New Shop Help

[Ralph Butts]

Well I have been meaning to write this post for some time now but life has just gotten in the way. The wife and I purchased a new home just before XMAS last year and what do know it had a 36 x 48 shop building on the property. The shop is an insulated pole building with metal siding and roofing, a concrete slab, open loft area, 12' rollup doors at either end of the building and a 200A service. As a late blooming hobby woodworker this is a real luxury for me. All of the tools are sitting just where they landed on the day my oldest son, LOML and I moved them in from the old house. My plan is to layout the tools to match some resemblance of workflow and then create an electric plan to facilitate. I will then start installing the electrical circuits for the shop. I also want to start installing my NYWS clone miter saw station, cabinets and cyclone. Which leads me to my first question. The buildings walls are open and I had intended to leave them that way unless I am missing something important by doing so.The poles are braces by horizontal 2 x 6's between the posts. I would like to mount my Clearvue CV1800 on the wall using the standard gusseted 2 x 4 L brackets on the walls. I don't think the weight of the motor assembly will be supported by the horizontal 2 by's so I was thinking of attaching vertical 2 x 4's and attaching the cyclone brackets to those. How have others with this type of building accomplished the same thing?

It's not much of a shop yet as much as an expensive tool storage but here is my new shop:

shop1.JPG shop2 copy.jpg shop3 copy.jpg shop4 copy.jpg

[Robert Payne]

Here's what I'd suggest for mounting your ClearVue...puts the load on the slab and doesn't make that steel siding act like a monsterous speaker diaphram! It's how mine is mounted.

My ClearVue2 Update-8.jpg

[Jim Andrew]

I had a similar building on my property that I made into a shop, not the tall walls or loft, and no insulation, but it had 2x6 wall nailers. What I did was put 1" blue styrofoam between the nailers, and attached a treated 2x4 flat to the floor, then stood 2x4's up and down on 16" centers, wired it and insulated it. It makes the building much stronger, and allowed me to bury the wiring in the wall. I put the breaker box up high, and am able to put wires down in it from the attic to add dedicated circuits for new machines,
by removing a small piece of wallboard. That's a nice sized shop. Also added a gas furnace and a high efficiency AC unit.

[Mike Wilkins]

I hate you. In a good way. For 99% of us on this forum, we would be in sawdust heaven with this much elbow room. As for layout tips, here I go:
1. The sliding table saw could go against one wall down stream from the lumber rack. If you rough size your lumber before going to the tablesaw, you could line up
the chop saw near the lumber rack.
2. I would place the jointer/planer near the middle of the shop to gain lots of infeed and outfeed space.
3. Items not used regularly, such as the shaper, sander, drill press could go up against one of the short walls.
4. Try to place enough outlets around the shop to allow the layout to change in the future. Believe me it will change as your habits/skills change.
5. There are a number of books available that could give you a lots of ideas on shop layout. Visit your local bookstore or library.
Good luck and watch those fingers.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Nice space! i don't know how a Clear View cyclone is built, but I bet there is a way to suspend it from one of the poles too if you really want to hang it off the wall. I have an Oneida and it is on a stand like Rob showed. No problems with that.

[Ralph Butts]

Guys thank you for the responses. Rob I was considering something along those lines just before I posted. I think it would be the simplest solution overall. Jim I like the idea of being able to add more insulation to the shop by extending vertical studs but it seems like a lot of work and I would have to demo the existing wiring or at minimum extend the outlets to the new resultant depth. The previous owner had a wood stove in the shop, the cut off exhaust is visible in the second pic. In my area I don't have to worry about cooling too much but it is pretty cold during the winter months so a heat source will be necessary. I was considering a pellet stove as it will much quicker to startup than a wood stove. There is not gas available in the area its pretty rural. Propane and electric are too expensive. I think increasing the insulation in conjunction with a heat source is the way to go. In my mental planning I was going to run wiring in conduit to central locations and then using strain relieved SO cord drops to equipment. This would allow for easy changes if I decided to move machines.

Mike before you hate me too much remember that it came with a nice mortgage as well. I am not a professional by any stretch of the imagination. This is a hobby that allows me to relieve stress from my paying job so that I don't go postal and wind up on the nightly news. The opportunity to get this place was a dream come true and real luxury. I remember that everyday at 4:45 AM when I wake up to go to work. I will try to upload a sketch of the layout I came up with later for solicited input. Thanks again for the responses.

[Ralph Butts]

ok so I had a little time today to utilize the Grizzly shop builder app and came up with a first draft.

shop layout.jpg

In the upper left hand corner I intend to build a wood rack variant from TWW. I also intend to build an assembly table in the middle of the shop near the workbench. the bottom wall is actually a miter and radial arm saw station. The two saws will reside in the middle next to each other.

