Shop Tour/Transformation

[Eric Shields]

Or at least a tour of the space that will become a shop. I look forward to tracking my progress and receiving input from the vast knowledge here at SMC. Please excuse the quality of the pics as my cell phone has the only digital camera in our house.

This is the view from the outside entrance on the North wall looking south. The west wall (on the right) is 43' 6" long with two windows that provide natual light into the basement/shop. This initial area is 11' 8" wide (north wall) and 20' to the white door on the east wall (left).

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This is a view of the northeast section of the shop. In the background you can see the North wall and the East wall (the door leads to the finished rec room for the kids). I will obviously be putting up a wall around the water heater and the HVAC unit.

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This is the negotiable space, dependant on a few future opportunities I may be able to annex this area (from the shop towards the east side of the basement). If I do incorporate this area it will be approximately 12' from the corner, or about 2 feet shy of the door, it's 7'4" from wall to wall. Yet another wall to build.

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And a view west from where the "annex" door could be back towards the main area of the shop.

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Continued on second post

[Mark Rios]

OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I'm getting all goose pimply just lookiing at all the space down there, Eric. Welcome, Welcome. You will get a TON of help here filling it up.

Then we will all get to go through another round of which tool and manufacturer should be in your shop or our shops and which tools to buy or not buy because of the flag it's built under. Let me get my popcorn.....I can't wait.

[Eric Shields]

A view from the Southeast corner towards the northwest area of the main shop.

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This is a view of the Southeast corner of the main workshop area. East wall is 12' 10".

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And the Southwest corner of the main area. The South wall is 22' 6" and I had to split the pics due to the camera phone.

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The height to the "I" beam that runs the lenght of the shop is just short of 7', to the floor joist is short of 8' and to the plywood subfloor is 8.5' The current dedicated shop area is about 750 sq ft and the annex will bump that up to alittle over 800 sq ft. The pain in my side at the moment as I dream of where to place my future tool purchases is the 3" support pipe that sits dead center in the main area. I'm sure ya'll will be more than helpful with ideas.

Thanks for looking and I can't wait to show further progress, though I will admit this will be a slow, but gratifying transformation.

Eric

[Bob Noles]

WOW Eric.... That is a boatload of shop space. I could spend the rest of my life laying that baby out and never get bored or finished.

I look forward to some progressive posts.

[Jim O'Dell]

Looks like a nice space where you can layout a sequence of events on the power equipment. I think planning the space is "almost" as fun as getting it built. I'm becoming a professional at rehabbing my work space, kind of like the professional student, never gets completed.
I look forward to your updates on the shop progress. Jim.

[John Bailey]

Eric,

You're gonna' have fun with this. Keep us posted, I love these threads.

John

[Jim Becker]

And consider it appears you already have your waiting room for customers well established right inside the door!! LOL!
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Seriously, you have a wonderful canvas to start painting in your shop. I also look forward to the ongoing progress!

[Eric Shields]

Yes, it will make a nice shop, one day. You can imagine my surprise when my wife told me, "behind this door is the space for your shop." She went to the open house when I was at work. I was in shock, she really does understand this woodworking addiction. Guess she learned that from her father as we've only been married a few years and our townhouse wasn't compatable with a true shop. Thanks again for looking and hope to be updating soon.

[John Miliunas]

Eric, I'm quite confident that will be one kick-butt shop!!! You've got great sq. footage, a wide open canvas and a wife who supports your craft. Man, it don't get much better than that! The "secret" to laying it out will be to do it many, many times on paper. Lay it out how you think it should go and then look at it every day for several days running. Make changes and study it some more. If you kind of "walk" through the plan and envision your processes, you'll start to get a feel for where everything should go which closest represents how you work or want to work. I did that before moving into my present shop and by George, it went together about 95% matching what was in my plans! Today, two+ years later, I'm still relatively happy with it. Not big enough, of course, nor is it "done", but workable nonetheless! Enjoy and have fun with it!

[Alan Schaffter]

make sure you prep the floor well!

[Karl Laustrup]

Eric, good advice from Spring up above about doing the floor plan on paper first. You could also use cardboard boxes, or similar, to approximate the tools you have or wish to have, to see how they'll fit and where.

Not sure if I missed it, but do you have a bigger door that the ones I see in the pics. Have to watch your selection of tools if not.

Looking forward to the progress.

Karl

[Jerry Todd]

Eric,
You might want to obtain some great information on Shop Lighting by Jack L. Lindsey, "Lighting for the Workshop". You can obtain the article from Fine Woodworking, Feb 2002. I followed his formulas and have been happy with the results in my shop. No shadows and great even lighting.
Good luck with your shop.

[Tyler Howell]

Great lookin space Eric. Let's get started.

[Eric Shields]

Thanks for the additional compiments and advise guys. I knew when I joined and showed this space off I would get great advise and support.

Alan - Yes those are 4 boxes of Rustoleum (gray) that my FIL gave me for Christmas. Can't say that I had decided on this yet, though I knew I wouldn't have wood floors, but since the price was right I plan on using it. Any helpful tips (if you have used it) would be appreciated.

Jerry - Thank you for the lighting refrence, I will certainly investigate the issue you mentioned.

Thank you for all the ideas as far a how to start laying the place out. To be honest I am still a pencil and paper kind of guy when it comes to designing. I have easily drawn out 4-5 layouts thus far and am still tweeking everything. Though it would help if I knew exactly what equipment I'm going to have (will make those decisions later down the road) in the space. The equipment in the pic was purchased when we were in our town house and is "portable" ane will eventually be replaced with stationary equipment now that I have a dedicated space.

Thanks again everyone, keep the suggestions, tips, and hints coming. I'm all ears, or would it be eyes since we're on the web????