. Good thing: As I've been working in the shop for the last few months, I've moved almost all my tools--at least a little--from where I'd originally planned for them to go. In the end, my jointer, bandsaw, drill press and scroll saw all wound up along the front wall of the shop--in front of one of my garage doors. Because the other door is still easily operable (for bringing lumber in and taking furniture out), there's no reason to waste the wall space created by the other door. This arrangement also frees up the back corner of the shop for worksurfaces, a router table, a grinder and a mortiser. I may wind up tweaking things a little before the ductwork goes in, but this arrangement seems to work well. Once the ductwork goes in, I'll post pictures of the inside of the shop again.
When it came time to choose a dust collector, I talked to numerous people about what I might need. Generally, there is only one tool running at a time, which means I could have gotten away with a 2hp collector. But because I do occasionally have someone else working in the shop with me, I went with a 3hp collector. The larger collector will allow me to run 2 machines at a time, and still leave me a little room to grow and add tools. Also, I can't imagine that installing ductwork will be the most exciting of tasks, and I don't want to be redoing it every six months.
Consensus among everyone I talked to was that Oneida has the best and most affordable systems designed especially for the woodshop. I went with the 3hp Super Gorilla (http://store.oneida-air.com/item.asp?PID=771&cID=1&scID=89). Another reason I went with Oneida is that they will take a drawing of your shop layout and help you design your ductwork. They'll also give you a shopping list of all the ducting parts you need--you can order it directly from Oneida or shop around and buy it somewhere else. I just sent the drawing off to Oneida and should hear back from them about ductwork in the next few days.
This quick sketch is all the manufacturer needs to help design the ductwork for dust collection.
To see the layout of tools more clearly, click http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=418825183&size=l
Because the dust collector was delivered on an 18-wheeler which couldn't couldn't make it down my dead-end street, I met the truck a few streets over and offloaded it into my pickup. 4 March 2007 After allowing myself a bit of a break from plumbing woes, I finally gave in and called the plumbers back out to finish out the job. I picked up all the fixtures and built a small vanity to house the sink (which I finished, of course, about five minutes before the plumbers arrived). The first day went relatively well--the only snafu was that the pipes for the water heater were set too high in the wall (on the day it was originally run, I went to lunch and came back to find them in the wrong spot and the plumber long gone). When it came time to set the fixtures, I removed a small section of drywall, the plumber rerouted the lines and all was fine.
A few days later a crew arrived to run a cold water line from the house to the shop and route the drain line across the back yard. After an hour or so of work and 30 minutes without hearing any machines running, I checked to see what the problem was. As expected: rock. And a big one, right by the shop (meaning that the drain line couldn't be routed around it). They were slated to finish up the job a few days ago, but rain kept them out of the yard. I'm hoping they'll be back sometime this week with a hoe ram. As far as trenching through rock goes, I'm being charged for the rental of the hoe ram and hourly wages for two workers. By my estimation, there's really no limit to what the plumbing could cost.
I'm sure that a year from now I'll be glad that I have water in the shop--assuming (and it may be a sizable assumption) that I have it by then--but right now I'm wishing I'd never called the first plumber. . . not to mention the seventh or eighth.
  
The vanity was a quick job built just in the nick of time.
Because the water heater is housed in the shop, I bought a low-boy so I can box it in and use the top as a worksurface.
Seeing no reason to waste space on the bathroom, the sink and toilet take up only four feet of wall space.
Once you hit rock, it's time to call it a day.
29 January 2007 The shop has been up and running for a couple of months now--I've built a few pieces of furniture, brought in new tools, and done a photo shoot for an upcoming magazine article. I couldn't be happier with the new space. Though there are still multiple storage units, workstations and dust collection to be built or set up, it was pretty easy to turn the space into a working shop. I'm still tweaking tool layout, but there seem to be multiple options and they all work well.
One of my first tasks was getting the storage units I already had up and onto the walls. Aside from the clamp rack seen below, all of these storage units came straight off the walls of my old shop. None of them are masterful pieces of furniture, but all of them do a serviceable job and offer ample storage space. Since I've always known that my previous shops were temporary workspaces (at times, not temporary enough), I've tried to design storage units that are versatile and easy to move. And all of them are hung on French cleats: Not only are they easy to move from one shop to another, but it will also be easy to move them to a different place in the shop.