[Von Bickley]

I have a pole building similiar to yours..... My work area is smaller (20' X 30'). I put 1/2" plywood around my work area. You could also run OSB, but I like plywood better. What ever you use, you should use one of these, for no other reason, to protect your insulation.

[Joseph Tarantino]

[QUOTE=Ralph Butts;2068530]......This is a hobby that allows me to relieve stress from my paying job so that I don't go postal and wind up on the nightly news......../QUOTE]

please tell us this is what you actually meant to say.

BTW, doesn't grizzly have a workshop planning tool that would help with your design? and. FTR, i think a 36X48 building, like the one that came with your new home, would be a luxury for most of us. enjoy it.

[David Nelson1]

I don't care how much your mortgage is, Ralph you SUCK. Great shop and some very nice tools as well. Getting the cyclone installed away from the walls is a good idea, better if you can separate it and an air compressor in a mechanically room. I would imagine that the breaker panel could be there as well. Have you considered exhausting the outside?

[Ralph Butts]

Joseph thank you for pointing out my omission. I did intend to put the word "don't" in my post and I have since corrected it. I did use the the Grizz shop planning tool, I had to use some similar tool models since not all of my tools are Grizz. Nice little application.

David thanks, I only wish I did not have to care about that mortgage. Does that mean that I can count on your charitable contributions? We are very happy with the new home and the shop is just frosting on the cake. I definitely plan on enclosing the CV, compressor in a constructed closet. After visiting Clearvue Cyclones I immediately saw the benefit of separating these two tools from the work area. I had not given a lot of thought to venting outside but only because I think my primary thoughts have been centered on insulating and maintaining a comfortable temperature in the building. It is cold! There is no heat source currently installed. I can get my hands on a new pellet stove pretty cheap in my area so I am think this will be my source of heat for next season. The summers (LOL) in the pacific northwest are very mild so I will not be worrying about a cooling source. Increasing the insulation and electrical will be my focus this spring prior to getting the tools setup. I will be sure to follow up with my progress and more pics as I go.

[David Nelson1]

No heat or A/C, for a space that large that could add up. My shop is 16 X 32 X 12 very well insulated. If I run the A/C when needed Let the place heat or cold soak, then shut it down for a day or two as long as I'm not running in and out a lot it pretty much stays the same.

Venting to the outside will change all that due to the make up air needed. BTW I'm running a window heat pump 12,000 BTU its real fast but it does work.

[Ralph Butts]

Hi David thanks for the thoughts. I am putting in a 4 ton heat pump in the house in April taking advantage of a great homeowners program from our local utility. Everyone I have talked to out here said that a heat pump in that building would not be a good choice. The pellet stove will cost me about $1000 with a thermostat and will heat about 2000 sq ft of space. I will have to install a couple of ceiling fans to circulate the hot air around as well. In my mind this was the best choice for me as it is fairly economical, much quicker than a wood stove and a lot cheaper than a heat pump which may not keep up with the heat demand and will cost a lot more. I think adding additional insulation will be key to the success of my plan. Going this route will negate the idea of venting the DC outside. We don't get too many days below freezing in my area and rarely are we above 80F during the summer months. Are issue out here is water and lots of it.

[Jim Andrew]

If you would like to discuss heat, it is closeout time for buying a new stove or furnace. I decided I needed to burn wood to heat the woodshop, so I bought a new furnace at Menards last year during the closeout sale, which is on right now by the way. Haven't even fired up the gas furnace this year. But I was concerned about having a wood fire in the shop, so built a 6x6 steel building 4' from the shop and put the wood furnace in it. Cut holes in the walls, both the shop and the small building and ran 8 x 14" duct between. Used J mold around both ducts, and now I can heat the shop without having a fire in there. The secret is to hook the return to the fan on the furnace, and putting a vent in the building for combustion air. I insulated the small building with fiberglas batts, and the entire small building is built of steel. No wood to get on fire. I used insulated flue pipe so soot will not build up inside it, but have already had to clean it once this winter. I could have bought an outside unit, but I am a tightwad, and prefer to do all I can for myself. That attitude has worked out pretty well for me in the past. The cool thing now is we have forums where guys will help us out of a tight spot if something doesn't work out.

[Robert Payne]

Given the size and volume of your building, you might want to give some thought to a ceiling forced air heater like these offered by Modine (available in propane, natural gas or fuel oil models under $1,000 each). They will bring the temperature up pretty quickly if needed and can be thermostatically controlled. I'm no expert,but there are lots of large open space buildings heated with these guys.