Prelude
I had a half of a two car garage shop. It wasn’t insulated and I would heat it with a kerosene heater during the winter. An impending layoff forced me to find a job. After some discussion, my wife and I agreed that getting out of the DC suburbs would make our life much better, even if it meant a pay cut. I eventually found a decent job in Southern MD and we sold the house. We contracted a new house to be built and most of our stuff (including my shop) went into storage for 6 months.
I spec’ed the house with 9’ basement ceiling height so part of it could be used as a shop. I also had a 7’ wide stairway built with 6’ French doors into the basement. We moved into the house in early October ’03. By Christmas time, I had done all the stuff necessary to keep the family happy (hanging curtains, painting etc.). So, it was time to start on the shop. I knew I would want to use some nail guns, so I picked up a 60 gal air compressor and installed it into the garage. No worries, it would be reinstalled later.
My priorities were to have a decent sized shop, but still leave enough room to have some storage, a rec room, and maybe a small office in the basement. I wanted to be sure that there would be no dust penetration from the shop into the rest of the basement. That meant my construction had to ensure a good seal, and I needed a good dust collection system. After some discussion with Oneida, I ordered a 2HP commercial cyclone.
I decided to use an ‘L’ shaped portion of the basement that included the French doors and another window. There is a 32’ wall and a 24’ wall, but a cutout about 10’x17’. Total finished space would be around 580 sqft. In the corner near the doors is the sump. I decided to make a closet there that would contain the sump area plus my cyclone. My theory being that noise in the shop would be reduced. I also wanted to put in some sort of noise barrier so my work wouldn’t bother those upstairs. While the house was being built, I researched soundproofing and how to apply it to my application.
These two pictures show the space before construction. You can see the insulated concrete walls with a 1’ knee wall above to make up the 9’ basement. I do have a beam across the ‘L’ area and large ductwork along the 32’ wall. I mounted some 2x6’s to the cement wall and attached the cyclone brackets. That allowed me to put the insulation back between the cyclone and the wall. I figured mounting the cyclone to the cement would keep it from vibrating the wall. Wound up working well.
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