Finally!! New house, new shop and new tools!

[Mike Nguyen]

Nice shop Hoang. I wish they build house with basement like that in Socal.

[Frank Pratt]

Just a heads up; spiral duct is available in a couple of varieties, one that is smooth & another that is ribbed at the seems. The ribbed stuff is substantially stronger, but it also provides much more static pressure loss than the smooth stuff. But I have 26 Ga smooth & it's plenty strong. You don't want the ribbed spiral duct.

Got it. I will look into a similar supplier in my area. What is the material name of the spiral pipes - or it just "spiral pipes"? Is there a specific gauge? I've seen the term "crush" - no idea what that is.
Lastly - could you share your supplier's info (maybe by PM here if needed). I'm in Greenville, SC and get to ATL often enough to make a run if I can't source it locally.

[Trevor Howard]

Congratulations Hoang on the new house and shop. Just went through the same thing myself.

[daniel lane]

Nice shop, Hoang! Congratulations. I'm trying to get my own figured out and we moved in 13 months ago; you've definitely got me beat!


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[David Freed]

Looks like a real nice setup.

I used to be the same way about forgetting to hydrate in hot weather. I have to now or I'm real weak and shaking in an hour or two. As long as I keep drinking water, I can keep going.

[Mike Dowell]

Looking good Hoang! 1500 sqft is dreamy! The guy I get my wood from was telling me of a friend of his, who recently built a new shop at his house, and it was 3400 sq ft. And, get this, after only a few months, the guy was telling my wood guy that if he had it to do over again, he would have gone bigger. Granted, I'm sure he has a spray booth/room, and other appendages that most shops don't have, but seriously... 3400 sq ft? That's twice the size of my house! As for my shop, it's 625 sqft and pretty cramped. I will say however, that I have no place to store customer work that I haven't started, and finished pieces, so if I were able to clear all of that out, and only have the piece I was currently working on, it would feel much more roomy. Nice shot of the Kapex.

[Jim Andrew]

Wow, you must be a go-getter! Get yourself a cup with lid and fix it with ice as you like it so you don't have to go out of your way to get a drink. And before you remove any walls in your basement, call your builder, as I have never heard of builder putting unnecessary walls in basements. Your code enforcement office may not appreciate you removing what look like unnecessary walls.

[Jim Becker]

I do agree with Mr. Andrew that you'll want to be sure that any walls you remove are not load bearing... At the very least check with your builder.

[Al Launier]

I've also never heard of a contractor installing extra walls. Did you & he previously make future plans that would need this support. Tread carefully - check further!

[Rollie Kelly]

Hoang, if you haven't already, provide for a dedicated finishing room. It is so nice to have a clean dust free space to be able to finish and work on other projects at the same time.
The space doesn't have to be much larger than your largest expected piece.
Rollie

[Jim Andrew]

Hoang, that zone you write about, I used to really enjoy getting into that. Would wake about 5am and go to work. For some reason, now that I am old, harder to get into that. But do enjoy it when it happens. Seems to help when building something new to me.

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Thanks all for the comments about me wanting to take down a few walls, I appreciate the concerns. I did have this discussion with the builders as to why they put in so many walls. Their response was because they build their basements with the provision of it being finished out and the walls dictate where the rooms will be. I told them I thought that was silly and if they could remove a few walls here and there that aren't load bearing walls. They said they would have to charge me 10 grand for a design change because it would have to go through the architect and engineer for redesign. I nearly had a heart attack and passed on it.

I'm an engineer by day, wanna-be woodworker by night so I do this kind of stuff daily. The wall dividing the 2 rooms that my jointer/planner and table saw are non-load bearing. Neither is the wall perpendicular to it. The only load bearing point is at the corner of those 2 walls where there's a support column above it in the family room. I feel if I open up those 2 walls, it wouldn't limit me as much in shop layout.

I do have a load bearing wall right behind the table saw. Behind that wall is where they roughed in the plumping for a bathroom. I plan to finish out that bathroom and turn the rest of the room into a spray booth. I intend to spray only waterborne paints in the shop since all these talks about other finishes catching fire kinda as me on tip toe.

Over the weekend I was able to run electrical wires throughout the shop. (30) 20amp 120v, (3) 20amp and (1) 30amp 240v. It took all day and the wife was note happy. It was her only day off that work and I disappeared the entire day. Tonight, I plan to wrap things up and have a buddy come over to do the remaining work which is wiring it to the panel itself. I refuse to touch the panel because it scares the crap out of me. If we finish tonight, I hope to have an inspector come out tomorrow for an inspection. If all goes well, I should be in business by the weekend. The wife is already standing there with arms across her chest and tapping her feet with a list of things I need to build.

[Malcolm McLeod]

.... The wife is already standing there with arms across her chest and tapping her feet with a list of things I need to build.

I'm betting that she wants her ubber-fancy closet v2.0!

[Hoang N Nguyen]

Yeah, about that. I'm totally not looking forward to that project. The last one took me 5 months to complete and it's half the size of the new closet. Also, the closet walls start to vault at around 4' high so it really limits me in design. Been thinking about it for months and still can't figure out something I like.

I'm betting that she wants her ubber-fancy closet v2.0!

[Ryan Jones]

Congrats!!

And wow...you got a LOT of shop assembly work done in only a few days...wow

The rest of his house is still in boxes. Priorities man.