Aside from the clamp rack (which is pretty self-explanatory from the photographs) all of these storage units have appeared in print before --If you'd like to know more about them, click the link to my book (at right) or check out the article on my earlier shop: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopPDF.aspx?id=2818
Sized to hold my collection of clamps (and a few I have my eye on) the new clamp rack is little more than a shelf ledge screwed to a 5 ft. x 5 ft. sheet of plywood and mounted on the wall.
Shelf brackets (canted upward about 2 degrees) support a length of plywood notched to accept the bar of each clamp.
To hang the clamp rack--and everything wall-hung in my shop--I use French cleats. Nothing more than a length of plywood cut apart at a 45 degree angle, they're easy to make and offer plenty of strength.
With one length of cleat attached to the unit being hung and the other attached to the wall, the storage unit slides into place and the two cleats interlock.
Over one bench, I arranged storage units that already existed in my old shop and started stowing tools and hardware.
On the back wall, I hung a pair of plywood storage cabinets as well as a series of three high units that feature adjustable dividers. The right side of the wall, by the way, is left open and reserved for a dust collector.
One thing I've learned--no matter how many storage units you build, there's always going to be a pile of lumber in at least one corner of the shop. 5 January 2007 After moving over to the new shop, I was surprised how fast I was able to go to work. The only thing I really had to get out of my way was the lumber, so building a lumber rack was my first major task. I've have various racks in the past, but in the end I decided to build a rack almost identical to the one Andy Beasley described in Fine Woodworking # 181: http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/Workshop/WorkshopPDF.aspx?id=25188
It works like this: each upright is made of two 1x4s that sandwich 2x4 arms and spacer blocks. To compensate for an uneven floor, I built all the upright supports on the floor, and then leveled them one by one as I lag-bolted them to the wall studs. Working from the top down, I slid each arm into place, leveled it (for safety's sake, I canted the arms about 2 degrees toward the wall), and ran bolts though both the arm and the upright. The support arm braces were tacked into place before any weight was put on the racks. Adding the braces last also gave me a way to tweak the angle of the support arm, making sure everything stayed level. Beneath the racks, I still haven't decided whether I'll add cabinets, stow mobile tool workstations or build various carts for offcuts.
The uprights--a 2x4 sandwiched by two 1x4s--were built on the floor before being secured to the wall.
Each upright was attached to the wall stud using 6 in. lag bolts.
Over about 11 ft. of wall I placed 5 uprights running the 10 ft. height from floor to ceiling.
Once the uprights were on the wall, I decided on the positioning of the support arms. Between each arm, spacers were glued into place on the uprights.
Working from the top down, I added the 2x4 support arms. I'd start at the center of each set of arms, then level and attach the ends. The intermediate supports went up last.
The support arms are bolted into place through the 1x4s. Plywood braces abut the uprights and were attached to the support arms after the bolt was tightened down. If the angle of the arm needed tweaking, the braces were adjusted accordingly.
The finished racks handled all the long stock I had on hand--quite a load of weight--without even a creak. 5 December 2006 Over Thanksgiving my father was in town and helped me out with a few things around the shop. Even though there were still stacks of wood in the floor and boxes of supplies out of place, the space and tool arrangement worked smoothly from the start. One of our first tasks was to hang the interior door separating the office from the main shop. The office will probably be the last room I move into, but there's no reason to let it fill with dust in the meantime.
In the future I'd like to replace this door with a shop-built interior door that has a large glass panel--so that I can at least see the workshop when I'm chained to my desk. That said: Now that this veneered, $49 hollow-core door is in place, there's a good chance it'll be there for years. There's no handcrafted charm to this thing, but it does swing.
The pre-hung interior door came with a split casing--
you simply remove the trim from one side of the door, then set the remainder of the assembly in place.
We shimmed the top of the door level and adjusted the sides of the casing until they were plumb.
The trim on the front side of the door slides back into a groove on the casing.
Nails into both the casing and the wall secure it in place. | |
