Blank Slate Workshop. I'd appreciate your opinions

[Brad Swanson]

My first post here. I’ve been reading/researching the forums furiously for the past several weeks, and think that the SMC discussion groupis an incredible resource. As a novice woodworker, I’ve had a few classes, built a few tables, and done plenty of handiman type jobs in the last several years. I have a portable table saw, SCMS, plenty of hand tools and just recently invested in a track saw in anticipation of dimensioning sheet goods for upcoming projects.
I’ve recently moved into a new house that we had built. It is a ranch floorplan, with only part of the basement finished as living space. I left part of it unfinished in hopes that I could outfit it as a woodworking shop. Pictures of the space are below. It measures roughly 14’ wide by 25’ long on one side and 38’ long on the other sidewith 9 foot ceilings, and is connected to additional unfinished space housing some exercise equipment. The french doors seen in the photo open to the back yard. The walls are unfinished, but the outer walls are insulated (above ground with blown in insulation and below grade with fiberglass batting. The inner walls are unfinished and are adjacent to a family/TV room living space. Immediately above the proposed workshop space is my son’s bedroom and my wife’s office.
I’d appreciate your opinions on the following items.


A) A)How I should finish this space prior to setting-up shop? I considered trying to use finishes that would help to soundproof the area, but that would appear to be cost prohibitive, and possibly very difficult since this area is contiguous with the rest of the unfinished space in the basement. Would you consider leaving the walls unfinshed as they are and setting up shop right away.

B) Dust collection. All of the research I’ve done here has be concerned about shop-dust in the home and its health risks. I have a 220V outlet wired in the spot I anticipate I will install a cyclone dust collection unit, but, again I’m open to suggestions. How much noise from a cyclone is going to filter through the joists to the living space upstairs?

I have so many other questions, but I figure I’d start here.



Again, discovering the forums @ SMC has been a huge plus , and thanks for your suggestions in advance.

shop2.jpgshop1.jpg
Brad

[Charlie Jones]

This looks like a great shop space. The first thing I would do is finish the walls with plywood or OSB. My shop had unfinished walls for years and it collected all kinds of mess in the studs. I recenty embarked on a remodel. The other thing is find a way to install your cyclone in a outside closet. You want regret the sound reduction and it will help keep dust from the house as well.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I'd put in quite a few more outlets, both 110 & 220, then insulate with fiberglass the adjoining family room wall and overhead to provide a sound barrier. Then I'd hang sheet rock, finish it and paint it white. I'm in the minority and actually like sheet rock, even in a shop. I think finishing this space out in sheet rock will provide better resale value, especially since your basement already includes living space. I'd definitely plan on the dust collector; compared to you saws, I doubt the noise will be noticed by the family.

[Mike Heidrick]

After the sheet rock is up I would run 6" mains along that entire ceiling with Drops every 6' (or if you know the future tool layout do it to the plan). Also run air lines and drops for them at the same time. Get outlets in the ceilings for lots of lights. Plan for wood storage. Build in a room for aircompressor and cyclone. Consider a small finishing room if you have the space. Congrats on the new house and welcome to the creek!

[Rich Engelhardt]

I'd put in quite a few more outlets, both 110 & 220,

+1 to that & I'll add an amen to boot!
I just had a 30 amp sub panel installed in the garage.
Better to run power while it's all open.

[Jeremy Greiner]

A.) Epoxy the floor, this is one thing I regret not doing and now I have a lot of stuff that I'd have to move out of the area and store for several days to do so.

B.) http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm The cyclone filter system he shows is supposed to capture all the dust, even the super fine stuff. You can buy parts or the entire package from his son as well. He also has plans for a muffler that I think cuts down on the noise if that is a concern.

Another thing you can do is research sound reduction panels you can install overhead I don't know much about it but many home theature enthusiast sites show how to virtually sound proof a room. For them it's to keep noise out, in yours it's to prevent noise from getting out.

Looks like it will be a very nice workspace.
-jeremy

[Neil Brooks]

Put your wall mounted outlets at at least 52" off the floor.

Gives you room to set a 4x8 sheet, 'sideways,' anywhere along any wall in your shop.

One of those little ideas that you'll pat yourself on the back for implementing

I'm not a father, but/so ... a new shop is about as close as I get to *that* feeling

Enjoy !

[Michael N Taylor]

The first thing I would do is get as good a layout of the tools and work areas you plan to have and might want to add, this will help in figuring out the best way to run electrical, air etc. If you are not sure what the elecrtrical requirements for the machines you plan to get are run the wire big enough to handle a 30 amp 220 machine, you will never need to repull bigger wire that way and get the sub panel for you area sized large enough to take care of the larger machines. A good electrician can wire the panel so all he has to do is add breakers to handle any machine that is running on 110 and then changed to 220 as long as the wires are large enough. It will cost a little more now to get it done but save a lot of money in the futer trying to upgrade to larger machines.

[Victor Stearns]

Oh the Possiblities!
I second to increase the number of outlets and insulation for sound. I would also suggest that you try laying out the new shop with several different machine location plans. I used scaled drawings of all my machines and this helped a lot. You mention that you will be installing a cyclone DC. As it appears that you already have access to the backyard, why not put the DC outside? You could build a small shed onto the back of the basement and all the noise is now outside! Easier to emtpy the DC as the mess is outside also. I did this and it made a huge improvement in both the noise and added floor space.
Have Fun and Good Luck,
Victor

[Dale Probst]

If you plan on doing much finish work, especially solvent based, I'd set that up away from the son's room and wife's office. I've had it attached to the house and it can be problematic due to out gassing and fumes. A friend was raised over such an area and claims that's why he's so loopy now...
DP

[Brad Swanson]

Thank you everyone for the input. Its spurred me to rethink the placement of some things, particularly the cyclone. I've attached a reasonably accurate floor plan of the area further reference. I wish I could go ahead and add an addition to the back of the house to house the cyclone, but both my wife and our neighborhood association would likely have something to say about that. However, I think placing it in the far corner of the space near the french door to the outside would be a great use of that space and would preserve the other corner of the room for a better use. Having access to the unfinished side of the wall has been useful in helping me get the home theater wiring set-up and any plan that had me finishing the shop side of that wall would have to include an access panel to the outlet of the conduit that houses the HDMI cable to the TV in the finished area, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'm planning on getting some estimates for getting the stud wall built to completely seal-off the space from the rest of the unfinished area, as well as getting more electrical outlets installed and getting the room sheet rocked. I'd love to do this all myself and save some $$, but it won't ever get done if I do. Getting the floor epoxied might be a nice finish as well.

What would be the smallest reasonable size for a closet to house the Clearvue cyclone? Perusing the forums at their website, I think a 40" deep by 4' wide closet should suffice and I think it should fit well into the corner of the space that I have labeled in the diagram. I'd probably try my hand at building that closet out, and go to serious lengths to soundproof it (using resilient channel and/or double layer 5/8"drywall with green glue between and rock wool insulation between the studs. Once the estimates come in on the framing, electrical, and sheet rocking, I'll know where the project stands.

If anyone could pass on any references to long and narrow shop lay-outs , I'd greatly appreciate it. I've been looking, but I haven't found too many online.

With regards to a finishing space, I am fortunate to have a completely separate unfinished area above our garage that is 35' by 16' and we don't have any plans to finish it for the foreseeable future, so I could set-up a completely separate finishing area up there. Only problem will be its separation from the workshop by 2 flights of stairs.

Thanks for the input. I really appreciate it. BradWorkshop.jpg

[Jim Sebring]

When I built my 25 x 30 ft. shop 5 years ago i made sure to put in plenty of power. Based on a recommendation from one of the 'old guys' at Rockler, I used quad boxes for my 110v outlets. I put them on every other stud; 220v outlets are on the intervening studs.

I insulated every wall and the ceiling with as thick batts as I could fit. That fiberglass provides about the cheapest sound and temperature control I could find. I sheetrocked the whole place and painted it with cheap white paint.

I use fluorescents (in three zoned rows) for general lighting, and use swing-arm lights for task lighting like around the lathe.

If you can do it, put the air compressor and dust collector outside the room for noise control. A ceiling-hung air cleaner is also a 'must have' feature.

[Brian Tymchak]

If I ever get where I have a "clean slate" like you do (serious case of shop envy here..) , I would run my power such that I had a single kill switch for all the tools. Maybe a master breaker on a lockable subpanel near the main entrance. Then I could leave the tools plugged in without worry about anyone's (children, spouse, guests) safety in the shop without me being there.

[Brad Swanson]

I forgot to mention that the house was wired with a 200A panel and an additional 100A panel (I'm not fluent in electrician, so I'm not sure what that means exactly) due to the requirements from the geothermal heating we had installed. Unfortunately the electrical panels are on the other side of the basement. I'm certain that there are a number of slots available for more breakers in the smaller panel, but I'll need to check a little more closer tonight to see.

In addition there are 2 big laminated wood structural beams that run perpendicular to the length of the shop which are about 16" wide that basically divide the ceiling into thirds (the orange colored cross members in the photos of the original post). This might make running the dust collector ductwork a little more complicated.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Brad, I measured the noise levels for my cyclone........Regards, Rod.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...se-Measurement